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Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Daniel Schuh who wrote (13674)	11/7/1998 4:52:00 AM
From: Daniel Schuh	Respond to of 67261

Facing Revolt, Gingrich Won't Run for Speaker and Will Quit Congresshttp://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/110798repubs-leadership.html Speaker Newt Gingrich, who orchestrated the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994 and presided this year over what at times seemed like the political destruction of President Clinton, was himself driven from office Friday by a party that swiftly turned on him after its unexpected losses in Tuesday's midterm elections. Catching virtually everyone on Capitol Hill by surprise, Gingrich announced Friday night in two conference calls to other Republicans that he would not seek re-election as Speaker and would leave Congress when his term expired in January. "This will give us a chance to purge some of the poison that is in the system," Gingrich said, according to a party official who listened to one of the calls. It may or may not purge some of the poison in that system, but I'm sure the poison in this so-called "sanity" thread will continue to flow unabated. Gingrich's decision to resign was a stunning reversal for one of the most combative and personally confrontational politicians in America. He made his name a decade ago by bringing down one Democratic Speaker, Jim Wright, and continued his assaultive style through Tuesday's elections, approving last-minute commercials reminding voters of the White House sex scandal. Which, it turns out, is exactly what everybody wanted to hear more about, he notes dryly. Gingrich's reflexive pugilistic response was evident even tonight. In his second conference call, said several members who listened, Gingrich blamed House conservatives for his downfall. Although it was their revolutionary zeal he harnessed to take control of Congress, they have become his most bitter critics in the last two years of his tumultuous speakership. Friday night he called them cannibals who had "blackmailed" him into quitting, said those listening to the call. Representative Michael P. Forbes, Republican of New York, said, "Newt said all those who had marginalized the Republican Party had engaged in cannibalism." Another Republican, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described the conference call this way: "He started off very statesmanlike, but then you could see the anger building. When someone asked him why he was leaving, he said, 'A handful of members have blackmailed the conference.' He said, 'They're hateful.' And he said, 'They're cannibals.' " So much hate, but somehow I don't think Newt resigned because of poor little hateful partisan me. He doesn't even blame it on the "demonizing" of the "liberal media". He's so confused. Somebody here send him some email, straighten him out. Only Four Years After Triumph, a Fall of Surprising Suddenness nytimes.com Just one little quote from this one, from somebody that's been touted around here. "What I believe desperately needs to take place is to heal the alienation that currently exists," said Rep. Steve Largent of Oklahoma, a conservative football Hall of Famer who announced his own challenge Friday to Gingrich's second-in-command, Rep. Dick Armey. Largent cited the rifts not just inside the Republican caucus, but between House Republicans and Democrats, House Republicans and the White House. And what better way to heal that alienation than to redouble efforts on impeachment. Right guys? Right? That's what everybody wants, right? Everybody who disagrees is an idiot, right? Cheers, Dan.