November 16, 1995: The Gingrich Tantrum

November 16, 1995: President Bill Clinton's victory in the federal government shutdown is sealed when the New York Daily News prints a front-page cartoon, showing the Speaker of the House, and the leader of the Republican Party's move to make drastic cuts in the federal budget, as a "cry baby."

After the failure of his health care initiative in 1994, Clinton saw his Democratic Party battered in the midterm elections, with the Republicans taking both houses of Congress. Bob Dole, from Russell, Kansas, regained the office of Senate Majority Leader that he had held in 1985 and 1986, having been the Minority Leader from 1987 to 1994.

And Gingrich, a Pennsylvania native who moved to the Atlanta suburb of Marietta, Georgia to teach at a college, and was first elected to Congress in 1978 and used fiery rhetoric to get into the Republican Party's leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1989, became the Speaker of the House.

Dole was considered mean, a reputation he got in his 1976 Vice Presidential debate with Walter Mondale, and deepened in his 1988 Presidential run. But, politically speaking, he was still a center-right candidate, willing to compromise for the greater good of the country. Gingrich was not: He was frequently called a "firebrand" and a "bombthrower."

Like most politicians, especially Republicans, he wanted to balance the federal budget. But his plan severely cut social services -- and also seriously cut taxes, especially on the wealthy. This didn't work when Ronald Reagan was President in the 1980s, and actually created the harsh economic conditions that led to Clinton's election in 1992. As we have since seen, it didn't work in 2001, and it didn't work in 2017. It would not have worked in 1995.

Every year, the federal budget takes effect on October 1. To put it another way: "Fiscal Year 1996" ran from October 1, 1995 to September 30, 1996. If no deal between Congress and the President is in place by October 1, they can pass a "continuing resolution," or "CR": For the length of the resolution, the proportions of the previous fiscal year continue.

But Clinton and the Republicans controlling Congress couldn't reach a deal by September 30. So they passed a CR that ran until November 13. But the Republicans refused to pass a new budget or a new CR by November 14. So, at 12:00 Midnight on November 13, the federal government shut down, because it was not legally permitted to spend any more money. People were still working for it, but without pay.

And the Republicans went before the media and said it was Clinton's fault. Except Clinton also went before the media, and pointed out that he was still willing to make a deal, and the Republicans weren't. Finally, he called Dole and Gingrich into the Oval Office. So often willing to compromise on things, seemingly desperate to get re-elected, not wanting to be a one-term President like 3 of the last 4 (Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and George H.W. Bush), but angering many in his own party, Clinton stiffened his spine, and told them, "I don't care if I go down to 5 percent in the polls. If you want that budget signed into law, you're going to have to get somebody else behind this desk."

For once, Clinton held his ground. And polls showed that more people supported his stance than the Republicans' stance. Once the Daily News printed that front page, and blow-ups of it were displayed on the floor of the very House of which Gingrich was Speaker -- by a Representative from Brooklyn, later to be Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer -- their approval rating plummeted. It has never again reached its 1995 height.

Clinton had invited Dole and Gingrich to go with him to the funeral of the assassinated Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin -- certainly, a gesture of respect, if not reconciliation. But the article accompanying the cartoon alleged that, on the flight back, Gingrich wanted to talk about the budget impasse, Clinton didn't, and Clinton made Gingrich get off Air Force One at the back entrance, and Gingrich got upset about these developments.

As comedian Dick Gregory told Clinton at an NAACP convention the following year, "He got upset because you made him a Negro!" Everybody in the audience laughed at the reference to black people being segregated to the backs of buses up until 1955. Clinton couldn't have made that joke himself, but Gregory could.

Did Clinton "make" Gingrich get off at the back of the plane? Was it true? Only Clinton and Gingrich know for sure. The problem was, given Gingrich's own actions over the 17 years he'd served in Congress to that point, the story was completely believable. He had lived by the persona of a guy who tapped into people's emotions, and now, politically, he was dying by them.

Leading an opposition and leading a majority are two very different things, and while some skills cross over, some do not. Gingrich's tantrums had worked pretty well when he was in the opposition to House Democrats like his predecessors as Speaker, Jim Wright of Texas and Tom Foley of Washington State. They did not work when he had a position of power, and they certainly didn't work against a political talent like Clinton. It was like, "Welcome to the major leagues, Newt."

That front page became the Daily News' 2nd-best-known ever, trailing only the October 30, 1975 front page concerning another budget mess, that of New York City, when President Gerald Ford refused to use federal money to bail the City out. The News' front page read, "FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD." That headline probably cost Ford the State of New York in the 1976 election, and thus the election itself. Having brought down a President, now, 20 years later, the News was bringing down a Speaker. Not yet, though: Time magazine would name Gingrich its Man of the Year for 1995.

Finally, on November 19, the Republicans caved. And when the general election campaign got underway, the Democrats aired commercials showing Dole and Gingrich together so many times, it began to look like Gingrich was Dole's running mate, instead of his actual choice, Jack Kemp, former pro quarterback and Congressman from New York.

Once the Democrats had their convention, Clinton and his running mate, Vice President Al Gore, solidified their lead, and Dole and Kemp never really challenged them. Dole didn't run a bad campaign, but once Clinton won the battle over the budget, Dole never had a chance, unless there was a new "Clinton scandal" bigger than anything that had happened to that point.

What no one yet knew was that the government shutdown, at the same time that it was securing Clinton's win, was also setting the stage for such a scandal: Among the volunteers working in the White House during the government shutdown was a young woman named Monica Lewinsky.

But the public's backlash against the Republicans' effort to impeach Clinton led to the Democrats gaining seats in the 1998 Congressional elections. Gingrich's marital infidelities had been at least as notorious as Clinton's, and the Republicans didn't care. But now, they cared: To the conservative movement, everything is acceptable except losing, and Gingrich was forced to step down, not just from the Speakership but from Congress.

*

November 16, 1995 was a Thursday. The baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. There were 5 games played in the NBA that night:

* The New York Knicks beat the Golden State Warriors, 120-97 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

* The Orlando Magic beat the Indiana Pacers, 89-80 at the Orlando Arena.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 115-87 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. Robert Horry led all NBA players on the night, with 40 points.

* The Los Angeles Clippers beat the expansion Vancouver Grizzlies, 103-98 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. (The Grizzlies moved to Memphis in 2001.)

* And the Sacramento Kings beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 105-102 at the Rose Garden in Portland. (It's now named the Moda Center.)

There were 7 games played in the NHL, and all 3 of the New York Tri-State Area teams were in action:

* The New Jersey Devils, the Stanley Cup holders, played the Boston Bruins to a tie, 2-2 at the new FleetCenter in Boston. (It's now named the TD Garden.) The Meadowlands Marauders came from 2-0 down in the 3rd period, to salvage a point thanks to goals from Ricard Persson and Valeri Zelepukin.

* The New York Rangers weren't so lucky: They lost to the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-1 at the United Center in Chicago.

* The New York Islanders weren't even that lucky: They lost to the Los Angeles Kings, 9-2 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Wayne Gretzky only got 1 of the Kings' goals.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Ottawa Senators, 5-3 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 5-4 at the ThunderDome in St. Petersburg, Florida. (It's now named Tropicana Field. The following season, the Lightning moved into what's now named the Amalie Arena.) Former Islander Benoit Hogue scored the winner, just 32 seconds into overtime.

* The Florida Panthers and the Vancouver Canucks played to a tie, 2-2 at the Miami Arena.

* And the St. Louis Blues beat the San Jose Sharks, 3-1 at the Kiel Center in St. Louis. (It's now named the Enterprise Center.) 

November 8, 1994: The Gingrich Revolution

November 8, 1994: Election Day is a repudiation of the Democratic Party, in particular of President Bill Clinton, his now-withdrawn health care reform plan, and his Assault Weapons Ban. The Republican Party gains 52 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, giving them control of that body for the 1st time in 40 years, and making Newt Gingrich of Georgia the Speaker. It also gains 9 seats in the U.S. Senate, giving them control of that body for the 1st time in 8 years, returning Bob Dole of Kansas to the office of Senate Majority Leader.

In New York State, Mario Cuomo is defeated for a 4th term as Governor by Peekskill Mayor George Pataki. In Texas, George W. Bush, son of the most recent Republican President, is elected Governor, defeating the State's 1st female Governor, Ann Richards. Bush's brother, John Ellis "Jeb" Bush, narrowly loses to Governor Lawton Chiles of Florida. I suspect that, had it not been for the Savings & Loan Scandal, another brother, Neil Bush, would have run for Governor of Colorado.

Among the new Republicans elected to the Senate: Bill Frist of Tennessee, later the Senate Majority Leader; Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, who ran for President in 2012 and 2016; Mike DeWine of Ohio, later elected Governor; and Representative Olympia Snowe of Maine, who was married to John "Jock" McKernan, then wrapping up his 2nd and last term as Governor.

In addition, Senators Richard Shelby of Alabama and Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado switched parties to become Republicans. Shelby had previously called himself "the most conservative member of the Senate"; and Campbell, then the only Native American in either house of Congress (a member of the Cheyenne tribe), was more of a Western libertarian than a traditional conservative, but favored gun rights. So neither switch was a big surprise, although they didn't exactly show courage by jumping ship after the election.

Gingrich knew that it wasn't enough to be against Clinton, or against Democrats in general: You had to give the voters something to vote for. He had a 10-point "Contract With America," which includes some reforms of Congress itself, including some items that Democrats were willing to work with them to pass, if with some minor adjustments. But some were drastic, and opposed by most Americans.

The backlash that hit him even before he could take office as Speaker led to him, with Christmas coming up, to being compared with two of the villains of pop-culture Christmas: Time compared him to Ebenezer Scrooge of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, while Newsweek compared him to the title character of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

As promised, all 10 items passed the House in the 1st 100 days of Republican control. And 9 of them passed the Senate. But some of these, including a radical reform of the nation's welfare laws, and a significant tax cut for the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans, were vetoed by Clinton.

The 1 item that passed the Senate, but not by enough, was an Amendment to the Constitution requiring that the federal budget be balanced. On its face, this seemed like a good idea. The devil was in the details: Because Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush had run the federal budget deficit so high in their 12 consecutive years in the White House, balancing the budget would have required significant spending cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, educational spending, and environmental spending. The Republicans were fine with all of that. But they weren't willing to cut spending on new military projects, and Clinton and the Democrats called them out on that.

In the end, requiring a 2/3rds "supermajority" of both houses on Congress -- 290 votes in the House, and 67 in the Senate, instead of a simple majority of 218 and 51, respectively -- the Amendment fell 1 vote short in the Senate.

One Republican voted against it: Mark Hatfield of Oregon. As a former Governor of a State whose budget was already constitutionally required to be balanced -- a lot easier, since States have far lesser, and lesser-ranging, expenses than the country at large, but by no means easy -- Hatfield understood that the Amendment would have been dangerous. It would have cast millions of people into poverty, made things worse for those already poor, and might even have killed people.

And so, the battle was on: Gingrich would lead a Congressional campaign for 1996 on a revised Contract with America, while Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas would be the Republican nominee for President, supporting it; and Clinton would run for re-election, calling the Republican proposal "the Contract On America," and making the increasingly unpopular Gingrich "Dole's running mate," no matter who Dole ultimately selected to be his Vice Presidential nominee. Gingrich's successes in early 1995 led Time magazine to name him its Man of the Year.

(Dole chose Jack Kemp, former pro quarterback, an 18-year Congressman where he became one of the champions of tax-cutters, an unsuccessful Presidential candidate in 1988, and President Bush's Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.)

In the end, Clinton was re-elected solidly over Dole, but the Democrats were unable to take back either house of Congress. Over the course of his 2nd term, even as the Republicans tried to impeach Clinton over things that were none of their, or the American people's, concern, failing to get conviction and removal, they were forced to work with him. In 1997, the federal budget was balanced. Clinton, Gingrich, Dole, and Dole's successor as Senate Majority Leader, Trent Lott of Mississippi, could all legitimately claim some credit for that.

But the Republicans' effort to remove Clinton from office angered many Americans, and, incredibly unusual for a party in its 6th straight year of holding the White House, the Democrats actually gained seats in the 1998 Congressional election. Gingrich resigned later that week, pressured into it not because of his own personal and legal failings, in each case worse than Clinton's, but because he had failed as a leader. The conservative movement will accept anything except failure.

The evangelical takeover of the Republican Party became complete with the election of George W. Bush, son of the former President, in 2000. Like Richard Nixon before him, Gingrich bided his time, mended some fences, supported Republican candidates wherever he could, and built a new constituency. In 2008, Barack Obama was elected President, and Gingrich ran for the Republican nomination to beat him for re-election in 2012. He won some Primaries, but his personal scandals came back to haunt him, and he lost too many Primaries to continue.

At the age of 79, he is now seen as an elder statesman in the Party, but, as long as Donald Trump is its emotional leader, the last true "ideas man" in the Republican Party has no place in directing its course.

UPDATE: As of the 2024 election, no Republican freshman elected to the House in 1994 is still in it. But 2 Democrats elected then are: Zoe Lofgren of California and Lloyd Doggett of Texas. Roger Wicker was elected as a Republican from Mississippi, and was elected to the Senate in 2008, and still serves, making him the last remaining "Newtoid."

*

November 8, 1994 was a Tuesday. The baseball players were on strike, and the season would have been over by this point, anyway. The NHL players were locked out, meaning that 2 of the "Big Four" sports in North America were stopped cold due to management's unfairness to the players. And football was in midweek. But there were 5 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 117-113 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 100-98 at the Gund Arena (now the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse) in Cleveland.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 126-112 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan. Joe Dumars scored 40 points.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Dallas Mavericks, 115-107 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas. Jim Jackson scored 37 points for the Mavs, but the Nugs won thanks it part to 28 points from Rodney Rogers.

* And the Golden State Warriors beat the Miami Heat, 121-114 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

November 3, 1998: The Voters Tell the Republicans to Leave President Clinton Alone

November 3, 1998: The Republican Party was counting on this Election Day, to send a message to the leader of the Democratic Party, President Bill Clinton: Resign, because the people are against you. If you don't, we will impeach you in the U.S. House of Representatives, and convict you in a trial in the U.S. Senate.

There was reason to believe it would work out that way. Clinton had fallen into an ugly scandal, due to how he covered up his extramarital affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. They had spent almost the entire calendar year telling the country how the President was "immoral," while they, the Republicans -- the Party of Watergate and Iran-Contra -- stood for the Constitution of the United States and "the rule of law."

In addition, this was Year 6 of Clinton's Presidency. Off-year Congressional elections are usually bad for the Party in the White House, and Year 6 elections have, historically, been even worse than Year 2 elections. In the 20th Century, Year 6 elections were bad for Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938, for the Administration of FDR and Harry Truman in 1946 if you count FDR's 3rd election in 1940 as a restart, For Truman in 1950, for Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1958, for the Administration of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966, for the Administration of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford in 1974, and for Ronald Reagan in 1986.

So the idea that the Republicans, already in control of both houses of Congress, would increase their numbers at such a level to make it overwhelming for Clinton was strong.

Instead, the voters heard Clinton's self-defense -- claiming that it was a private matter, that no laws were broken, and that it was nobody's business but his and his family's -- and saw that Clinton was actually doing a very good job as President, and bucked the Year 6 trend. The Democrats actually gained 5 seats in the House, and broke even in the Senate.

Among the new Senators elected were Democrats Chuck Schumer of New York (a "promoted" Congressman who beat 3-term incumbent "Senator Pothole" Al D'Amato), Evan Bayh of Indiana (the outgoing Governor and the son of former Senator Birch Bayh) and John Edwards of North Carolina; and Republicans Jim Bunning of Kentucky (a promoted Congressman and a pitcher in the Baseball Hall of Fame) and George Voinovich of Ohio (a former Governor and Mayor of Cleveland).

This was a stunning result, and it sent a message not to the Democrats in general, or to Clinton in particular, but to the Republicans: The President is doing a great job, and his private life is just that, private, so leave him alone.

Did the Republicans listen? No: They doubled down, and impeached him, anyway. But they didn't come close to convicting him in the Senate, and he served out his term.

One other note: In Wisconsin, Republican Paul Ryan became the 1st person born after I was elected to Congress. The Republicans nominated him for Vice President under Mitt Romney in 2012, and in no way can Romney's loss be blamed on Ryan. He was Speaker of the House in the 2015-16 and 2017-18 terms, before resigning.

*

November 3, 1998 was, like all modern American Election Days, a Tuesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. And the NBA team owners had locked the players out, so the new season was not able to start on time.

There were 4 games in the NHL:

* The New Jersey Devils beat their arch-rivals, the New York Rangers, 3-1 at the Continental Airlines Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Boston Bruins, 4-2 at the Marine Midland Arena (now the KeyBank Center) in Buffalo.

* The Philadelphia Flyers and the Pittsburgh Penguins, intra-State rivals, played to a tie, 4-4 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* And the Calgary Flames beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-2 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

May 31, 1989: The Fall of Speaker Jim Wright

May 31, 1989: The Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Jim Wright of Texas, resigns his post, which he had held for the last 2 years. He also resigns the seat in Congress, representing Fort Worth, Texas, to which he was first elected in 1954. The reason? He used bulk purchases of his book, Reflections of a Public Man, to earn speaking fees in excess of the maximum amount allowed by a Congressional ethics resolution.

That's it. No actual crime. Nobody died. Nobody got hurt. Nobody's rights -- civil or human -- were violated. As he admitted in his resignation speech: "Have I made mistakes? Oh, yeah, I've made a lot of mistakes, mistakes in judgement." But, apparently, some people thought he had to resign over it.

Leading the charge against Wright and his ethics violations was a feisty young Republican Congressman, originally from Pennsylvania, but representing a district in Georgia. His name was Newt Gingrich, and he, too, would become Speaker... and have to resign, in part due to ethics violations, including (but hardly limited to) using his position to increase sales of a video class he was "teaching," an up-to-date version of the very thing he used to tar Wright as "the least ethical Speaker of the House in the nation's history." He wasn't, but Gingrich was.

Gingrich would be succeeded as Speaker in 1999 by Dennis Hastert, Republican of Illinois. He resigned after the Republicans lost the majority in the 2006 elections. He would later go to prison for what would once have been quaintly called morals charges.

He was succeeded as the Republicans' House Leader by John Boehner of Ohio. He became Speaker after the election of 2010. He resigned in 2015, not because he'd done anything illegal (that we knew of), but because he'd lost control of his own caucus.

He was succeeded as the Republicans' House Leader, and as Speaker, by Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, who had been the Republican nominee for Vice President in 2012, under Presidential nominee Mitt Romney. He decided not to run for re-election in 2018, not because he'd done anything illegal (that we knew of), but because he thought his Party would lose control of Congress -- correctly, as it turned out. He was succeeded as the Republicans' House Leader by Kevin McCarthy of California.

UPDATE: When the Republicans regained the majority in 2022, it took 15 votes of their caucus to confirm McCarthy as Speaker, and he got forced out after only 9 months, in favor of Mike Johnson of Louisiana.

Wright doesn't sound so bad now, does he? He would go on to write more books, and teach at Texas Christian University in his native Fort Worth. In 2014, at the age of 91, he was denied the right to vote in a local election, because of the unconstitutional voter-ID law that the Tea Party-dominated Texas legislature had passed. He died the next year, one of the last surviving people to have been in the motorcade through Dallas when President Kennedy was killed half a century ago.

*

May 31, 1989 was a Wednesday. German soccer star Marco Reus was born.

Football was out of season. The NHL season had ended 5 days before, when the Calgary Flames won the Stanley Cup, beating the Montreal Canadiens in the Finals. The NBA Playoffs were in the Conference Finals. The Detroit Pistons beat the Chicago Bulls, 94-85 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan. The Los Angeles Lakers had already completed a sweep of the Phoenix Suns. In the Finals, the Pistons swept the Lakers.

And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Seattle Mariners, 9-5 at Yankee Stadium. Andy Hawkins, not yet a Yankee washout, outpitched Steve Trout, former Yankee washout. Both had previously been effective pitchers for other teams.

Don Mattingly went 4-for-5 with a home run and 3 RBIs. Rickey Henderson went 1-for-2 with 3 walks and 3 stolen bases. Dave Winfield missed the entire season due to a back injury. Rookie Ken Griffey Jr. went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

* The New York Mets beat the San Francisco Giants, 3-1 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Chris Speier not only went 0-for-5 for the Giants, but his mishandling of a Mookie Wilson grounder in the top of the 10th inning allowed Keith Miller and Kevin Elster to score the winning runs. This made Randy Myers, despite a blown save, the winning pitcher, in relief of Bob Ojeda.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Oakland Athletics, 4-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Dave Parker hit a home run to put the A's ahead in the top of the 10th inning. But in the bottom of the 10th, the Sox tied it, and then former Yankee catcher Rick Cerone singled Ellis Burks home with the winning run.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Texas Rangers, 8-5 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Cal Ripken went 1-for-4 with a walk and an RBI.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Chicago Cubs, 3-2 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-3 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Barry Bonds went 3-for-4 with a home run and 2 RBIs.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 7-4 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-3 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the California Angels, 4-1 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Robin Yount went 0-for-1 with 3 walks. Paul Molitor went 2-for-3.

* The Houston Astros beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-3 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Minnesota Twins were leading the Kansas City Royals, 7-1 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City, when the umpires stopped the game due to rain. The game was called, making the Twins the winners. George Brett did not play.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Tony Gwynn went 1-for-3 with an RBI.

* And the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Montreal Expos, 9-4 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

April 7, 1995: The Republicans' Contract With America

April 7, 1995: Not quite 100 days -- 94, to be exact -- into Republican control of Congress, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich, Republican of Georgia, asks the major TV networks for time to discuss his Party's newly-implemented "Contract With America" -- as if he were the President, addressing the nation from the Oval Office of the White House.

They gave him the time. The photo above shows Gingrich at the Speaker's Chair in the House of Representatives chamber, in front of an American Flag. His actual speech was in the Speaker's office in the U.S. Capitol Building, although he did have gold curtains flanking an open window, as the Oval Office often has.

During the midterm election campaign in the preceding Summer and Autumn, Gingrich had promised to bring 10 bills to the House floor for a vote -- not that they would become law, not even that they would pass the House, just that they would come to a vote. He called it "The Contract With America." It worked: The Republicans gained control of both houses of Congress, and nearly every member, newly-elected or re-elected, who was no better than a toss-up to win when calendar year 1994 began now owed Gingrich his job, and, therefore, his loyalty.

So, all 10 bills did pass the House. Some turned out to be inconsequential, mere feel-good items, meaning more to the Republican Congressmen than to the American people. A couple were signed into law by President Bill Clinton. Clinton also vetoed a couple. Some were stopped in the Senate, or amended to the point where they no longer resembled the sweeping legislation that Gingrich conceived of them as being.

Most notable was an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, requiring a balanced federal budget. And, since Gingrich insisted on tax cuts for the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans, and refused to cut spending on the U.S. Department of Defense, a balanced budget would have required deep cuts in spending on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, education and environmental protection -- things that angered many middle-of-the-road Americans.

The proposed Amendment got the necessary 2/3rds supermajority in the House (290 votes, instead of the usual majority of 218), but failed by 1 vote in the Senate (getting 66 out of 67, rather than the usual majority of 51). Had it gotten the 67th vote, it then would have gone to the States: A majority vote for it in three-quarters of their legislatures, 38 out of 50, would have made it a part of the Constitution of the United States.

That 1 Senate vote to stop it came from Mark Hatfield, Republican of Oregon. A former Governor, he knew how hard it is to balance a budget, even when you don't have to protect things like Social Security. The conservative movement vowed to run a candidate much to his right in the next Primary. Instead, he retired, and the seat has been held by Democrat Ron Wyden ever since.

The most significant part of what Clinton called "the Contract On America" was a budget with deep cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. He vowed to veto it, and he did, leading to an epic showdown in the Autumn of 1995. Between that, and the Balanced Budget Amendment, the Contract has to be viewed, then as now, as a disappointment at best, and a failure at most.

By airing print and TV ads making it look as though the Republican nominee for President, outgoing Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas, had made Gingrich, rather than former Congressman and football player Jack Kemp, his running mate, Clinton was easily re-elected in 1996. But it was a personal victory, without enough "coattails" to win back a majority in either house of Congress.

In 1997, Clinton, Gingrich, and the new Senate Majority Leader, Trent Lott of Mississippi, negotiated a balanced budget, one based on the economic growth brought about by Clinton's 1993 tax increase and a streamlining of the Department of Defense, and so the social-spending cuts weren't necessary.

By the end of the 2000s, thanks to the Republicans controlling the Presidency and the Congress for most of the decade, the budget deficit was high enough to make Gingrich -- and Ronald Reagan -- look like actual fiscal conservatives. It has begun to come down again because a liberal Democratic President named Barack Obama got things under control.

And Gingrich? After resigning not just as Speaker, but from Congress completely, in disgrace in 1998, he returned to the public eye by running for President in 2012, and made a big fool of himself all over again. He has often claimed to be a historian, but instead of becoming what he called "a transitional figure in history," he'd probably be better off if history just plain forgot him. Don't bet on it.

*

April 7, 1995 was a Friday. Baseball was in Spring Training, delayed due to the resolution of the Strike of '94. Football was out of season. There were 9 games in the NBA:

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Milwaukee Bucks, 107-92 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.

* The Boston Celtics beat their arch-rivals, the Philadelphia 76ers, 91-81 at the Boston Garden.

* The Charlotte Hornets beat the Washington Bullets, 98-93 at the USAir Arena (formerly the Capital Centre) in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Indiana Pacers, 102-90 at The Omni in Atlanta.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Orlando Magic, 104-94 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 97-88 at the United Center in Chicago.

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 111-94 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Utah Jazz, 113-90 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Cedric Ceballos led all scorers on the night with 36 points.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Houston Rockets, 127-109 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

And there were 6 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat their arch-rivals, the New York Rangers, 4-3 at Madison Square Garden.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Detroit Red Wigs beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Vancouver Canucks, 7-4 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* The Calgary Flames beat the Los Angeles Kings at the Saddledome in Calgary.

* The Dallas Stars beat the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, 2-0 at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim (now the Honda Center).

* And the San Jose Sharks beat the Edmonton Oilers, 5-0 at the San Jose Arena (now the SAP Center).

January 21, 1998: The Clinton-Lewinsky Scandal Begins

January 21, 1998: The Washington Post prints a story that, from late 1995 to early 1997, President Bill Clinton had an affair with Monica Lewinsky, a former White House intern, 22 years old at the time it began, and used the power of his office to cover it up, in the hope the general public wouldn't find out.

Five days later, after many calls for his resignation or impeachment, Clinton made a very firm denial: "I want to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never asked anybody to lie, not a single time, never. These allegations are false, and I need to get back to work for the American people."

Nevertheless, Kenneth Starr, who had been appointed as a Special Prosecutor to investigate Clinton's pre-Presidential activities in the Whitewater housing development in his native Arkansas, had expanded his investigation into Clinton's personal life, which was, by the definition of his office, none of his damn business.

He seemed particularly interested in a charge of sexual harassment made by an Arkansas woman, Paula Jones. One thing led to another, and Lewinsky's name came up. Ironically, part of the charge Jones made was that Clinton's dick had what was listed in Starr's report as "a distinguishing characteristic." Lewinsky never mentioned it. Therefore, either she forgot a detail that would have enhanced her credibility, or she was lying, or said characteristic did not exist, which would mean that Jones was lying. By definition, Jones and Lewinsky could not have both been telling the truth. Of course, that also meant that one of them was.

Five days after the scandal broke, on January 26, Clinton gives a press conference in preparation for the next day’s State of the Union Address. That morning’s Washington Post included a column by James Glassman – “Liberal media”? Yeah, surrrre – recommending that Clinton begin the speech with, “My fellow Americans: The State of our Union is strong, but the state of the Presidency is not,” and resign.

He would have none of it, and angrily denied not only the nature of the relationship, but also the most serious of charges, the one that actually could have ended his Presidency before the 2-term limit had it been true. Wagging his finger at the media, and pounding his fist on the podium at the same time, he said:

I want to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never asked anybody to lie. Not a single time. Never. And I have to get back to work for the American people.

It was about as believable as Richard Nixon's 1973 statement, "I am not a crook." About 24 hours later, interviewed on The Today Show on NBC, First Lady Hillary Clinton said, "There is this vast right-wing conspiracy that is out to get my husband." And, 13 hours after that, the President delivered the State of the Union as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening, and the Democrats in the House chamber cheered him on the same way.

On April 1, Jones' lawsuit against Clinton was thrown out of court. Therefore, legally, any court development from it was inadmissible in court. Therefore, legally, Starr could not continue. So even if Clinton was guilty of every crime Starr could even remotely justify, Clinton couldn't be charged. If Starr had gone forward, it would have been judicial misconduct, and grounds for disbarment.

Starr didn't care. He went forward. On August 17, he forced Clinton to testify, and Clinton had to admit that he did have an affair with Lewinsky. And on September 21, Starr presented his report to Congress, complete with the video of Clinton's testimony, which Congress, controlled by the Republican Party, released to the public.

They did this to embarrass Clinton, in the hopes of shaming him into resigning; or, failing that, making him so repulsive to the American people that, in the Congressional elections of November 3, they overwhelmingly voted Republican, making his impeachment and removal a near-certainty.

The American people were repulsed, all right -- by the Republicans' efforts to make Clinton's life miserable. And they were impressed by the fact that, through the entire scandal, he kept right on governing, making the American economy grow, and even doing something no President had done since Lyndon Johnson, 30 years earlier: He balanced the federal budget.

On Election Day, the Democratic Party gained 5 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, and broke even in the U.S. Senate. Someone did resign in shame: Newt Gingrich, the Georgia Republican who was Speaker of the House. Privately, it was known that Gingrich had had his own affairs, including originating the legal idea that oral sex was not "sexual relations." He should have filed that under, "Don't give them any ideas."

The House impeached Clinton anyway, on December 19, on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. A real court would have thrown those charges out immediately, because there was no admissible evidence for them. Even the evidence that did exist was ridiculous.

But the U.S. Senate is not a real court, and an Impeachment Trial is not a real trial. In the end, despite the Republicans having a 55-45 majority, they could not get a true majority, 51 members, to admit that Clinton was guilty of either charge, much less the 2/3rds majority, 67 Senators, necessary to convict him and remove him from the office. He was acquitted of both charges on February 12, 1999, and served out the last 2 years of his Administration.

Late in the 2016 Presidential campaign, in which Hillary was running against Donald Trump, an audiotape was released in which Trump confessed to multiple sexual assaults, something far worse. It didn’t end his chance of becoming President. In 2018, it was revealed that Trump had an affair with a stripper, using the stage name Stormy Daniels, and paid her $130,000 in hush money. And not one “family values” or “evangelical” Republican has demanded his resignation, or his impeachment and removal.

Somebody said that Trump paid $130,000, and Bill Clinton got what he wanted for free, so not only is he the better President, but he's the better businessman.

Lewinsky became a psychologist and an anti-bullying activist, especially opposing cyberbullying. She never called for Donald Trump, who has been proven to have done far worse than Clinton, to face the same kind of scrutiny. But at least she hasn't publicly supported Trump, who is not only a confessed sexual assaulter, but the ultimate bully, cyber- and otherwise.

In contrast, Paula Jones and other some women who had accused Clinton, without proof, have supported Trump. As a result, I have no sympathy for any of them -- and still wouldn't if I believed their claims against Clinton.

In hindsight, Clinton should have come clean immediately. He should have told Starr about the "affair," but also that he hadn't broken any laws in the process. Then he should have told the American people the same thing.

There would have been nothing to impeach him for, he would have survived it, it would have been over faster, and Vice President Gore would have been able to ignore it in his 2000 run, and run as "Bill Clinton's 3rd term" instead of as "Al Gore's 1st term."

Gore would have won, he would have paid attention to a key intelligence briefing, the 9/11 attacks would have been prevented, there would have been no Iraq War, he probably would have been re-elected, he would have replaced William Rehnquist and Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court (meaning no John Roberts and no Samuel Alito), and while there might have been a recession at the end of his 2nd term in 2008, there wouldn't have been a crash.

But Clinton didn’t want people to know about the affair, and so he covered it up, and he nearly lost everything. In the end, the winners were both Clintons, Dennis Hastert and George W. Bush; while the losers were Starr, Lewinsky, Newt Gingrich and Gore.

And, of course, even if Clinton were guilty of everything he was accused of in this case, he would still have been less worthy of impeachment and removal than was Trump, 20 years later.

Because, 18 years after the Lewinsky scandal, the "vast right-wing conspiracy" against Bill that Hillary exposed, having significantly deepened, finally got its revenge: They couldn't get it on him, so they got it on her.

*

January 21, 1998 was a Wednesday. It was the off-season for baseball. Super Bowl XXXII was played the following Sunday, and the Denver Broncos beat the Green Bay Packers, 31-24. But there were 12 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Indiana Pacers, 97-89 at Madison Square Garden. Reggie Miller scored 21, and no Knick scored more than John Starks' 17, but the Knicks still won.

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Houston Rockets, 117-112 in overtime at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands. Jayson Williams led the Nets with 25 points, while Clyde Drexler scored 28 in defeat for the Rockets.

* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Washington Wizards, 100-87 at the MCI Center in Washington (now the Capital One Arena).

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Orlando Magic, 91-84 at the Orlando Arena.

* The Miami Heat beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 92-87 at the Miami Arena.

* The Toronto Raptors beat the Sacramento Kings, 99-98 at the SkyDome in Toronto (now the Rogers Centre).

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Charlotte Hornets, 110-79 at the United Center in Chicago. Michael Jordan scored 33 points.

* The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Boston Celtics, 104-95 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Atlanta Hawks, 90-76 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Denver Nuggets, 87-67 at the McNichols Arena in Denver.

* The Utah Jazz beat the Golden State Warriors, 98-85 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Phoenix Suns, 119-109 at the AmericaWest Arena in Phoenix (now the Mortgage Matchup Center). Shaquille O'Neal scored 26, and Kobe Bryant scored 25.

There were 8 games played in the NHL that day, none of them involving any of the teams in the New York Tri-State Area:

* In "Original Six" matchup, the Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins, 4-2 at the Molson Centre in Montreal (now the Bell Centre).

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 2-1 at the Marine Midland Arena in Buffalo (now the KeyBank Center).

* In another Original Six matchup, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Detroit Red Wings, 3-0 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 3-2 at the Ice Palace in Tampa (now the Benchmark International Arena). This was the only game on the day that went to overtime, and Kelly Miller won it for the Caps, with 2:28 left before it would have been a tie. (No shootouts at the time.)

* The Dallas Stars beat the Colorado Avalanche, 3-2 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.

* The team then known as the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim beat the Florida Panthers, 8-3 at the Arrowhead Pond (now named the Honda Center) in the Los Angeles suburb of Anaheim, California.

* The San Jose Sharks beat the Calgary Flames, 7-1 at the San Jose Arena (now the SAP Center).

* And the team then known as the Phoenix Coyotes beat the Vancouver Canucks, 6-1 at General Motors Place in Vancouver (now the Rogers Arena).