Newt Gingrich seems to have survived ethics battle, but House Republicans might yet have occasion to remember a Gingrich statement from 1984: “We are committed to ideas, not to men or a man.” The future Speaker was then warning about excessive loyalty to Ronald Reagan. . . . Gingrich was saved by overzealousness of Democrats. “The last week has been full of tactical blunders for the House Democrats,” admitted even George Stephanopoulos, “there’s no question.” Stephanopoulos, meanwhile, has rough start in academia. On panel at Columbia University, where he is visiting professor of political science, Stephanopoulos was saying: “Inequality has declined. The poverty rate has gone down. A…” When moderator interrupted to say: “The election is over.” . . . Asked if House Republicans will punish Rep. Jim Leach (R., Iowa) for voting against Gingrich, Majority Whip Tom DeLay (Tx.) says, “We certainly are. We’re going to make him continue to be chairman of the House Banking Committee.” . . . In wake of Gingrich phone-conversation flap Omnipoint took out full-page ad in New York Times: “Dear Mr. Speaker: If you’d rather not have your phone conversation overheard and printed word for word in the newspaper, next time use an Omnipoint wireless phone instead of a cellular phone.”
In debate with American Lawyer’s Stuart Taylor Jr., whose exhaustive analysis brought new credibility to Paula Jones case, left-wing USC law professor (and former Dukakis campaign manager) Susan Estrich responds to charges of feminist hypocrisy: “You believe in principle. I believe in politics. Here is what I learned in law school. I learned that if you push any legal question hard enough and far enough, principle turns into politics. No avoiding it.” . . . In New York Times, Barbara Ehrenreich, playing against type, raps feminists for double standard: “To regain their moral consistency, feminists and progressives will have to end their co-dependence on Mr. Clinton.” . . . National Organization for Women’s Patricia Ireland says, “If the judge or the jury rules that President Clinton did engage in this kind of violation of Paula Jones’s civil and constitutional rights, I think it would raise a very serious question of whether he could continue as President of the United States.”
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