The controversy mushroomed as the 105th Congress is about to be seated, and as Democrats and Republicans are debating their tactical differences over how to carry out the next round of the rulers' assault on Social Security, Medicare, and other gains of working people.

The inquiry into Gingrich's affairs on charges he improperly used tax exempt funds for political purposes has been going on for months. It picked up steam during the 1996 election campaign, as Republicans abandoned the most draconian sections of their "Contract with America" - the drastic social cuts Gingrich and the Republican majority failed to push through Congress in 1995.

Leading up to the Republican takeover of the majority in the House of Representatives in 1994, Gingrich allegedly used funds from the tax exempt Abraham Lincoln Opportunity Foundation for television workshops aimed at recruiting conservative activists to his causes. The foundation was set up by Colorado Republicans supposedly to help poor children in urban areas.

On December 21, Gingrich acknowledged he had provided the House ethics committee with "inaccurate, incomplete and unreliable statements" about a course he taught at two colleges in Georgia, which promoted his right-wing views. At issue is whether he improperly used a tax exempt program to fund his election to Congress and push his partisan purposes, a charge Gingrich had denied until a week earlier.

A summary of an ethics committee report released the same date said that Gopac, a "political action committee" that Gingrich headed until 1994, had promoted the course, and that Gopac employees had raised funds for it - a possible violation of tax law.

In an essay in the December 26 New York Times, conservative columnist William Safire called on Gingrich to step aside and not stand for reelection as Speaker when Congress reconvenes on January 7. The question for Republican leaders, Safire said, is "who, as Speaker, can best balance the budget, deregulate the economy, get to the bottom of the Clinton scandals, and overhaul the tax system?...

"We see the G.O.P. weighed down by the albatross of ethical condemnation around this Speaker's neck."

On December 29, Republican Representative Michael Forbes of Long Island, New York, announced he would not support Gingrich's reelection as Speaker and echoed Safire's comments, indicating other Republicans may follow his lead.

Nearly 30 House Republicans have indicated they are not committed to electing Gingrich as Speaker. Twenty defections can cost the Georgia Congressman the top spot in the House.

At the same time, many Republican leaders went on the TV talk show circuit to demonstrate their support for Gingrich. The two Republicans on the House investigative subcommittee issued letters outlining their backing for his re-election.

Republicans face a dilemma since the House of Representatives is supposed to elect a Speaker January 7, but the ethics committee may not issue a report with its findings and possible recommendation for a sanction until January 21.

Nervousness among owners of capital
The scandal-mongering among capitalist politicians, which has focused on Gingrich for the moment, reflects the difficulties the U.S. rulers face in trying to reverse declining profit rates for big business that face stiffer competition from rivals in Europe, Asia, and Canada.

The more than 100-point drop in the Dow Jones industrial average as 1996 came to a close pointed to this lack of confidence among capitalist investors.

Gingrich had been the foremost proponent of the Contract With America and the so-called Republican revolution that aimed to push through sweeping assaults on social entitlements. Last year, the Republican leadership had to bury major parts of that program.

Instead, the approach of the Clinton administration won bipartisan backing. The Democratic White House succeeded in gutting welfare and passing a series of other antilabor and antidemocratic measures. Since his reelection to the presidency, Clinton has led in preparing new social cuts.

Both parties of big business are now getting their ducks in a row to launch the next wave of the employers assault on labor. Since November, the big-business media and most capitalist politicians have been campaigning on various schemes to cut federal retirement benefits, privatize Social Security, and cut Medicare, which provides health coverage for the elderly and disabled.

While there's bipartisan agreement on this fundamental course, tactical differences over the pace and extent of the assault remain, which is what the Gingrich controversy is all about. That's why Rep. Forbes accused Gingrich of going "underground" over the last year because of the ethics charges. "We need leadership that will not be cowering, contrite or hiding from the media so we can aggressively pursue a balanced budget and tax reform," he said.

Corruption and moral decay are endemic to all capitalist regimes. But during a period of steady economic decline, such "revelations" become a permanent feature of bourgeois politics.

Simultaneously with the dispute over Gingrich's future, new charges of financial misconduct by government officials connected to the Clinton administration have emerged. In the latest case, the Democratic National Committee announced it had returned $640,000 in possibly improper funds raised for the president's legal defense by Yah Lin Trie. A businessman who has worked with Clinton for years, Trie was appointed to the commission on trade with Asia weeks after delivering the funds.

Adding to the administration woes, White House counsel John Quinn announced he was quitting in mid-December. Quinn is the fourth counsel in as many years to leave the administration. He said the reason was purely financial; his $125,000 annual salary was too tight.  
 
 
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