WASHINGTON -- In the face of a roiling insurrection, Newt Gingrich is giving up his House speakership and will resign from Congress after a 20-year career that brought congressional Republicans from the political wilderness to tenuous control of Capitol Hill.
Gingrich's stunning announcement that he would not seek re-election as speaker came after the Republicans' dismal showing in Tuesday's election, which sparked a full-scale revolt among all factions of the party.
Many members felt strongly that the Republicans need new leadership to maintain control of Congress in 2000.
"The Republican conference needs to be unified, and it is time for me to move forward where I believe I still have a significant role to play," Gingrich said in a statement last night.
"I urge my colleagues to pick leaders who can both reconcile and discipline, who can work together and communicate effectively."
In a conference call with House Republicans, Gingrich said he did not want to be a distraction to the party as Republicans begin to stake their claim to the White House in two years.
The man who once hounded Democrats and nudged aside more senior Republicans in his drive for control told members of his leadership team that he felt Washington politics had become overly riven with hatred and acrimony, a Republican source said.
Rich Galen, director of Gingrich's political action committee, said, "He just made the decision that this is the proper time for him to leave the arena.
"He's going out with his head held high."
Last night, two of Gingrich's political allies, former Reps. Susan Molinari and Vin Weber, said they would not be surprised if Gingrich decided to run for president in 2000.
According to a Republican source, Gingrich decided to step down yesterday within two hours of an announcement by Rep. Robert L. Livingston of Louisiana that he would challenge Gingrich for the speakership.
After furiously making phone calls to try to rally support, a Gingrich spokesman conceded, the speaker received assurances from only a few of the 223 Republican House members.
If just six had refused to back Gingrich when the full House votes on the speakership in January, Democratic leader Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri could conceivably have been elected to lead the House.
Besides Livingston, Rep. Bill Archer of Texas, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, and Rep. Christopher Cox of California, the fifth-ranking House Republican, announced last night that they, too, would run for speaker.
Another member being mentioned for the post is James M. Talent of Missouri.
And two conservative Republicans -- Reps. Roscoe G. Bartlett of Western Maryland and Nick Smith of Michigan -- are drafting Rep. Henry J. Hyde of Illinois, the respected chairman of the Judiciary Committee, to run for speaker.
As prominent Republicans jockeyed for leadership posts, the fate of the Clinton impeachment hearings was again called into question. Hyde had said he would wrap up the process by the end of the year.
Leaderless House
But GOP leaders must decide whether to bring articles of impeachment to a vote in the full House if they are first approved by Hyde's committee.
Livingston said yesterday that the competition for the speakership should have no effect on the impeachment process. But for now, the House is effectively leaderless.
Allies and adversaries alike praised Gingrich's tenure and the way in which he decided to step down. In a statement, President Clinton called Gingrich "a worthy adversary."
"Despite our profound differences," Clinton said, "I appreciate those times we were able to work together in the national interest, especially Speaker Gingrich's strong support for America's continuing leadership for freedom, peace and prosperity in the world."
Rep. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a Baltimore County Republican who had been a Gingrich ally but came to believe the party should find new leaders, said, "He could have made this a bloody mess, but he chose to take the high road."
Even had he won a third term as speaker, Gingrich told House Republicans, he would have found it difficult to govern in a House with a razor-thin Republican majority. Gingrich would remain the focus of Democratic attacks, the speaker said, feeding the possibility that the 2000 elections could bring a loss of GOP control of Congress and produce an Al Gore presidency.
After Gingrich's comments, a few Republicans thanked Gingrich for his efforts, but none sought to dissuade him from his decision.
It was the announcement by Livingston, the popular chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, that pushed Gingrich over the edge yesterday.
The announcement ensured a divisive, fratricidal battle that would likely have ended Gingrich's tenure in humiliating fashion, four years after he orchestrated the conservative drive that carried Republicans to control of Congress for the first time in 40 years.
Back to teaching
According to friends, Gingrich will leave Congress and return to teaching history at the college level.
Livingston, 55, had been chosen by Gingrich after the Republican sweep of 1994 for one of the most coveted positions in Congress: head of the committee that decides how more than a trillion federal tax dollars will be spent each year.
Since then, Livingston has been a fervent Gingrich loyalist -- until now.
Indeed, Livingston hailed the speaker of the House yesterday, saying, "I love him dearly" and calling him "a true revolutionary, a man of Churchillian proportions," in a speech that was at once laudatory and blistering.
But just as Winston Churchill was thrown from office after he guided Britain through World War II, Livingston has decided it is time to replace the revolutionary with a leader who can govern the fractious House and, as he put it, "make sure the trains run on time."
"Revolutionizing takes some talents, many talents," Livingston said, referring to Gingrich. "Day-to-day governing takes others. I believe I have those talents."
"We must choose between inspirational speeches and perspiration-filled accomplishments," Livingston added, criticizing the speaker not only for his handling of this year's congressional campaigns but also for his missteps in drafting a budget this year and failing to put forward a voter-friendly face of Republicanism.
Christina Martin, a spokeswoman for Gingrich, called Livingston "a good man, a good legislator, and a good friend of the speaker's." Gingrich was "obviously saddened" by the challenge, Martin said.
The upheaval rocking the Republican Party burst to the surface yesterday after days of roiling beneath the surface.
Livingston was joined by Rep. Steve Largent of Oklahoma, a telegenic former pro football player and Hall of Famer who announced that he would try to unseat the House Republicans' No. 2 leader, Rep. Dick Armey of Texas.
A host of other contenders have emerged for other top posts, raising the possibility that the leadership team that brought the Republicans to power in 1994 on a promise to shrink government and reverse decades of social policy could be routed.
"It may be a total shift," said Rep. Constance A. Morella, a moderate Republican from Montgomery County. "That'd be healthy. I'm looking for new leadership."
House Republicans will vote on a slate of leaders in less than two weeks; with Gingrich no longer a factor, the race will be wide open.
The turmoil was sparked by Tuesday's balloting, in which Republicans gained no Senate seats and lost five House seats -- a deeply disappointing outcome for a party that expected to pick seats in both chambers.
"It is abundantly clear on Nov. 3 the Republican Party hit an iceberg," Largent declared. "I think the question that is before our conference today is whether we retain the crew of the Titanic or we look for some new leadership."
Disappointed and angry
Striking a contrite pose, Armey issued a letter to the 223 remaining House Republicans, declaring the election "a wake-up call" for the party.
"The events of Election Day have disappointed us all," Armey wrote. "I'm disappointed and angry, as I know you must be too."
But he also signaled that he was not going down without a fight. Since the election, Armey said, he had spoken with more than 130 members, and he told Republicans that he had raised more FTC than $35 million for their elections, a subtle reminder that they were somewhat in his debt.
With others likely to compete for the No. 2 post, Largent may not be the lawmaker who brings down Armey. Largent is one of the young Turks who came to power in the Republican landslide of 1994, and ever since, he has been closely identified with the hard-line conservatives who supported the government shutdowns of 1995 and 1996 that were politically disastrous for the Republicans and with the failed putsch against Gingrich in 1997.
Largent promised to be a "principled" conservative who would nevertheless reach out to moderate Republicans, liberal Democrats and the White House to heal partisan wounds inflicted since the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress. And he pledged a focused message: "less government, strong defense and respect for life."
Livingston, a social and economic conservative, nonetheless has the support of many Northeastern moderates. For four years, Livingston has clashed with Republican leaders over their efforts to insert conservative policy measures into spending bills. Those policy measures were at the core of disputes with the White House that shut down the government in 1995 and 1996 and led to a near-paralysis this year.
Because conservatives could not pass many of the annual spending bills, congressional leaders were forced last month to negotiate directly with the White House and draft a $500 billion spending behemoth that infuriated Republicans nationwide.
Ultimately, it was the embarrassments, not policy differences, Livingston said, that persuaded him to mount his challenge.
Pub Date: 11/07/98