Molly Ivins December 26AUSTIN, Texas — Most liberals are in an impossible box when it comes to the sins of House Speaker Newt Gingrich. We are notorious for forgiving penitent sinners. Further, liberal orthodoxy requires us to empathize with all who are in pain and woe. Besides that, it would be the essence of illiberalism to kick a guy when he's down. And even besides that, it's Christmas time, the season of peace and good will toward men. Happily, I am not most liberals. I am enjoying all this hugely. "Gloat" would not be too strong a term. I find it quite delightful. However, in all honesty, I cannot work up a good case of moral outrage. Dudgeon shortage here. As ethical lapses in our nation's Capitol go, I'm afraid this doesn't rise to ankle level. True, what Gingrich told the ethics committee was inaccurate, incomplete and unreliable. So is almost everything the man says. Yes, he has brought discredit upon the House of Representatives, but he's been doing that for years. It seems to me that those of us who dislike the man are entitled to our moment of glee, but this falls well short of a call for lynching the sorry churl. What makes it so tempting, of course, is that Gingrich himself has made so many ethical molehills into mountains. Driving Jim Wright from office was only the last of a long string of Gingrichian maneuvers, usually involving multiple petty allegations brought before the ethics committee. Those Republicans now complaining about Rep. David Bonior's use of the same committee should recall from which master Bonior learned this tactic. There is a stunning scene in the book "Tell Newt to Shut Up," in which Gingrich, informed that the ethics committee is proceeding against him, breaks down in tears. He sobs piteously about how these people are after him relentlessly, how unfair it is, etc., etc. Call me a liberal, but that's all the justice I need. The biter bit. What goes around comes around. I'll pass on the pound of flesh. And I'd like to thank Bonior for taking it this far. Gingrich can enjoy a few days of re-reading his own words in the Wright case about how the speaker should be held to a higher standard. (With characteristic lack of either truth or decency, Gingrich has repeatedly tried to differentiate his own case from Wright's by referring to Wright as "a crook.") Ever optimistic to the point of idiocy, I would venture to hope that this might spare us smug assumptions of moral superiority in the future, but even I am not that big a fool.
His most striking pattern is accusing others of that of which he is himself guilty; the shrinks call it projection. I think it often colors Gingrich's perception of Bill Clinton — for example, the infamous case of Gingrich whining that the president had made him exit by the back door of Air Force One. Clinton may be guilty of many things, but bad manners are not among them; that's the kind of stunt Gingrich himself would have pulled. For those liberals who enjoy moral outrage, I suggest concentrating on Gingrich's use of monies from the Abraham Lincoln Opportunity Foundation, supposedly to help poor, inner-city kids and headed, improbably enough, by Bo Callaway. When GOPAC was shy of dough, Gingrich used the foundation's money to finance some of his televised town meetings — apparently on the assumption that poor, inner-city kids would watch them and be greatly enlightened. It's this kind of record (combined with Gingrich's nauseating, self-righteous piety) that makes him so easy to dislike. Earning for Learning, another of Gingrich's spider's-web of foundations, seems to exist mostly to pay an old friend of his a handsome executive secretary's salary. To beat an old drum (you knew I'd bring this all back to campaign financing somehow, didn't you?), we could avoid all this unseemly, tawdry bullstuff with a sensible system of public financing for political campaigns. Think of the blessing it would be to the sensibilities of our Veep Al "I am shocked to discover there is fund-raising going on in this temple" Gore. Think of the trouble it would save the beleaguered souls at the Democratic National Committee, now having to chase down the bona fides of every Asian contributor. And above all, think of the grief it would save poor, poor Newt, now held up to public obloquy just because his lawyers let him commit falsehood while he was busy saving the republic. Yes, friends, here we have a just and noble cause on which we can all agree: Spare Newt more moral torment — shoot not that gray old head, but spare your country's honor instead. Support public campaign financing, and get Newt out of this pickle. *** Molly Ivins is a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. COPYRIGHT 1996 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
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