Capitol Ideas/Cracking the Whip
Bethell, Tom
what I had seen before." West German opinion has rapidly metamorphosed in the 1980s, from good sense toward dreaminess. In 1982, 55 percent of the West Germans saw the Soviet Union as a...
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...And I am very tired after the last three months of being hammered on by the liberal wing of the news media, in what has been a pretty consistent barrage...
...Gingrich replied...
...They have to prop up their union and big-city machine supporters by guaranteeing that there's enough government contracts...
...I turned and ran after Frank, identified myself, and asked him if it wasn't true that Democrats had spread those rumors...
...Gingrich was in a good mood when I spoke to him because the House had just voted down a spending measure containing more money than the White House wanted, with the help of fiftyfive Democrats...
...The amazing thing about this episode was the way in which Republicans so passively accepted the blame just when they should have been relishing the fall of Wright and Coelho...
...But even they refrained from rye-ann...., label and offered aborryn opponenh equal time lo defend ...cause...
...Now we are looking at sixteen years.' "We're finding the Democrats a little bit more accommodating," Gingrich added...
...Moderate Republicans are often less than . ." Here the bearded former Reagan speechwriter paused and searched for the tactful word...
...Now fully 82 percent believe that Mr...
...In 1982, 55 percent of the West Germans saw the Soviet Union as a military threat...
...In a single week, news organizations were fed stories about alleged homosexuality of one Democrat who might move up the succession Tom Bethel...
...In the realm of geopolitics the West Germans may be romantics, but when it comes to business they are realists...
...This had been published weeks earlier in a newsletter, the Busby Papers...
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...Our constituencies think that's good...
...Have to be careful," he said...
...What other readers say: "MediaWatch is invaluable and it is great fun to read...
...Unlike Reagan, Bush starts with a presumption of a center-right majority...
...mummer...
...And downtown it would be ninetynine to one," Gingrich said...
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...What if we forsake our Benzes for Lincolns...
...One wondered: Would the Republicans never learn that offense is the only game worth playing in Washington...
...He said he thought that 60 percent of the press corps is "remarkably fair," and another 20 percent somewhat biased but within "acceptable limits...
...Campbell showed me a map of his gerrymandered district, and told me that he too had voted for Gingrich—i`a leader, an intellectual," he said...
...I asked...
...Gingrich marveled that within the past few days the Democrats and the news media had managed to turn the tables on the Republicans in what should have been the GOP's hour of glory...
...He said he was "very tired after two years of investigating Jim Wright...
...They would rather have that than more `pork.' " Perhaps adjustable-rate mortgages will make fiscal conservatives of us all...
...Senator Jesse Helms "It's so refreshing to see MediaWatch serving as a watchdog of the same powerful people that pride themselves on being the watchdogs of everyone else...
...The Nem la nr y e vs Wae prooded ample opportunity m, newsoutla trans, SIlaniefon POSI, USA today, and Th pYll Store tame...
...No," he said without pausing...
...You might actually gain a little bit...
...Are you familiar with the language of deterrence...
...If so, MediaWatch is for you...
...q CRACKING THE WHIP C ongressman Newt Gingrich was standing by the door of his office in the Rayburn Building, briefcase in hand, ready to head off to Atlanta for the weekend...
...thought "ideologically biased," but "they don't engage in the kind of personal assault that is all too common...
...time of "argon try laths...
...It is unfortunate that Vic Gold will be selling off so many fine German goods, but recent history makes clear that an economic boycott can be persuasive...
...No guts, no glory...
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...he asked...
...William Rusher, former Publisher of National Review, calls MediaWatch "by long odds the most inspired idea that has hit the conservative movement in years...
...She's a Democratic family member who works as a reporter...
...He said that Lars ErikNelson deserved the "Vicious & Unethical Reporter of the Year Award...
...They assume it's their duty as a loyal minority...
...At that moment the Pennsylvania Republican happened to walk into the whip's office...
...10 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR AUGUST 1989 He continued: "Reagan shattered the dominance of the left...
...Aides were bringing him last minute memos and an old friend was standing by to drive the new Republican whip to the National Airport...
...Well, of course you're afraid of it, but you don't have any choice...
...A slight change in American tastes and an entire European industry can go into decline...
...He added that Time magazine "has now decided to go after me," and that he was thinking about calling "their Washington bureau chief [Strobe Talbott], who is a very left-wing guy...
...ararameorn Pinedtehlt • slight dee In the pretax...
...I asked Gingrich...
...But Gingrich fluently navigated his way between the rhetorical shoals to his left and right...
...Who should we see coming toward us but Barney Frank himself, strutting back to his office in the Longworth Building after one more floor vote...
...Wright's fellow Democrats are more occupied with power than ethics...
...These are people, he said, who are "committed to a different value structure...
...There is no reason the citizenry in the Western democracies need patronize a nation given to fantasticating about a totalitarian system while sneering at proven democracies...
...Gorbachev's economic and political reforms will succeed...
...Your determined and comprehensive coverage of the media's performance has almost no competition and absolutely no equal whatever...
...Do you know Bob Walker...
...MediaWatch® Aewsbites MediaWatch® Bias Carnes 711nxph in Labeling, Story Angles ABORTION DISTORTION TTo La and th Jan., 23 March fur Lifearyng the 16th anryvenary Ste ,deasson by the SuprerneCourt lontlenn a Missouri akar, weigh in to on the divisive ism...
...Well, let these optimistic Germans sell their Mercedes Benzes in Moscow...
...On January 53 oa...
...Jan., CBS' Richard Roth referred to prolife fortes as tta...
...It engages in the terribly unfair practice of quoting people accurately, a particularly nasty thing to do to the press...
...No guts, no glory," Newt Gingrich replied...
...Roberts is the daughter of Democratic Congresswoman Lindy Boggs...
...r -1 I Order now...
...And another man Natalyou...
...The whip vote for Gingrich was 87-85...
...House Speaker Jim Wright and Majority Whip Tony Coelho had only recently resigned, but now there was this unexpected flap about the Mark Goodin memo put out by the Republican National Committee, hinting that the new House Speaker, Tom Foley, was a homosexual...
...He replied that his threat was of the second strike, "counterforce" variety...
...hope Me SupateConst's kCssoun dronon -.AR he r ye beginning of mw to bortion...
...He started out as a Rockefeller Republican at Tulane University in 1968, taught history at West Georgia College for a few years, and was elected to Congress in 1978...
...Congressman Vin Weber "Almost every day I receive letters from American citizens outraged over slanted liberal coverage of major news events...
...wheal, margin...
...The only real attempt by a journalist to trace the rumor was made by Gloria Borger in US...
...A few days later I went up to Capitol Hill to see Gingrich...
...Like Gingrich, he is forty-six, a former teacher, and an active proponent of the idea that Republicans don't have to defer to Democrats...
...Offense is the best defense," someone was saying...
...sand vocal anorry /rola...
...would tee Wiese Mei Gem, wandmattles.la Nov...
...I asked Gingrich, back in the whip's office...
...We'll see...
...My response to these people -- read MediaWatch and learn the truth...
...Comparing it to teaching, Campbell said that being a congressman was like "trying to teach twenty classes at the same time...
...an Smilaist begat reasoned tthat whnielwe sga tactacittnInc from niang sta...
...But I had Coelho tell me one afternoon before he resigned: 'I assume that Bush will be re-elected...
...We had 170 Republicans vote no and five vote yes on a spending bill," he said, using almost exactly the same language as Tom Campbell...
...In MediaWatch you get documented facts, not rhetoric...
...Rohrabacher said that he had found the job to be "the most grueling I ever had, and I worked for seven years in the White House...
...Wright step down...
...Less than . . . torchbearers...
...IdenufyIng Me other side...
...Yet mains 11.1•S GURUS...
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...Every month MediaWatch gives you: • The latest examples of the media's efforts to discredit the conservative movement while promoting a leftist political agenda...
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...Until his election Campbell taught at Stanford University, which is in his district...
...Whereas earlier this year...
...Why have Republicans been so defensive...
...On Monday, the Washington Post Style section came out with an attack-profile of Gingrich, written by the ideologue Myra Macpherson...
...Not in my opinion...
...But he insisted that he really did know about senior gay Republicans...
...Times and Wall Sere...
...THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR AUGUST 1989 9 ambits...
...Journal REPORTER ADMITS HE'S A MARXIST "P re,===;:a's="n;,== .01 proclaimed recently In November Sly Ream an independent socialist ./in, unobtrsive* from shim-mist ideas in news stories...
...my be aying name for what you buy dayear: What, halthy incase...
...He was one of eleven (out of thirteen) freshmen Republicans to vote for Gingrich as whip earlier this year, a contest Gingrich won by two votes...
...If it's a big enough institution, you are better off cooperating, it seems to me...
...of ono...
...When she said yes, and repeated it, he wrote a column accusing Gingrich's office of spreading the rumor...
...When I came here in '79," Gingrich said, "Republicans in the House had been so battered by Watergate and by other losses that there was a presumption that you couldn't really expect a Republican to go head to head with a Democrat...
...Gingrich himself was getting some of the blame...
...In fact, he was going over to the Capitol building right away, and so I accompanied him...
...Is she fair...
...the argument that holding down the deficit and therefore interest rates has more appeal than the foregone "pork," he said...
...The remaining 20 percent, "in my case, because I am now such a polarizing figure, gets real nasty...
...con resgonderd Sea., Ito implat...
...For just $29.00, you will receive 12 I monthly issues of MediaWatch...
...and — During his day saWti th . full advantage of the rye banal — Congressman Robert Doman 1 111 South Columbus Street L Alexandria, VA 22314 MEDIA I RREESSEARCH CENTER ro...
...He also said he had had "one or two bad experiences" with the Washington bureau of the Wall Street Journal, one involving an article "so wrong" that it was later retracted...
...CNN, Cynthia Shumqu ist gave I.st Solana, story, gtong pro-chouers two tars more strum as welt as calling supponers of abortion 'pro., tree hoses opponea tanti.abortont awry...
...economy today wr y up we.a flags for the incoming Bosh Ad...low nu government ad that rail ramks In 19...
...Republican National Committee Chairman Lee Atwater ducked for cover...
...He has to make a decision "every fifteen minutes" and on an average day has to rush across five or six times from his office to the House floor...
...News & World Report...
...nAuaBryC r,e aphloeart rhde dubbed each side...late...
...Yes, I said...
...He has the jaw of a pugilist, and he was wearing the slightly illfitting pinstriped suit that is becoming familiar on television...
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...I would guess we probably now have 120 members who would endorse the idea that activism does pay dividends," Walker said...
...The only exception was Newt Gingrich, who went on telling anyone who called that it was the Democrats who had started this particular mud fight...
...The next day I saw Gingrich at a restaurant on Capitol Hill, exchanging a few words with Cokie Roberts, the reporter for NPR and ABC...
...Spotty," he said...
...CHS rentarqd asuary, Etteriry n Simat cerybody hor Bob Schutter Ev seems to think the ryonomy going ro ry • big paha, in.uponats year...
...He objected to articles "written by people who are your political enemies masquerading as reporters...
...a .elm tam • lightlarkd look st Amami Me PlImary1(1, NBC reporte'irt Lmuctka tyry Slieceamy an drove See NEWSISTES, ages ARE YOU SICK AND TIRED OF THE MEDIA'S LIBERAL BIAS...
...Five years later only 24 percent perceived the Soviets thus...
...last moat's NiedieWrych Study...
...Later, however, when I asked Gingrich why there had been nothing but guilty silence from Republicans after they were accused of smearing Foley, he reverted to the present tense...
...Reponeraused the terreann .abortionte2 umes.but 'pr..- tuna...
...Over the weekend, while Gingrich was in Georgia, Time magazine published a vituperative anti-GOP editorial by Margaret Carlson ("Atwater's fouling the civic atmosphere with vicious misinformation is bad enough...
...I made my way to the Capitol build1 ing...
...NBC'S WORMS= SCAM...
...The "Janet Cooke Award," a focus on the month's most outrageously distorted story...
...We can do that because we can go back home and sell lower interest rates and higher take-home pay...
...is The American Spectator 's Washington correspondent...
...ace.* yarns...
...Not even Russians have as much confidence in President Gorbachev as do the West Germans...
...So Republicans would slink onto the floor . ." "The Republicans themselves for a long time decided that we didn't have much to contribute," Walker said...
...to expess watt...
...The Bush Administration is ecstatic with the level of aggressive energy we are generating...
...Rohrabacher explained to me as he half trotted to the Capitol that this constant back and forth was his daily exercise...
...Whereas Democrats must have more government to get what they want...
...I'm about to do `60 Minutes' and I'll tell you after that's done...
...How much support among Republicans do you now have...
...Rohrabacher thought the old, go-along-to-get along GOP was in fact changing quite rapidly...
...taardet abo rtion proponetns tpro-aho mon t USA Toby reporter Judy Keen, Sete th "A n "It wasn't just abortion activists Marched on Waangton decided 16 years ago, it was the "°,74 CV:Z=7' launching of what amounted to an abortion revolution...
...While the rumor was circulating on Capitol Hill, New York Daily News columnist Lars Erik-Nelson phoned up a Gingrich staffer and asked her if she had heard the rumor...
...That's the change that, in all honesty, Jim Wright wasn't willing to accept," Walker said...
...all they could to drusedit the pro-life cause...
...Gorbachev's economy they were reticent...
...En route by Tom Bethell I visited with Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican congressman from California's Forty-second District...
...The New York Times he THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR AUGUST 1989 11...
...Some of them did, yes," he said...
...Mad ma Oa news, Ts law...
...Expiration Date Send your order to: AS MediaWatch 1 Media Research Center Alteroving tune to a Roe v A Wade mom...
...Goodin was fired...
...There is abundant reason to believe that the surest route to the West German heart is through a Mercedes Benz showroom...
...Hod dad...
...q H ow does Gingrich enjoy the limelight...
...That is, often you have to vote on matters you don't know enough about...
...atme economists believe wholesale price figur...
...Before we left he showed me a wall map of his gerrymandered (not even contiguous) district, the handiwork of California Democrats, who thereby made a net gain of ten seats, Republicans contend...
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...Chuck Babcock wrote a tough piece but he was even tougher on Tony Coelho...
...A young CBS reporter, standing in for Leslie Stahl, was interviewing him for a CBS News story (already done more than once this year) intended to publicize a split between the "moderate" White House and (hopefully) irate conservatives ("Why aren't they madder...
...It was not a threatened "first strike...
...Outside, the monsoon season was still in full swing...
...stories if they me...
...They may have greeted President Gorbachev on his recent visit with the kind of fevered elation that in the past they reserved for John F Kennedy and Charles de Gaulle, but when it came to promising more investment in Mr...
...This rumor was spread by Democrats and passed around by half the people beating their breasts about the Goodin memo," the columnist Robert Novak told me...
...It was over two years ago that he undertook the bold task of investigating Speaker Jim Wright's personal finances...
...Reporting on the reluctance of German businessmen to invest more heavily in Moscow, the British newsweekly the Economist reports that "most companies complain of extra uncertainties under perestroika in addition to the preperestroika red tape...
...Approaching the building lobby was Tom Campbell, a Republican congressman elected last November to California's Twelfth District...
...And apart from the Style section, the Washington Post had been fair...
...Klical views I sough, to popular., II as a "special business deny ing tharof the first dozen stories wrote msgaae Man' ,am and two others ;1:17n=tr:Z4t=:‘4' minors nominated it for a Rutser xi a new veltitiory his viw li , pored Had he really threatened to "expose" GOP homosexuals...
...6 YeerningForClemod...
...Less than two percent of their trade is with the Soviets...
...A survey of the bur mg...
...A Cara et la marina . Res...
...What about the networks...
...I asked...
...The "Revolving Door," a listing of the latest moves between liberal politics and the media by "objective" reporters...
...but cauioned...
...Keep it up...
...Whereupon, Barney Frank seized the opportunity to amplify the rumor by holding a press conference, no doubt much to Foley's discomfiture, in the course of which he threatened to expose top Republicans as homosexuals...
...aryr yon decided 16 years go, n was try launching of what Wryira For Ws Am...
...Elliott Abrams Former Asst...
...Mamba as year whine...maths, seven roans...
...Epithets such as "abomination" and "despicable" were hurled by Republicans at each other...
...of State for Inter-American Affairs "Bravo to MediaWatch for exposing the hypocrisy in so much of what's going on in the 'news' business...
...With Reagan, the Democrats held their breath—they figured they could last for eight years...
...they owl "pm-choicet tunes but never on...
...h...in sympthery page-one Mora" :opinions I knew in advance would west out mainsveamsuryorities eon...
...Are you afraid of that...
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...Because for most Republicans, he said, "their instinct is to duck...
...some ',Ode...
...The Goodin memo compared Foley's voting record to that of Congressman Barney Frank, the openly homosexual, leftist congressman from Massachusetts...
...If you welched Lucky Seseryroteportra of Teal...
...We've got to run a full-court press at it, but the psychological attitudes are changing...
...In reality, Gingrich said, "Wright's people flacked this thing," to embarrass Foley...
...But Campbell too thought the GOP was changing, becoming more active, and he has found, in the thirty-two "town hall" meetings that he has already held in his district (he flies to California every weekend), that there is life after voting no on government spending...
...Elsewhere in The Europeans Barzini notes that the immense size of the American market makes Europeans apprehensive...
...Gingrich, 46, was on camera in his chandeliered, Gothic-ceilinged whip's office, right next to the House floor...
...If you know that someone who is your ideological opponent has been assigned to cover you, you can refuse to cooperate or you can cooperate...
...Every month MediaWatch will give you examples, quotes, studies and analysis exposing the liberal bias of the media, especially the TV networks...
...he likes nothing more than to answer such questions and will do so all afternoon if requested...
...We know we had eighty-seven people in favor of it...
Vol. 22 • August 1989 • No. 8
