■ House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich seems likely to go for Minority Leader post in 1994, whether or not current leader Bob Michel runs again. Ed Rollins cautions that Gingrich “will not become the next leader without a serious challenge.” Gingrich annoyed many conservatives last month by supporting liberal Republican Nancy Johnson for a House leadership position. Now Rep. Johnson, who lost race, is turning on him, telling Wall Street Journal’. “He openly supported me,” but “you can never tell.” . . . Sen. Malcolm Wallop reelected as chairman of Republican Steering Committee, an unofficial caucus of conservative senators. . . . On other side of aisle, freshman Democrats seething about their liberal party leadership. First of all, regional orientation sessions were held to prevent new members from taking Capitol by storm. In addition, Family Research Council’s Elizabeth Law reports that pro-life Democrats were not given desired committee assignments because of abortion stance. . . . Swords drawn: In December, Senate Finance Chairman Pat Moynihan was Mr. Nice Guy: “Whatever the new President wants, I’ll certainly try to get it for him.” So far, none of Bill Clinton’s people have called. Moynihan told Time’s Michael Kramer: “[Clinton] either talks to us sooner or he talks to us later.” Instead of calling, a top Administration official opened fire: “Moynihan supported Bob Kerrey . . . He’s not one of us, and he can’t control Finance like [former Chairman] Bentsen did. . . . We’ll roll right over him if we have to.” . . . Word is EPA administrator Carol Browner didn’t do much to familiarize herself with new department before taking over. And calls to prospective aides came not from Browner but from office of A1 Gore. . . . One person particularly supportive of Bill Clinton’s “diverse” Cabinet is columnist Carl Rowan. Recalling experiences with Cabinet of LBJ, Rowan opines: “if there had been some diversity in that Cabinet, maybe Lyndon Johnson wouldn’t have gone with all those macho soliloquies and gotten himself destroyed in the Vietnam War.”
■ Did Saddam Hussein outmaneuver George Bush? Saddam “can reasonably argue to his people that his postwar policies have stabilized the economic situation while preserving Iraqi pride in resisting foreign pressures,” says Patrick Clawson of the National Defense University. Saddam pleaded by way of the Vatican and other routes for a “dialogue” with UN Security Council. He also worked to get Russian hard-liners to challenge Boris Yeltsin’s support for U.S. actions in Iraq. . . . Baghdad is able to continue importing goods without selling oil thanks to King Hussein’s Jordan, which has flouted UN embargo; to Switzerland, Britain, Italy, and Canada, which have released $247 million in frozen assets; and to those in Tehran and Beirut who buy the loot from Kuwait he has been selling. . . . Japan’s scandal-ridden Liberal Democrat Party is counting on marriage of Crown Prince Naruhito to Harvard- educated Masako Owada to provide excuse to postpone election until business has turned around. . . . Economist reports that “Japan faces a financial crisis as severe as the U.S. S&L debacle. There is nearly $500 billion of problem debt in the banking system. … Land prices have plunged and the stock market remains more than 50 per cent off its all-time high.” . . . Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa was successful in getting Hiroshi Nakajima re-elected head of World Health Organization despite Washington’s charges that Nakajima had squandered agency’s $850-million budget and put relatives on payroll. … Vietnam agreed recently to permit Moscow to continue using Cam Rahn navy base (built by U.S.), despite Russia’s inability to pay $400 million annual rent. Hanoi expects Moscow not to scale down forces as it had intended. This on heels of U.S. withdrawal from Philippine bases.
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