ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 14, 1996 TAG: 9602140030
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Cal Thomas
SOURCE: CAL THOMAS
WHILE MUCH of the public and all of the press are focused on who the Republicans will eventually pick to run against Bill Clinton, the speaker of the House is spending 10 days in Tampa with a small group of strategists drawing up plans for a GOP victory in November.
Seated next to me for two hours on a plane ride from Washington to Atlanta last week, Newt Gingrich took out three sheets of paper and outlined a strategy that, he said, will be refined and then implemented beginning in late March or early April.
Bill Clinton ``is the most enthusiastically dishonest politician ever to occupy the White House, [and] no Republican who is harnessed to the burden of truth can verbally match him,'' noted Gingrich. So the speaker believes Clinton must be ``ruthlessly defined'' by a Republican team that will draw on polls showing a new ``values majority'' and paint the president as the chief opponent to those values.
Since 1968, this values majority has split, with roughly 30 percent going to the liberal candidate and 70 percent to the conservative candidate. In addition, he said, there is an ``emerging dissatisfied-customer majority,'' which is reflected in a February Reader's Digest survey that found 68 percent believing they are overtaxed. And, according to a USA Today poll, 71 percent of baby boomers and 70 percent of Generation Xers believe they will receive little or no Social Security. This opens an opportunity for Republicans, said Gingrich, to paint ``the Clinton liberals as a unionized, bureaucratic, Washington government that doesn't deliver.''
The chart Gingrich drew for me has the ``Clinton liberals'' appropriately on the left and ``the rest of us'' on the right. The Clinton liberals are centralized in Washington. The rest of us are back home with our families, relating better to local government and local leaders. The Clinton liberals believe in ``compassionate bureaucracy.'' The rest of us believe in a compassionate society filled with good people. ``Our models are Alexis de Tocqueville and Marvin Olasky,'' says Gingrich. ``We are going to redefine compassion and take it back.''
The Clinton liberals, he continued, desire to maintain programs that mire people in poverty, ignorance, addiction, alcoholism and entitlements. The rest of us want to liberate people from these things to self-reliance, responsibility, productivity, achievement and the pursuit of happiness. The Clinton liberals believe in a secular, multicultural, situation-ethics, ``who are we to judge,'' multilingual, ``just say maybe to drugs'' society. The rest of us believe in a Creator, truth, American civilization, character and just saying no to drugs.
Finally, Gingrich said, the Clinton liberals believe in higher taxes to pay off the union political agenda and federal bureaucracy on the taxpayer's credit card. The rest of us want lower taxes, lower interest rates, more take-home pay, more profitable savings, more jobs and a leaner decentralized government. Gingrich said a major GOP theme this fall will be ``Clinton's 3 C's: cronies, corruption and cover-up.''
Gingrich said if the Republican presidential nominee tries to battle Clinton one-on-one, ``we lose.'' But, he believes, if a team of Republicans blankets the country with these themes, noting the distinctions between the president and the Republican team (and, said Gingrich, Republicans must run as a team), ``we win decisively.''
Isn't he worried that telling me of his plan will allow the Clinton team to mount a defense against it? Not really. ``It's like the old Green Bay Packer sweep,'' says the speaker. ``You knew it was coming, it happens real slow, but if your team designs it right, the other team loses anyway.''
Following the Tampa meeting, Gingrich will outline the strategy for state GOP chairmen, along with Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour. Gingrich is looking for:wq! a label that works as well in this campaign as ``Contract With America'' worked in 1994. Tentatively he's settled on ``The Great Choice,'' to emphasize what he believes defines ``the most important election in 62 years.''
- Los Angeles Times Syndicate
LENGTH: Medium: 77 linesby CNB