Gingrich Backer Won’t Support His Re-Election

One of House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s most enthusiastic supporters on Sunday became the first Republican to announce that he would not vote for Gingrich for a second term as speaker, saying that Gingrich’s explanations for admitted ethical lapses simply did not ring true.

The announcement came from Rep. Michael Forbes, R-N.Y., who said he had pored over the ethics committee documents released on Dec. 21, and ultimately decided that Gingrich should step aside, both as a matter of conscience and for the good of the party.

The Republican leadership minimized the importance of a single defection, but Democrats said it could signal serious trouble for Gingrich because at least a half-dozen other Republicans had said they were still undecided. Forbes himself said that “as many as 20 or 30” Republican colleagues might well follow suit. If 20 Republicans vote “present,” as Forbes plans to do, Gingrich would not be re-elected as speaker.

“I’m physically sick over it, and I’m sick he’s making us do this, but he’ll be a speaker who’s weighed down,” said Forbes, who represents the eastern part of Suffolk County on Long Island. He also said Gingrich had gone “underground” in the last year as a result of ethics charges against him and was no longer in any position to lead Congress.

“We need leadership that will not be cowering, contrite or hiding from the media so we can aggressively pursue a balanced budget and tax reform,” Forbes said, adding that Gingrich “let us down” and “took his eye off the ball.”

But Tony Blankley, Gingrich’s press secretary, said on Sunday evening that Forbes simply did not understand the charges and said his defection was no cause for concern.

“I think he’s sui generis perhaps,” Blankey said. “When he has a chance to fully review the facts, he’ll reach the conclusion that if you’re a Republican you should support Newt for speaker.”

Yet Democrats were quick to say that Forbes’ defection was significant precisely because he had been a loyal Gingrich supporter.

“Because of who he is, this is serious stuff,” for Republicans, said Rep. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. “Because if he said it, a number of Republicans are thinking about it and may well follow.”

Gingrich acknowledged on Dec. 21 that he had provided the committee with “inaccurate, incomplete and unreliable statements” about a course that he taught at two small colleges in Georgia. At issue is whether he improperly used tax-exempt programs for partisan purposes - a charge Gingrich had denied until a week ago. Gingrich has said the bad information was passed on by his former lawyer.

A 22-page summary of an ethics committee report released Dec. 21 said GOPAC, the political action committee Gingrich headed until 1994, did promote the course, and GOPAC employees did fund raising for the course. The report is silent on the hotly debated issue of whether or not this violated tax law.

But Forbes said that the report convinced him both that Gingrich should have known better than to mix the two in any way, and that he was cavalier in his approach to the ethics charges.

Referring to a section of the law dealing with tax-exempt organizations, Forbes said: “Anybody who has even passing understanding of 501(c)(3), knows you are not to mix political advocacy with tax-exempt foundation activities. He’s created tax-exempt foundations! Then he hires an attorney and for two years they go on the offensive and say there was no co-mingling, and now he says he didn’t know the attorney had said that?”