Mr. Nice Guy Newt Is Dull Bird Indeed

If you took a poll and asked Americans to concoct a nickname for Newt Gingrich, chances are they would come up with something like Fang.

So, when the speaker of the House waded into a New Hampshire spring last weekend, a schoolteacher named Tom Kipp did what lots of folks would do.

He screamed epithets: “Your politics are some of the meanest politics I’ve ever heard of!” he bellowed. “You make Calvin Coolidge look like a liberal! … This guy is the most mean-spirited, vicious politician we’ve seen in a long, long time. The water we’re fishing in right now will be destroyed by his politics.”

Gingrich scrambled quickly to dry land and made a few nervous jokes about the spiciness of American democracy. But the speaker is a man with normal human emotions, and the waterside encounter had an impact.

Gingrich spent the rest of the day trying to appease the Tom Kipps of the world. He was smiling and soft-spoken and polite - like a timid visitor who makes his bed so as not to inconvenience the maids.

In fact, Nice Newt got downright syrupy at day’s end, when he and Bill Clinton conducted a “conversation” before a few dozen residents of a retirement home. The two men cooed at each other, fielded questions, talked too long - and then left.

The performance stunned conservatives, who didn’t expect Gingrich to behave oafishly toward the president but also didn’t expect him to behave like George Stephanopoulos. Right-wing pundits and activists hammered him for going so easy on the president.

Gingrich insisted defensively that his critics have it all wrong: He had acted like a cuddly bear but actually had debated like a shark.

Unfortunately, the score card tells a different tale.

Clinton assailed Republicans on tax cuts. Gingrich demurred.

The president chatted up nationalized health care without rebuttal.

The commander in chief called Republicans - the party that pushed through the North American Free Trade Agreement and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade - isolationists, and the speaker smiled broadly.

Wesley Pruden of the Washington Times called the debate a pillow fight, but it was worse than that. It was a flat-out bore - more like Alphonse and Gaston than Lincoln and Douglas.

Here were the highlights:

The Republican won a concession that Congress ought to reform Medicare - as if it takes skill to make Clinton adopt a position that earns audience applause. And Gingrich agreed to set up a blueribbon commission to study campaign finance reform.

Perhaps the speaker had some master plan in mind when he decided to turn into the Buddha of the GOP. Nobody else in America better understands the uses and importance of confrontation than Newt Gingrich, and nobody else in Washington has a better feel for tactics and strategy. Gingrich is, after all, a guy who managed, in his early Washington days, to embarrass previous House Speaker Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill Jr., D-Mass., and to unseat O’Neill’s successor, Jim Wright, D-Texas.

Gingrich was elected House minority whip in 1989 because Republicans knew he could pick and finish a fight, and he ascended to the speaker’s chair for the same reason.

In short, people revere Newt Gingrich because he has the guts to do outrageous things when most politicians won’t comb their hair without first consulting a pollster and a media consultant.

Hard differences are oxygen for a visionary politician. A great leader defines seminal issues, draws bright lines between himself (or herself) and the opposition and rallies people behind ideas that capture the ambitions of the era while also confronting common fears.

Furthermore, Americans seem much more interested in sharp-edged fellows such as Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh than in warmbucket-of-spit types who confuse imbecility with civility.

Yet, Newt Gingrich, presented with a chance to show that he has the Reaganlike combination of wit and conviction, behaved like a greeter at the local Lions Club. His later protestations aside, he said almost nothing of substance during his duet with Clinton, and he jettisoned his high-energy persona for something infinitely affable and bland.

Presidential ambitions sometimes do that to a man, which is why it was refreshing to hear the speaker say afterward that he intends to stay where he is in the House.

A domesticated Gingrich is a dull bird and not of much use when it comes to carrying out a revolution. American politics have enough dull, friendly guys.

Bag Nice Newt - and bring back Fang.

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