Ethics Fine Puts Gingrich On the Dole By Richard Craig April 18, 1997

That Bob Dole sure is one fine friend.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich, fined $300,000 for ethics violations, has graciously accepted Dole's offer to personally loan him the money to cover the damages. Wouldn't it be nice if we all had a pal who could bail us out of jams of this magnitude?

But Gingrich insists that by borrowing the money from Big Brother Bob, he's doing the country a favor. By cozying up to Dole, Gingrich can avoid using campaign funds to pay the fine. As he said in his press conference, he believes that this shows mainstream America that he's "taking responsibility" for his actions.

This may be true, but since when does "taking responsibility" involve hiding behind Dole? Granted, the two have publicly outlined the degree to which their agreement is just like a bank loan. The problem is that this type of Washington agreement usually starts out with great fanfare and is kept up for a short time, and then "taken care of" quietly with some sort of deal involving party operatives once the spotlight is turned off.

In the real world outside the Beltway, people can't do this. Banks that loan money do not routinely look the other way after a few months of payments. If Gingrich had really wanted to make a statement, why didn't he take out a loan from a bank just like anyone else? Granted, it's a large amount of money, but if the Speaker of the House can't get approval for a loan, either (a) the banks in this country have gotten ridiculously stingy, or (b) we really aren't paying these people enough. Rather than looking "responsible," taking the money from Dole looks like just another act of political log-rolling.

Here again we're talking about how something looks. This case proves once more that in Washington, where the news media reign supreme, facts often matter less than appearances. An agreement such as this one is probably better off unpublicized, but from Gingrich's point of view, why blow a chance to stage a media event that makes you out to be a crusader on behalf of fairer government? Never mind the fact that this whole affair is based on a fine for misbehavior and disregard for ethics. He's a crusading, repentant ethics-violator now.

There has predictably been some Democratic criticism on Capitol Hill, but you won't hear any of it coming from the White House. The Clinton Administration has not uttered a peep of complaint about this, given its own problems with money in recent months. In a way, this affair gets them off the hook for a while in the public eye, and provides fodder for fending off possible future Republican attacks. But it doesn't mean the Clintonistas should get too cocky. Janet Reno continues to take plenty of heat for her refusal to appoint a special prosecutor on the Clinton fund-raising fiasco.

Personally, I don't really care how Gingrich pays his fine. He can cut a deal with Bob Dole or Jesse Helms or Krusty the Clown or whomever he wants. He can even pay it off with campaign money for all I care. I just want Gingrich to have to answer to the same unforgiving loan officer as the rest of us. I want to see the look on his face when he tries to explain that this month's payment was late because he was on a fund-raising tour and missed a connector flight. I want the high and mighty Newt to wear the same look of helplessness. That's all I ask.

Of course, what's more likely is that Gingrich will take the Dole way out when he retires and do TV ads. And if there really is poetic justice, the ad will depict Gingrich asking Dole if he'll take a check, to which Dole will respond, "Sure! I just need to see some I.D. ..."

©1997 Richard Craig. All rights reserved.

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