Bipartisanship Comes Up A Winner

Only two very selfconfident politicians could have done what Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich did on Sunday afternoon in Claremont, N.H.

The country is the better for their boldness.

Whether it was a throwaway line or not, President Clinton’s suggestion to New Hampshire interviewers that he’d like to show House Speaker Gingrich around the state was the kind of spontaneous comment that a chief executive dependent on staff for everything just wouldn’t make.

The speed with which Gingrich converted the casual comment into a firm invitation clearly showed he is not overawed by the status of the president.

And Clinton’s readiness to say, “Why not? Let’s get it on,” was the biggest declaration of independence he could have uttered.

For those obsessed with partisan score cards, I give the edge to Gingrich and the Republicans, but I do not think the Democratic president lost anything significant in the exchange.

Both men conducted themselves perfectly. They were relaxed, good-humored, civil with each other and respectful of the audience of senior citizens with whom they met.

Gingrich gained more than the president. For an hour, a man elected from one of 435 congressional districts shared a nationally televised platform with the president of the United States - and did not look at all out of place.

Going into the debate, Clinton’s problem was a perception of squishiness; Gingrich’s, a reputation for meanness. Gingrich probably shed more of his liability than Clinton did.

I thought Clinton did very well on three of the issues on which he and Gingrich acknowledge fundamental differences - the United Nations, the minimum wage and the national service corps. But politically, the key question - not just in Claremont, N.H., but also in Washington - is the future of Medicare. And there, Gingrich gave the Republicans a win.

For months, the White House’s main political goal has been to paint the Republicans as “the bad guys” in the Medicare debate. But Gingrich nudged the president into an acknowledgment that Medicare has to be changed or the federal budget never will be balanced. With that concession, a process of negotiation becomes almost certain now, and at the end, the president’s signature will be alongside Gingrich’s on a plan to scale back Medicare - a major strategic gain for the GOP.

If he had done only that, Gingrich would have rendered a signal service to his party. But he also made arguments that many viewers probably had not heard before: that the Republican plan includes a one-third increase in per capita Medicare benefits over the next seven years; that it aims to enlarge - not reduce - consumer choices; and that the savings are required to safeguard the wildly popular program for this generation and the next.

The Medicare discussion also was a boon to the country. When both the Democratic president and the Republican speaker say, “Folks, we have no choice - all the alternatives look worse,” it helps to get done the politically painful but necessary job of disciplining health care spending.

The Claremont audience also gave the politicians of both parties a forceful reminder that voters want solutions from Washington, not just partisan squabbling. Virtually every question included an admonition to the heads of the quarrelsome branches that governing has to be more than cat-and-dog fights.

Gingrich and Clinton explained, a bit defensively, the need for partisan definition of issues on which there are legitimate disagreements. But both of them caught on quickly to the mood of this crowd - and of the American people - and seized every opportunity to promise a conscientious search for consensus.

The very fact that a president and a House speaker of opposite parties have conducted such a non-abrasive exchange, in full view of the nation, may encourage others in Washington to adopt a similar tone.

Rep. Dick Armey, R-Texas, and Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., the House majority and minority leaders, respectively, did just that in their joint follow-up interview with CNN’s Frank Sesno. Both of them are stout partisans, but they seemed genuinely to welcome the change in tone.

Finally, it is just possible that the handshake deal between Clinton and Gingrich on a bipartisan blue-ribbon commission to reform campaign spending and lobbying laws may unlock the door to progress on those intractable questions.

Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., suggested such an approach in the last Congress, and it makes sense. Congress has been unable to cut this knot itself. But this may be the way to move ahead on the issue.

That’s quite an accomplishment for one Sunday afternoon.

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