Gingrich Says He’s Still Quarterback Holds ‘Family Discussion’ On How To Move Gop Past Coup Attempt, Forward As A Unit

House Speaker Newt Gingrich told House Republicans on Wednesday that he and nobody else is their leader and that it is time to stop pointing fingers over an effort to oust him a couple of weeks ago.

“I will not allow another chapter to be written in this tiresome and overwrought saga,” Gingrich of Georgia said in a statement after the first of two closed caucuses House Republicans held Wednesday.

At Wednesday morning’s meeting, Gingrich was the only person to allude to the effort to topple him.

At the insistence of his supporters, an evening caucus was also scheduled. It was to examine the attempted coup and the role his fellow leaders and the conservative rank and file may have played in it.

“This discussion,” the speaker said of the evening meeting, “will be the end of the story.”

Gingrich was quoted by Rep. Mark Foley of Florida as telling the group that “there was a single line of authority and he was it.” Foley said Gingrich portrayed himself as “our quarterback,” adding, “We are pleased to see him stepping up to the plate.”

Neither the conservative group that raised the issue of dumping the speaker, nor the leaders who they claim egged them on, had much to say Wednesday. Most avoided reporters entirely.

Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, chairman of the caucus and one of the leaders who the dissidents claim led them on, insisted to reporters, “I have been totally out of the loop on all of this.”

It seemed clear that the July 10 plotting, which prompted the resignation of Rep. Bill Paxon of New York from his appointed position as chairman of the leadership, would claim no other victims soon. Boehner and Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas, the majority whip, both said they expected to remain in their jobs.

Rep. Ray LaHood of Illinois, who forced the evening meeting, conceded, “I think it is about over for now.”

Even if resentments and the complaints of Gingrich’s being insufficiently conservative and occasionally inept linger, there was agreement on how to label the recent unpleasantness.

Gingrich spoke of a “family discussion on how we can continue to move our party forward as a family.”

Rep. Bill Archer of Texas, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said, “Whatever is happening within our political family up here is not in any way interfering with our doing our agenda.”

Rep. Robert Livingston of Louisiana, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, said, “Relatives get mad at each other, friends get angry.”

Most of the morning meeting was devoted to reviewing progress on spending bills and tax cuts. Rep. David McIntosh of Indiana said the morning’s unity appeared to be a consequence of the agreement by House and Senate Republicans on what tax cuts they wanted.

“The good news on the tax-cut bill had an enormous effect, a positive effect, in bringing Republicans together,” McIntosh said. “That heals a lot of wounds.”