Gingrich Win An Empty Victory

There are moments when the humdrum U.S. House is lit by historic drama. The impeachment of a president, sending troops to war, a debate over race - those great events transform ordinary congressfolk. Voices deepen. The mood darkens. Something real’s at stake.

You watch such magic with surprised pride.

But the day they saved Speaker Newt Gingrich from the political gallows had no greatness.

No big issue, no thundering eloquence, no giants on stage. Nothing to illuminate the country’s future. Nothing to change how Americans live, work or pay taxes.

This was a war of pygmies. Only one thing was at stake - the desperate, cornered-rat scramble of one party and its egocentric speaker to hang onto power.

Forget the technicalities of Gingrich’s misdemeanors. This was nothing but a shabby feud. One side said, “Your guy knocked off our guy Jim Wright so we want his scalp.” The other side said, “You’re not gonna play ‘Gotcha!’ with our boy Newt.”

It was the Crips and Bloods brawling over who’ll rule the ‘hood.

If the stakes were picayune, the scene had its bizarre tensions. Newt’s fight for his life hardly mattered to squealing babies and bouncing kids - the family ritual on Congress’s opening day. Women, including Newt’s wife and mom, packed the gallery in their Sunday best outfits.

The main players in this two-bit poker game paced restlessly. There was dark-bearded, saturnine Rep. David Bonior, D-Mich., who knows one mantra: “Newt must go.” Gingrich henchman, smooth Tom DeLay, R-Texas, kept snarling: “Political assassination.” Newt was everywhere, smiling, schmoozing, cocky that after seven hours of contrite yakking he’d greased the vote.

But it was hairbreadth close.

Ten minutes into the voice count, as Republicans dutifully droned, “Gingrich,” Rep. Tom Campbell, R-Calif., ignited nervous murmurs when he called out, “Leach.” By voting for Jim Leach of Iowa, Stanford prof Campbell had started the anti-Newt revolt.

Would the tiny rebellion spread? Newt grabbed Rep. Scott Klug, R-Wis., to beg his support. “No, I won’t pretend everything’s hunky-dory,” snapped Klug. But quickly Newt’s grin relighted. He had 216 votes. Nine Republicans rebelled. Three more and Newt would have been toast.

The giddy Gingrich of two years ago was replaced by a pale, somber penitent. He sang, “I Apologize,” in a soulful key.

“To the extent I was too brash, too selfconfident, too pushy, I apologize. To whatever degree I brought controversy to the House, I apologize …. Some of the difficulty, frankly, I brought on myself. I apologize …”

How had Gingrich escaped tumbling down the trap door he had so skillfully pushed ex-Speaker Wright through?

Simple: Power, money and partisan pride. Democrats wouldn’t rally around Wright, a prickly Texan for whom they held scant affection. Republicans don’t gush love for Newt. But they owe him. He raised pots of campaign cash. Mainly, though, this shabby drama was about sticking it in the ear of Bonior and Gingrich’s tormentors.

So Newt lives on as the GOP’s Saddam Hussein an unloved, missile-dodging survivor.

Oh, sure, Gingrich isn’t dent-proof. He still faces the ethics committees’ music.

What now? Gingrich’s cabal talks sulkily of vengeance against anti-Newt dissidents. Campbell says he feels the chill. Leach, the thoughtful Iowa paragon, may be dumped from his chairmanship.

If Gingrich begged and cajoled and kissed boots to keep his job, most peers suspect he won an empty prize.

“He’s used up his last bullet,” said Mark Sanford, R-S.C.

Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., shrewd veteran of House infighting, said sadly, “Once, Republicans were obligated to Gingrich. Now he’s obligated to them. The House is a weakened place.”

Even Newt’s diehard henchmen admit the real Capitol Hill clout shifts to Senate Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss.

Oddly, Rep. Connie Morella, R-Md., who bucked Gingrich, sees a reborn Newt. “This will strengthen him. He’s been through his tough times. He’ll come back.”

My guess is she’s wrong - Gingrich, his troubles mounting, won’t last his term as speaker. Comets burn out fast.

But the gang warfare won’t stop with Gingrich. No big ideas or issues. Just petty squabbles by egotists awash in campaign dough.

The squalid feud over Newt echoed what Jack Kennedy once said of a tin-pot dictator: “He may be an S.O.B. But he’s our S.O.B.”

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