ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, December 25, 1996 TAG: 9612260023
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-15 EDITION: HOLIDAY
COLUMN: CAL THOMAS
SOURCE: CAL THOMAS
JUST WEEKS after the conclusion of a presidential campaign in which the public was told by Democrats and the big media that character and ethics didn't matter comes a demand by some Democrats that the speaker of the house step down. Rep. Newt Gingrich has admitted that he failed to seek proper legal advice over the propriety of using tax-deductible charitable contributions to finance a college course he taught. He also said he conveyed ``inaccurate, incomplete and unreliable statements'' to the House ethics committee.
Gingrich's main tormentor, Rep. David Bonior, a Michigan Democrat, immediately and predictably called for Gingrich to step aside. Bonior has attempted to smear Gingrich since he assumed the speaker's chair, filing scores of charges with the ethics committee, none of which stuck until now.
Gingrich was right to issue a statement of repentance. But whatever mistakes he may have made in the matter of the college course pale in comparison to the Orient express of ethically suspect campaign contributions and the use of labor-union money used to underwrite a massive anti-Gingrich campaign that failed to produce a Democratic majority. Bill Clinton called the pipeline to Asian cash ``inappropriate.'' A Washington Post editorial was more on the mark when it labeled ``squalid'' the contributions.
Gingrich's big mistake was to let the understandable euphoria Republicans felt in 1994 after winning a House majority for the first time in four decades turn into triumphalism. A little humility goes a long way. Gingrich might have led Republicans in a testimonial to the patriotism of Democrats. He could have said Republicans believed them to be mistaken in their approach to solving problems. But trying to grind them into political dust was a major error.
Since liberals in the Democratic Party are experts in making scandal, as opposed to making workable policies, it was just a matter of time before they wounded Gingrich.
Should Gingrich be re-elected as speaker? Absolutely, if the ethics committee finds he did not knowingly and willing violate tax law. But the real objective of liberal Democrats isn't ethical purity. It is power.
Liberals correctly see Gingrich as the intellectual engine driving Republican attempts to rejuvenate a bloated, sickly government. If they can derail the speaker, they can sidetrack many of his ideas.
The only hope Democrats have for returning to power is the avenue of scandal. Some who have suggested that focusing on President Clinton's ethically challenged administration diverts attention from the ``real business'' of the country, now engage in the same diversions over Speaker Gingrich.
Just how dangerous Gingrich is to the government superstructure Democrats have built during the last half-century can be seen in a brilliant speech the speaker delivered Dec. 3 to a Heritage Foundation audience in Washington, D.C.
Three areas, he said, demand the attention of the American people and its elected leaders: the information age, the world arena and the renewal of American civilization, which he called ``the most important proposition of our generation.'' He cited a ``30-year effort by the left to create amnesia in this country.'' He said we have to learn again what it means to be an American. ``And if our schools don't teach it, and our elites don't believe it and our media and our TV shows don't show it, how do you think [students are] going to learn it? And if they don't learn it, how do you expect them to behave like Americans?''
Moreover, he added: ``What really matters to the conservative movement is not the Clinton administration - the truth is, it's not even the Republican Congress. What really matters is the propagation of ideas at a cultural level. The center of gravity of the American system is the people, not the government. The center of gravity is what people believe, what words they use, what they think about, what their aspirations are.''
This is dangerous stuff to liberals for whom ``us the government,'' not ``we the people,'' is paramount. Democrats cannot respond to Gingrich on an intellectual level, so they attempt to undermine the him with scandal.
Too bad that Gingrich has given them some material, but from what has been revealed so far, it is not enough to deny him re-election as speaker unless Democrats want to apply the same standard to President Clinton and also call on him to step aside.
- Los Angeles Times Syndicate
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines ILLUSTRATION: CARICATURE: KERRY WAGHORNby CNB