Newt, Now more than Ever
KRISTOL, WILLIAM
Newt, Now More Than Ever by William Kristol On November 8, 1994, Republicans under the leadership of Newt Gingrich ended decades of Democratic congressional dominance. on November 5, 1996,...
...if Republicans immediately revert to psychological and political defensive-ness...
...Gingrich's leadership when the GoP was in the minority helped create the new Republican era...
...Yet if your leader is under unfair and vicious attack, it is, and ought to be, precisely a matter of closing ranks...
...He described it as "echoing all the way from the tribal conflicts of prehistory with the true meaning of partisan zeal...
...the reason to stand behind him now as speaker is so that he can lead Republicans to further ideological victories in 1998 and 2000, ones that deepen and extend the significance of 1994...
...It was hostile reporters, more than many Republicans, who understood this...
...Their task now is to show why it is right that they be in charge, why it makes a difference that they are in charge, and why it matters that the Republican party has finally stood up to the media and the political establishment and said: Enough...
...Editor and Publisher William Kristol's "An Agenda for the 105th Congress" appeared in last week's issue...
...Kemp explained that supporting Gingrich was "not a matter of closing ranks," but rather of selecting the best leader...
...They should insist on a speedy disposition of the case and vote for a slap on the wrist, without apology and without anguish...
...If January 7 turns out to be a mere one-time rallying of the troops...
...If they do all this, they will find the crucible of the Gingrich vote to have been a strengthening, rather than an enfeebling, experience...
...Al Hunt of the Wall Street Journal contends wishfully that Gingrich's victory was "Pyrrhic...
...on November 5, 1996, Republicans held on to Congress and so strengthened their claim to be the new majority party...
...Andrew Sullivan in the London Sunday Times, who correctly denounced the anti-Gingrich scandal-mongers as a "lynch mob," pointed out that it would be a "perfect irony" if Gingrich—"one of the least sleazy politicians in America" and the man who bore on behalf of his entire party the unpopularity that comes from trying to achieve real reform—were to fall...
...Except Republicans, unlike the British in the Crimean War, can win—if they keep their nerve...
...The fact that House Republicans were willing to stick with their leader suggests that we may now have a serious political movement on the right, and that we may indeed be entering a new political era...
...January 7 may be remembered as the moment when the Republican party showed that it was a serious party, unintimidated by the opposition, uncowed by the media, willing to stand the heat that radiates from any effort to reshape American politics...
...if they wait with fear and trembling for the next shoe to drop in the Gingrich case...
...They should treat the release of special counsel James Cole's report with insouciance and the media's agitation with disdain...
...Francis X. Clines of the New York Times could not help but be impressed by the whoop that went up from the victorious side after the votes were counted...
...In beating back David Bonior, Al Hunt, and the rest, Gingrich and the Republicans showed that they were in charge of this Congress, as the public elected them to be...
...Accustomed to winning through the media and the "ethics process" what it has failed to achieve at the ballot box, the Left finally met with resistance—and successful resistance at that...
...Clines waxed Homeric: "on their feet, roaring with victory, the Republican majority of the 105th Congress successfully defended Newt Gingrich today as Speaker and saluted him with a joy that sounded visceral, as if he had routed a band of bandits at the edge of the tribal water hole...
...Here is what Republicans should do: They should treat the Gingrich case as settled...
...That's what House Republicans did last week...
...or maybe not...
...if they dignify the "ethics process" with concern and treat false "revelations" such as a tape recording leaked to, and dutifully made a front-page story by, the New York Times as anything but comic—then last week's impressive display of spine will have been for naught...
...A certain amount of bipartisanship is fine, and a certain amount of making nice and sounding moderate is appropriate, but Republicans don't really need Gingrich as speaker if they want simply to appease the media, reach out to soccer moms, and be kinder and gentler...
...While he ought to avoid the mistake of seeming "revolutionary" and reckless, there will have been no purpose for GoP courage on Gingrich's behalf if he fails to deliver bold leadership in pursuit of a substantive conservative agenda...
...And on January 7, 1997, Republicans overcame Democratic efforts—as well as their own fears—and reelected Gingrich speaker of the House...
...Walter Shapiro described the vote in USA Today as "the political equivalent of The Charge of the Light Brigade...
...This last may yet prove to be the date that confirms the significance of the first two...
...Gingrich had...
...For the loyalty his troops showed him, Gingrich now owes something to them: leadership...
...Thus, in an otherwise sound defense of his old friend in the Wall Street Journal, Jack Kemp went out of his way to make the case for Gingrich as a "progressive conservative...
...After all, Gingrich is abrasive and unpopular...
...The next few weeks are key...
...But his bitterness at the Republican refusal to buckle under to the assault on the speaker reveals the terrible truth: Tuesday's vote was potentially a huge defeat for the American Left...
...And it proved inspiriting...
...Exactly so...
...They should repeat again and again the core truth that the premise of the ethics assault is ludi-crous—that Gingrich's course is no more partisan than most college courses and that his alleged misrepresentations are trivial...
...Cannon to the left of them, cannon to the right of them—and still the Republicans stubbornly marched into the 105th Congress with their banner and their heads held high...
...Some in the GoP sought to talk primarily about Gingrich's merits as speaker, which missed the significance of last week's vote...
...If they get rattled when the special counsel's report is unveiled and continue to dread the putative electoral cost of their support for the speaker (in an election 22 months off), then January 7 will turn out to have been merely a delay in the "inevitable" downfall of Gingrich...
...Serious political movements do not tolerate such irony...
...We will then know that the Republican party is still, in its heart, the party that knows it is bound to lose...
Vol. 2 • January 1997 • No. 18
