Gingrich Urges Republicans to Support Rep. Livingston

WASHINGTON —  Subdued but unapologetic, House Speaker Newt Gingrich Monday night issued a broad defense of the tumultuous GOP revolution he led for four years, and urged Republicans to unite behind Rep. Bob Livingston, the man who worked to oust him.

In a 45-minute speech that was occasionally nostalgic and almost always partisan, Gingrich told 300 of his most loyal supporters that the “big ideas” they championed together will endure “if every Republican will pull together with Bob Livingston.”

The Georgia Republican also vowed in his first address since announcing his resignation on Friday that he would remain “a citizen activist,” and then promptly issued some advice for the GOP.

He urged the party to use the growing budget surplus to cut taxes, preserve Social Security, improve education and enact tort reform.

Among those in the audience was Livingston, the Louisiana congressman whom Gingrich on Monday afternoon had personally invited to the semiannual dinner for some of the party’s largest donors. It was Livingston’s announcement Friday that he intended to challenge Gingrich for the speakership that precipitated Gingrich’s decision to resign.

Livingston, an imposing man at 6-foot-4, made a dramatic mid-meal entrance and then took a seat at the same head table occupied by Gingrich and his family.

As Livingston entered the ballroom, polite applause rippled through the room. At the time, Gingrich and most of the other diners were already well into the main course of steamed half-lobster and petit filet of beef.

Dinner Honored GOP Donors

As Livingston approached the head table, Gingrich stood up and the two men shook hands warmly and held their smiles for the gaggle of photographers.

Livingston then took a seat almost directly across the round table from Gingrich. The speaker sat between his wife, Marianne, and one of their daughters; Livingston sat between his wife, Bonnie, and Joe Gaylord, one of Gingrich’s closest confidants.

Gingrich made his remarks at the dinner for donors who have given $10,000 to GOPAC, an organization he once headed that recruits and trains Republican candidates for public office.

“Let me say without apology that as speaker I sought to aggressively lead toward our goals and visions,” Gingrich said in his after-dinner remarks.

He also alluded to his sense of shock last Tuesday night as he watched the election returns, which ended with a loss of five GOP House seats--and prompted Livingston’s challenge.

“I can’t pretend to any of you that I saw it coming,” Gingrich said, “because frankly, I thought I was in one world at 6 and was in a different world by midnight.”

Explains Decision to Step Down

The speaker said he decided to relinquish the nation’s third highest constitutional office--and leave Congress altogether--after recalling a lesson that his father, Robert, an Army veteran, had taught him.

“Precisely because of that Army tradition of subordinating yourself to the larger cause and the higher calling, it was easy to make Friday’s decision,” Gingrich said. “I had to ask what was right for my country, for my party, and only then for myself.”

Repeatedly, Gingrich was interrupted by ovations. When he finished, Livingston gave him a double thumbs-up sign.

Gingrich did not elaborate on what his self-described role as a “citizen activist” would entail. Nor did he give any hint about whether he might seek the GOP presidential nomination in 2000, as some observers have speculated. “Public service is not necessarily public office,” he said.

And in a final call to all Americans, Gingrich urged leaders of both parties to build a national consensus on two key issues--that the United States must lead the world, because there is no one else to do it, and that America must keep its markets open and bolster the world economy.

Earlier in the day, Gingrich arrived at the Capitol to a hero’s welcome accorded by a throng of Republican staffers. Inside, he attended a small private lunch with current and former aides.

Although Gingrich’s speech was expectedly partisan, he maintained a generally positive tone throughout while recounting the GOP’s accomplishments during his years and those of the Reagan and Bush presidencies. “We never had a big majority, but we always stood for big ideas,” he said.

At one point, he delighted the crowd by whipping out of his pocket the original “Contract with America,” a 10-point campaign document that helped sweep the GOP to power in the 1994 elections.

Gingrich noted that House Republicans fulfilled their campaign pledge by voting on all 10 items within the first 100 days of the 105th Congress. “We kept our word,” he said.