Top Republican brass, starting with President Reagan, and including House leaders Bob Michel (Minority Leader) and Trent Lott (Whip), and the party’s chief technocrat, National Republican Committee Chairman Frank Fahrenkopf, are feverishly trying to suture a bloody-wound in the Republican House delegation, deeper and more painful than had at first appeared.
Two right wings are facing off: Old Rightists—led by the self-styled “nineteenth-century liberal” and just resigned head of the American Conservative Union (ACU) Mickey Edwards (Okla.)— and populists—led by the famed Tip O’Neill-baiter Newt Gingrich (Ga.). Edwards has publicly chastised the populists for inadequate political strategy.
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