Politics: Lessons From the Inquisition
Norquist, Grover G.
by Grover G. Norquist Lessons From the Inquisition What the GOP found out about itself and the other guys. he Democrats' failed effort to They launched a month-long ethics T recapture the House...
...A volunteer used the Speaker's photocopier and was told to repay $20...
...William Cohen of Maine made his career when he called for Nixon's impeachment...
...betray their desperation...
...and third, the Republican statements to the Ethics Committee, ran majority is strong enough to withstand through his re-election as Speaker on these challenges...
...Will they be thrown off committees...
...edly independent environment, con- It started on December 21, 1996, when sumer, and feminist groups are in fact Speaker Gingrich apologized for mishighly partisan...
...The final question was whether Gingrich did anything wrong in teaching his course, "Renewing American Civilization," at Kennesaw State University and Rinehardt College in Georgia...
...Lesson 6: Republicans now know that they must appoint members to the Ethics Committee who cannot be threatened politically...
...The American Spectator March 1997 53...
...they've lost the House for the foreseeable future...
...When the course was first put together, Gingrich went to the Ethics Committee lawyer and told him GOPAC would be helping to organize the course...
...Now the opposite is being tried, as Democrats try to weaken Congress by shifting power to the courts and to executive branch regulators at the EPA, OSHA, and the FCC, which are more insulated from the voters...
...Indeed, the free advertising offered by fawning national coverage is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars —earned media as it is called in the business...
...If General Motors offered a congressman thousands to cast a vote, it would be a scandal and a crime...
...As it happens, the Ethics Committee specifically refused to find that Gingrich broke any law or purposefully misled the committee...
...Lesson 5: Avoid the trap of moral equivalence...
...second, the suppos- the lessons of the Thirty Day Ethics War...
...GROVER G. NORQUIST is president of McDermott, Bonior, and even Rangel Americans for Tax Reform...
...Just as James Carville has taken jury tampering to new heights by publicly attacking the efforts of Kenneth Starr, so too did the Democrats and establishment press try to intimidate politically vulnerable Republicans on the Ethics Committee...
...They were reminded how then-Rep...
...one said he's "not worthy of anger...
...Jim Leach has always lived in his own pristine world...
...The reckless flailing of Reps...
...he Democrats filed seventy-four T charges against Gingrich, seventy-three of which were dismissed or found to be de minimus...
...The anti-Newt virus is not likely to spread, as a look at the votes against Gingrich suggests...
...Five members voted "present," which meant their votes did not count against Gingrich's drive for a majority...
...What about those who caved against Gingrich...
...Liberal columnists are hoping that, now that Gingrich has been "convicted," Republicans will go easy on , inquiries into illegal contributions to Clinton and the Democrats...
...Dick Armey, Tom DeLay, Bill Paxon, and John Boehner had numerous chances to "accidentally" drop the ball...
...Lesson 2: The House Republican leadership remained tough-minded and loyal to Gingrich...
...the bell, the Democrats refused to be Lesson 1: Democrats really do believe slowed by their defeat at the ballot box...
...Well, it was...
...Lesson 3: The 226 members of the GOP caucus displayed impressive unity of their own...
...Even her insistence on federal campaign reform isn't what it's cracked up to be: her proposed legislation would cripple the GOP by leaving political use of labor union dues untouched...
...he Democrats' failed effort to They launched a month-long ethics T recapture the House and Senate war in an attempt to overturn the on November 5, 1996 exposed sev- November election...
...If any fault was found in the tax status of the college course —and none was—it would merit a letter from the IRS to be careful...
...Actually, they'll be left alone...
...They lost—again...
...Denied parking spaces...
...Next to the word 'ingratitude' in the dictionary, there will be a picture of Tom Campbell," says Karen Kerrigan of the Small Business Survival Committee...
...Twenty years ago, their betrayal would have made their careers...
...And it was legal for GOPAC to help...
...Later in December 1994, as he was organizing the newly Republican House, one of Gingrich's lawyers filed a paper that said GOPAC wasn't involved in the course...
...This is not the moral equivalent of the potential felonies associated with receiving illegal campaign contributions from Indonesians or sharing illegally taped conversations with others...
...Ignored...
...They never did...
...That only a handful of GOP members succumbed to political bribery is encouraging...
...That left four, more contentious defectors...
...The Democratic member knew all along he could count on Clymer to serve as his accomplice...
...That is why there was found to be no intent to mislead...
...People do not 52 commit felonies casually to seize what they could win through the ballot box...
...In the 1970's and 8o's, Democrats, believing they'd lost the presidency, began to steer power to Congress by micromanaging foreign policy and the budget...
...Linda Smith of Washington state is said to be a conservative maverick, but colleagues from her state say it's her standard operating procedure to trash another Republican in return for free TV time...
...The Democrats have tried to argue that the tax-deductible contributions to the course were improper because a course celebrating America would by definition rebound to the benefit of the Republican Party...
...If the big media offer free coverage in return for attacking someone, it's called "how Washington operates...
...It's not going to happen again...
...eral truths: first, the source of Democra- This second battle leaves the Republican tic money is trial lawyers, mandatory caucus with real scar tissue, but also union dues, and cash laundered through additional muscle if it can take to heart Buddhist temples...
...When Adam Clymer of the New York Times was illegally handed an illegally-made audio tape by, as he reported, a Democratic member of Congress, the headline over his piece did not announce "Democrat commits felony...
...January 7, and ended with the January 21 Like a boxer who keeps swinging after vote for reprimand...
...Yes, the Soviet Union has murdered millions, but we had unemployment...
...The Democrat Cole, hired at the insistence of McDermott, has tried to spin differently, but he speaks only for himself...
...Lesson 4: The establishment media is not only a key player of the other team,it's its MVP...
...Tom Campbell of California, elected in a special election in December 1995, was a bigger disappointment...
...Michael Forbes, a product of the D'Amato machine, folded under attack from New York Newsday...
...This was approved...
...She helped rally conservative support for Campbell in 1995, in a race that saw Gingrich raise more than $1 million and urge conservative groups to mute their unhappiness with Campbell's pro-abortion, antigun, and anti-flat tax stance...
...These five also avoided public attacks on Gingrich or the party...
...Despite great pressures and temptations, only nine House Republicans voted against Gingrich on January 7. A number of March 1997 • The American Spectator Republicans say they were promised positive coverage by the major networks in return for negative comments about Gingrich...
...They were born too late...
...That's an interesting admission on their part, but as Lynne Cheney has pointed out, according to their logic institutions like Harvard, Yale, and Brookings should lose their tax-exempt status...
...House members know that the establishment rewards Republicans who turn on their own...
...Moral equivalence was a favored tactic of the left during the Cold War...
...Loyalists regard his defection with a mixture of pity and scorn...
Vol. 30 • March 1997 • No. 3
