No Rush To Judgment -- Dec. 24, 1996
Wrangling Over Gingrich -- Dec. 22, 1996
After Ethics Panel Speaks, How Damaged Is Gingrich?
By Bruce Morton/CNN
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Dec. 26) -- How damaged is he? House Republicans had hoped the Ethics Committee and the full House would formally reprimand Gingrich and then reelect him Speaker. The Republican view is that Gingrich made a mistake, but not a serious one.
"Certainly, this doesn't warrant a censure or expulsion," said New York Rep. Peter King. "As I read the ethics subcommittee report, there's clearly no finding at all of any intentional violation."
Democrats, of course, disagree.
Democratic House Whip David Bonior of Michigan says, "The lawyers don't use the word 'lie.' But if someone, in the normal course of events...would have done what Newt Gingrich did to a congressional committee, they would go to jail for that."
There are logistical problems, too. The House elects its Speaker Jan. 7. But the ethics committee may not have voted by then. Its ranking Democrat is in Italy, not due back until two days before the vote.
Will the House have to elect Gingrich without knowing if he'll be punished? What if the committee -- five Republicans and five Democrats -- can't agree? Influential conservative columnist William Safire says Gingrich should resign as Speaker.
"For the sake of the country, the conservative cause, the Republican party and even his own long-term career -- he ought to resign," Safire wrote in The New York Times.
Gingrich, a historian, will remember when then-vice presidential candidate Richard Nixon was urged to get off the Republican ticket in 1952. Instead, he made a television speech, rallied support, stayed on and won.
A Speaker Gingrich who's been reprimanded would be politically weakened. A Speaker Gingrich who resigned would probably plunge the Congress into civil war and make any legislation impossible. And then there's the president. He's dogged by fund-raising charges, with congressional investigations to come.
And if the Supreme Court rules against him, and for Paula Corbin Jones, he could end up in court on sexual harassment charges. Clinton's second term may be a lot more exciting than we thought.