The Pact: Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, and the Rivalry that Defined a Generation by Steven M. Gillon

The Pact: Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, and the Rivalry that Defined a Generation by Steven M. Gillon

Author:Steven M. Gillon [Gillon, Steven M.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2008-05-16T16:00:00+00:00


With Gingrich nursing his self-inflicted wounds, Bob Dole decided to fill the power vacuum. At seventy-two, Dole was the senior statesman of the party and the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in 1996. He never cared for Gingrich, whom he found abrasive, arrogant, and self-absorbed. Dole complained that Gingrich and his followers enjoyed the attention they received, but they never had a strategy for victory. “They always lived for the day,” recalled Dole advisor Scott Reed. “They were sprinters not marathon runners.” Throughout the budget battle, Dole would ask Gingrich, “What’s our endgame?” Gingrich never had an answer. “They were intoxicated by being invited to the White House,” said Reed. “Intoxicated by parading in front of the press corps. Intoxicated by reading their quotes in the papers and watching themselves on the news.”50 They walked right into Clinton’s trap. Dole, gearing up to challenge Clinton in November 1996, shuttling almost daily between Washington and New Hampshire, feared that he would pay a political price for Gingrich’s antics. But he also needed the support of conservatives to win the Republican nomination. For many House conservatives, Dole was the face of the old party: the moderate, deal-making, centrist wing they came to Washington to replace. Like Gingrich and Clinton, he was now looking for a graceful way to end the logjam without losing face.

White House staff members were giddy following the Speaker’s self-destructive comments, convinced that the Speaker had given the president a major tactical advantage in the battle over the budget. With public opinion moving decisively against the Republicans, they assumed the president would stand firm. Some of the president’s aides could not pass up the opportunity to mock Gingrich. When told of the Speaker’s comments about the Air Force One incident, White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said sarcastically, “Maybe we can send him some of those little M&Ms with the presidential seal on it.” Clinton, however, was not amused. “Mike, why did you do it?” he yelled. “Don’t kick him when he’s down,” he warned. “We have to be very conscious of Gingrich’s standing. He’s the only one that can pull it together. If we get something, and we put it together, he’s got to be able to sell it.”51 Clinton understood better than his aides that while Gingrich could be bombastic and mercurial, he was more flexible than any of the men who would potentially take his place. The president was still convinced that he could win over Gingrich, and that only the Speaker could bring enough Republican votes to make a deal.

Instead of driving a harder bargain, Clinton moved in the opposite direction. Over the next few days, Dole and Clinton made enough concessions to bring about a temporary end to the shutdown on November 19. Clinton indicated that he would accept a seven-year timeline, but insisted that Republicans protect necessary social programs. Dole agreed to use updated, and more optimistic, estimates from the Congressional Budget Office. Both sides claimed victory. Gingrich was able to say that the deal was “a very historic achievement” since Clinton agreed to their timetable.



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