Word: gingrichs
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Indeed, Clinton was more than conciliatory when he met with Gingrich on Thursday -- and the new Speaker was affable in return. "God knows what they could have gotten my mother to say," Clinton joked, joining Gingrich in his mockery of the press. To complete the reconciliations, Gingrich and his mother later accepted a handwritten invitation to the White House from Mrs. Clinton -- hereafter to be known as the gracious First Lady. When Gingrich emerged from the White House, he said he sensed "a very real willingness to try to find a way to try to work together." The White House...
...amity masked huge differences that will produce tough fights in the next months. But the congeniality was in some ways an expression of a mutual political anxiety. Gingrich and Clinton understand that politics has become tremendously volatile, with voters willing to punish failure without regard to party or personality...
With that in mind, Gingrich quickly attended to his power base and putting his House in order. One of the most popular new reforms made House members subject to the same employment laws imposed on all other Americans. But other changes in rules, though more arcane, are just as crucial and welcome: among them, eliminating three committees and 25 subcommittees, cutting the size of committee staffs by a third, limiting chairmen to six years on the job and the Speaker to eight. The Democrats were skeptical. "Eliminating the Merchant Marine Committee? Big deal!" scoffed Charles Schumer of New York...
...Gingrich, however, the most significant effect of the new measures is that they have restored to the Speaker much of the power that had made its way into the hands of willful and independent committee chairmen. Under the old system those chairmen seemed destined to rule their baronies for life. Torn between the demands of the Speaker and those of his chairman, a lowly Congressman had no choice but to side with the one who could make his life more miserable -- and that was rarely the Speaker. As Speaker, Gingrich appoints all chairmen, and from the outset he demonstrated that...
...cutting out committees entirely or reducing them in size, Gingrich eliminates some of the opportunity for PAC money to flow to lawmakers from the | industries they oversee -- money that can make lawmakers loyal to outside masters. If fewer Republicans are getting PAC money from agribusiness, for example, the Speaker may have less trouble commanding party loyalty in any vote to cut, say, farm subsidies. To achieve a similar end, some of the most powerful committees have had their authority reduced. Still, Gingrich didn't pare back all of the sprawl. Ways and Means, for instance, is a magnet for campaign...