No Retribution
BARNES, FRED
No Retribution by Fred Barnes Disloyal Republicans in the House don't get punished. They get rewarded. That is what's happened to the nine Republicans who refused to vote for Newt Gingrich's...
...When considering how to vote for House speaker, says representative Mark Sanford of South Carolina, he quickly concluded "the politically expedient route" was to trash Gingrich...
...When the administration yanked a federal project from Alabama, Shelby was lionized in the state...
...But that's not the real reason for his refusal to exact retribution...
...Representative Bob Barr of Georgia says he may seek formal disciplining, though that seems unlikely any time soon...
...For one thing, he needs all the Republicans he can get when the House votes on his own punishment for ethics violations...
...She calls herself a reformer and she voted for a Washington lobbyist for speaker," huffed a GOP leader...
...As punishment, Gingrich announced he wouldn't appear as planned at a Souder fund-raiser, which had been expected to reap $60,000...
...The greatest anger is directed at the four Republicans who voted for another person for speaker (the five others voted "present...
...Rather, his inaction reflects his weak position...
...Leach is Leach," says a Republican leader...
...Besides, says a GOP House member, "a lot of people who voted for Gingrich are sympathetic to what the nine did...
...This is not a new phenomenon...
...Still, Gingrich, his allies in the GOP leadership, and other Republicans are furious at the nine...
...As a Democratic House member in 1983, Gramm was stripped of his position on the Budget Committee because he collaborated with Republicans on cutting federal spending...
...In 1984, he was elected to the Senate as a Republican...
...Sanford, who has lingering doubts about Gingrich's ability to lead effectively, voted for him...
...That wasn't an issue people were worried about," says Sanford...
...And here's how the Des Moines Register reacted to the anti-Gingrich vote of Iowa's Jim Leach: He "has a moral compass and follows its directions when it would be far easier to be blown along by political winds...
...They essentially put a gun to the king's head and pulled the trigger, but the king lived," says a member of the GOP leadership...
...Months or years down the road, they may fail to get prized committee assignments or be included in key decisions...
...That's the ultimate crime...
...Representative Tom Campbell, who voted for Leach, is faulted by the Gingrich forces for ingratitude, since they pumped $2 million into his House race in a special election in 1995...
...And Sanford is from Charleston, a Republican stronghold and conservative hotbed...
...But if Gingrich only went after conservative dissenters, that would anger many in the large conservative GOP bloc...
...They can all live with that, the upside from their disloyalty being so great...
...He'll probably win, and then be in a position to vote against Trent Lott for Senate majority leader in 1999...
...Yet the worst that's likely to happen to any of them now—or to the other five—is mild ostracism...
...There's less animosity toward Leach because he's never been a reliable Republican vote...
...He didn't give the prospect of punishment a second thought either...
...In 1994, he won reelection handily, then became a Republican...
...The margin of victory is so narrow, you don't want to turn anyone into an enemy," says representative David Mcintosh of Indiana...
...But it wasn't all that hard either...
...The fund-raiser brought in $250,000...
...That effort would suffer if a moderate like Leach were deposed as chairman of the Banking Committee...
...Challenging his party's leadership in Washington made Phil Gramm a Texas icon and national figure...
...The question of retribution never came up...
...House GOP whip Tom DeLay believes he had her promise to inform him first of how she would vote, but instead she announced her decision on TV...
...Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama, a Democrat who had won narrowly in 1986, benefited from splitting with President Clinton in 1993...
...He responded by quitting Congress, switching parties, running in a special election, and winning in a landslide...
...As for Campbell, Republican leaders believe they extracted a promise from him in 1995 to stay in the House, but now they fear he'll seek a Senate seat next year...
...Souder voted for Gingrich, though he knows firsthand the political value of bucking him...
...It's lose-lose...
...The night before the vote, he gathered with eight House Republicans to discuss Gingrich...
...Forbes may face a primary challenge for his Long Island seat in 1998, but at least he got his hometown newspaper, the bitterly anti-Gingrich Newsday, off his back...
...Even there, had he voted against Gingrich, "I'd be a huge hero...
...Representative Mark Souder of Indiana, a conservative who's often clashed with Gingrich, also flirted with the idea of going against the speaker...
...With the fanfare over his independence from Gingrich, Souder's stature in Indiana soared...
...Forbes voted for Leach for speaker...
...Gingrich has told associates he blames representative Michael Forbes of New York especially for being the first to declare he'd vote against Gingrich...
...They've talked about punishment...
...In 1995 during the budget battle with President Clinton, Souder refused to go along with Gingrich's decision to reopen the federal government...
...He became enormously popular...
...It was a bad political move for me," San-ford says...
...That broke the ice, allowing further defections...
...In some cases their political futures brightened...
...Neumann's vote on Gingrich may have been principled— he's fanatical about opposing Washington cor-ruption—but it's politically helpful nonetheless...
...Given the pressure from Gingrich and House GOP leaders, it wasn't easy to vote against Gingrich...
...Gingrich, demonized by the national media, is the most unpopular politician in the country...
...California representative Tom Campbell took the high road, making "the direct, ethical argument against Gingrich, not the political, tactical one," insisted the San Jose Mercury-News...
...Representative Mark Neumann of Wisconsin, who acceded to Gingrich's pleas by voting "present" rather than for a different speaker, wants to run against Democratic senator Russ Feingold in 1998...
...She voted for Bob Walker, a recently retired House member, now president of the Wexler Group...
...The Seattle Times said representative Linda Smith of Washington "deserves undiluted admiration" for abandoning Gingrich...
...Forget it...
...Representative Linda Smith of Washington is blamed for grandstanding...
...What about stiff punishment by Republican leaders for breaking ranks and shattering GOP unity...
...Obviously, Gingrich doesn't want to make martyrs out of the nine renegades by punishing them publicly...
...Their hometown papers treated them like saints...
...Further complicating things for Gingrich is his continued wooing of moderates on substantive votes...
...Executive Editor Fred Barnes is a regular host of "Fox on Politics" on the Fox News Channel...
...That is what's happened to the nine Republicans who refused to vote for Newt Gingrich's reelection as speaker on January 7. They suddenly became heroes in their districts, lauded for their independence and courage...
Vol. 2 • January 1997 • No. 18
