Word: gingrichs
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That incarnation will have to wait. Less than 24 hours before the House of Representatives was set to act on the treaty, Gingrich blocked a vote until after the November elections. He juggled several excuses for his U-turn in public, but his chief explanation in private was that Ross Perot made him do it. Gingrich lamented to Democratic leaders that the Texas industrialist was bombarding him with telephone calls last Tuesday. Apparently that was enough for Gingrich to cave in. "I know," Gingrich told the leaders afterward, "that there's some distrust on your side about me." That...
...Gingrich and Speaker Tom Foley agreed to return to Washington in November to vote on the legislation, and insisted that they can pass it easily. But if voters ever needed a reason to seethe at a do-little Congress, they need look no further than its refusal to take action on GATT. If carried out, the treaty would place the equivalent of $1,700 into the bank account of the average American working family during a 10-year period, according to a White House estimate. While most Americans might not yet appreciate the benefits of the agreement, the latest delay...
Even so, in a city that has perfected the tactic of trading long-term gain for short-term points, Gingrich's maneuver struck many as the most cynical they had seen in years. For months he worked behind the scenes as a pure free trader, insisting to Administration officials at every turn that he supported the treaty. Indeed, during the summer he won many changes in the measure as it was being drafted. He convinced the White House that U.S. participation in the World Trade Organization, a powerful new international body formed to arbitrate trade disputes, should be subject...
...Gingrich's full immersion in the details of GATT made it a little hard for the White House to swallow his sudden complaint last week that the legislation required further study. So did his sudden objection to a provision that would reduce licensing fees for three cellular-telephone companies. White House officials maintained last week that Gingrich knew about the provision all along. Yet he balked because, he said, it favored the Washington Post Co., which owns a controlling interest in one of the cellular operations and was therefore an example of the special breaks contained in the thousand-page...
Some Republicans saw in Gingrich's delay a possible strategy designed to push Clinton into the hands of his party's left wing next year. Here's how that thinking goes: Clinton will have to ask Republicans and business interests for help with the trade treaty after the election, but that courtship will leave his partners on the left feeling jilted, and they will demand favors of their own. Their IOUs will make it more difficult for Clinton to govern from the center next year, when the 104th Congress turns more moderate. As Wayne Berman, who helped manage trade issues...