Clinton Pokes At Gingrich On Special Interests Pledge Speaker’s Spokesman Refers To President As Pinocchio
When President Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich appeared together last month at a New Hampshire senior citizens picnic, the news accounts suggested the event may have signaled a new era in political civility.
The president and the speaker treated each other cordially and even shook hands on a proposal to consider changes in the regulation of lobbying and campaign donations.
But it was evident Saturday that any such comity had evaporated, or more precisely been blown away in fresh gales of traditional political accusations.
In his weekly radio address, President Clinton recalled the handshake in New Hampshire and complained that Gingrich had gone back on his word to move quickly on creating a commission to recommend changes “to curb the power of special interests.”
“If we’re going to restore a spirit of civility to American politics, a handshake has to mean in 1995 what it meant when I was growing up,” Clinton said. “We have to be as good as our word.”
Quickly returning fire for Gingrich was his spokesman Tony Blankley who said that Clinton had lobbed a “cheap political shot.”
Blankley said that the president’s complaint about keeping one’s word, “coming from a Pinocchio president is cheeky, to say the least.”
The speaker’s spokesman said the White House knew that for any proposals to succeed they must go forward on a bipartisan basis and Clinton’s remarks were tantamount to “partisanizing” the issue.
He said that Gingrich believes both parties should move deliberately to “break the conceptual logjam” that has hampered progress on this issue before, but Clinton was interested in scoring a quick political point.
Last week, Gingrich said he fully intended to keep the commitment he made in New Hampshire, but that he wants to move slowly to avoid the mistakes of past efforts that have failed to adequately limit the influence of special interests in the capital.
“We cannot rush to judgment and afford to treat this issue in a cavalier fashion,” he said.
Clinton said in his radio address that Gingrich promised to send him proposals to amend the laws but had not yet done so.
“The speaker and I made a deal and it’s time to keep it,” Clinton said. “There’s no excuse for further delay.”
In an apparent effort to prod Gingrich, Clinton said Saturday that John Gardner and Doris Kearns Goodwin would work with him to establish a commission to consider changes in the lobbying and campaign finance laws.
Gardner is a former Cabinet secretary and the founder of Common Cause, a Washington-based group that advocates fuller disclosure in lobbying and campaign finance issues. Goodwin is a historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author.
Clinton said he had asked the two to meet with Gingrich as soon as possible. Blankley said they would be welcome to call Gingrich’s appointments secretary.