Assault on Gingrich more Democrat Borking

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Feb 3, 1997 | by Richard K. Armey

Most Americans assumed the political campaign ended last Nov. 5 when President Clinton and the Republican Congress both were returned to office.

But the real campaign, one much longer and uglier than any I have known, went on. The campaign I'm talking about is the liberal establishment's campaign to bring down House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Such is the state of their disarray that liberals convinced themselves that the source of their minority status is Gingrich, not an out-of-touch liberalism. They just wouldn't admit that the largest tax increase in history, a failed government takeover of the health-care system and 40 years of wasteful Washington spending caused their problems. Instead, they found it easier and more comforting to blame their minority status on a grand, Gingrich-inspired conspiracy worthy of Oliver Stone's next movie.

What Gingrich did was recognize America's disillusionment with the high-tax welfare state. While many Republicans resigned themselves to permanent minority status and made little effort to communicate our vision of a prosperous America through smaller government, Newt had the energy and optimism to see that we could be a majority only if we communicated an agenda that embodied the beliefs of a majority of Americans.

Following the 1994 elections, most Democrats recommended that their party stop proposing more government for every problem. But party liberals, risking marginalization and a political backlash, decided instead to find an enemy. For this small angry band, a minority in their own party, an admission that their own principles caused their defeat was unthinkable. They made Gingrich their scapegoat to avoid putting modern liberalism on trial within the Democratic Party.

The political play was not about the speaker's ethics. Unfortunately, it was about revenge. The speaker was on trial, in public, for denying to Democrats the congressional majority they'd come to consider a birthright. Liberals believed that by forcing Gingrich to resign, they could discredit the conservative philosophy that dominates today's political discourse nationwide. In their minds, the path back to control of the House ran over Gingrich.

In an especially ironic twist, when liberals charged Speaker Gingrich with "lying to Congress" and "tax fraud," they themselves had to lie to the American people. They knew full well that neither the special counsel's report nor any committee document charged the speaker with any such offenses.

The committee said that the speaker should have consulted a tax expert before beginning to teach a college course. The speaker also was, he admits, careless in not thoroughly reviewing material submitted by his lawyer to the House Ethics Committee. This hardly is the sort of intentional, unethical and illegal behavior that ended the careers of former Speaker Jim Wright and Rep. Dan Rostenkowski.

In contrast with the subcommittee report, the speaker's tormentors started with the premise that the speaker was guilty of a heinous crime. No matter what the facts, no matter what the Ethics Committee does or says, in their world the speaker was guilty and needed to resign his office. This is political scapegoating in the extreme.

Does anyone really believe that if the Ethics Committee had completely, 100 percent exonerated the speaker that the "Get Gingrich" crowd would have let this die? On the contrary; David Bonior and the liberal establishment would have alleged some new sin.

Truth has been the first casualty in the wars the Democrats have fought for the last two years. These same liberals don't deserve to be taken any more seriously when they're hurling accusations against the speaker than when they were accusing us of "slashing Medicare." As in the Medicare debate, the truth is on our side if we will speak it loudly and often.

Some conservatives suggested that we only could advance our agenda if the speaker stepped down. That's simply not true. Handing this mob the speaker's scalp wouldn't win us peace. Giving in to the mob would be a travesty of justice and demonstrate that Republicans can be bullied and stampeded by people who couldn't care less about the facts of this case, nor the good of the House of Representatives, nor simple justice, but care only for political payback.

It's Gingrich today, but the list of Republican victims is long and painful, dating back to Ronald Reagan and the dedicated public servants of his administration. What we have witnessed was yet another "Borking" -- this time of Gingrich. The insidious politics of indict, assert, exploit and exaggerate must be stopped and stopped right here.

Because ultimately, it's not Gingrich the liberals seek to destroy, it's the philosophy he represents and the fighting spirit he embodies.

A small angry mob sought more than the speaker's head. They sought to do through the Ethics Committee what they couldn't do at the ballot box. They sought to bring down all we've accomplished and hope to accomplish in our effort to improve the quality of life across America.