December 1998
NEWT'S DEPARTURE

Newt Gingrich is no longer the Speaker of the House, the representative of Georgia's Second Congressional District, or Republican Party spokesman.

Liberal newspaper editors and television talking heads gleefully told the country that Newt resigned because the Republican Party realized it had been too conservative, and that it now understands it must move toward the center of the American political spectrum to be effective. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Gingrich was in fact "persuaded" to step down by conservatives. He had compromised with Bill Clinton too much in the 1996 Balanced Budget deal, and had busted the 1998 budget by giving Clinton an extra $20 billion to spend so he wouldn't shut down the government and blame the Republicans.

Conservatives make up the majority of elected Republicans in the House. They came to Washington to reduce government, not just its rate of growth, but its size and jurisdiction, as President Ronald Reagan had done.

Hence, when Newt blinked during the government shutdown and agreed with Clinton to a Balanced Budget Act that achieved "balance" by dramatically increasing the amount of the money the federal government took away from Americans, rather than reducing the amount of the people's money it spent, conservatives got angry.

Newt told them that in his estimation Republicans could not win a public relations battle with Bill Clinton. He said that they must agree to an increase in the size of the federal government, or they would lose control of the House. In 1996 the Republicans lost much of their majority when Bob Dole was defeated in the race for the White House, but they kept their majority.

Similarly, in 1998 Newt told his conservative colleagues they had to give in to Clinton's demands for still more money and government, because this was an off-year election, and the Republicans, being the party out of power (meaning, not in control of the Executive Branch), would surely pick up seats in the House and Senate just as long as Republicans didn't give Clinton anything to veto and make an issue of.

The majority of Republicans refused to go along this time, but Newt got enough liberal Democrats to vote for the Clinton budget to ensure its passage in the House. The result of the Republicans running for nothing was a loss of five House seats. Not only had the Republicans failed to stand up for smaller government; they had nothing to show for their political tactics.

Too many conservative Republicans saw the 1996 and 1998 budget compromises as mere efforts to hang on to power in Congress. This was the very sin Republicans had accused Democrats of when Republicans wrested power from them in 1994, after forty years of Democrat majority in the House.

The failure of Newt Gingrich's tactics meant that he didn't have a leg to stand on. Many Republican conservatives who were sick over increasing government refused to support his quest for a third term as Speaker. He was finished. Moderate Republicans, who number fewer than forty in the House, were all too happy to hoin with conservatives to oust Gingrich just to change the "face" of the party.

Thus, it was the increase in the size of the federal government under Newt's watch that was the primary cause of his downfall. Any who fail to realize this, including the newsmedia, are in for a few surprises.