ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times

DATE: Monday, December 18, 1995              TAG: 9512180109
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-5  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press 

GINGRICH IS TIME'S MAN OF YEAR

House Speaker Newt Gingrich, whose energy and political talent drove Republicans' efforts to remake the federal government, was named Time's 1995 Man of the Year.

``Not so long ago, the idea of a balanced budget was a marginal, we'll-get-to-it-someday priority,'' the magazine says in its year-end issue. ``Today, because of Newt Gingrich, the question is not whether a balanced-budget plan will come to pass, but when.''

Yet, less than a year after he orchestrated Republicans' first takeover of Congress in 40 years, Gingrich also ``has become the greatest liability to the revolution he launched,'' the magazine says. Under an ethics cloud for the dealings of a political action committee he once headed, Gingrich is viewed as too abrasive and uncaring by many Americans and his approval ratings have sunk steadily over the past few months, the magazine says.

Time's latest poll, in today's issue, indicates 72 percent of Americans think Gingrich is intelligent and 47 percent think he has vision for the future. But 63 percent say he is too extreme in his views, 56 percent say they don't like him, and 80 percent say they do not want a ``President Gingrich.''

LENGTH: Short :   35 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  AP. Time said Gingrich's ``rise and partial fall'' are 
          part of a historic political shift that will be felt for 
          generations.