
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 24, 1995                   TAG: 9502240094
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

GINGRICH TARGET OF COMPLAINTS

Despite escalating Democratic attacks against Newt Gingrich, the chairman of the House ethics committee said Thursday it will be ``five meetings down the road'' before the panel makes key decisions about any investigation of the speaker.

Rep. Nancy Johnson, R-Conn., said the panel - meeting as usual behind closed doors - would get staff briefings on the complaints through next week. Then, it will take several meetings to decide whether to hire an independent counsel or respond in another way.

By next week, Johnson said, the briefings will have covered all the complaints against Gingrich. That would include a new Democratic complaint filed Thursday, accusing the speaker of taking an illegal gift of free cable television time worth up to $200,000.

The complaint was submitted on a day when Democrats also accused Gingrich and other Republicans of using intimidation tactics by threatening local projects.

Among the fast-moving developments involving Gingrich:

Democrats referred often to remarks by the business school dean at Kennesaw State College, where Gingrich formerly taught a conservative-oriented college course. Timothy Mescon said he would not have permitted the speaker to teach on the campus if he had realized that political and academic resources were being commingled.

Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., and Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga., repeated accusations that Gingrich and other Republicans threatened Georgia projects in their districts in an attempt to stop their criticism of the speaker. Gingrich has denied this in the past.

Lewis and McKinney said they overheard Rep. Jerry Solomon, R-N.Y., chairman of the Rules Committee, tell a freshman Democrat Thursday as he was criticizing Gingrich on the floor: ``You've gone too far and you'll learn later.''

Solomon called the accusation of intimidation ``baloney'' and said he merely told several Democrats to stop disrupting the important work of the House.

House Minority Whip David Bonior, D-Mich., said Gingrich sold his class as nonpartisan so it could be funded by tax-deductible contributions. ``If the class turned out to be partisan in nature or design it would be a clear violation of both tax law and House rules,'' he said.

In their new ethics complaint Reps. Patricia Schroeder of Colorado, McKinney and Harry Johnston of Florida accused Gingrich of accepting free cable time from Jones Intercable.

by CNB