Newt Gingrich has bigger problems than being attacked by Republicans like Bill Bennett who don’t like his coziness with Jesse Jackson.
Problem Number 1: fellow Republicans in the House leadership. Whenever the leaders gather with Gingrich, there’s tension in the room. The reason is the others have lost confidence in Gingrich, at least for now. Rather than being upset over Senate majority leader Trent Lott’s emergence as the GOP point man in dealing with President Clinton, they’re delighted it’s not Gingrich in that role. Privately, some think he won’t be speaker a year from now.
Problem Number 2: rank-and-file members. They’re no longer in awe of Gingrich. One associate of Gingrich offers the three-bullet theory to explain their feelings. They took one bullet for Gingrich last year by standing by him in the election. They took another in January by reelecting him speaker. They won’t take a third if, say, Gingrich creates a firestorm by declining to pay his $ 300,000 ethics fine out of his own pocket.
Gingrich jokes, meanwhile, have begun to circulate on Capitol Hill — among conservatives, no less.
Q: Newt was so pleased with his State of the Union outreach, who will he now name as head of his task force on legal reform? A: O. J.
