Gingrich? Few Remain Indifferent : House: To his admirers, the GOP whip is the party’s hope to regain a majority. To his critics, he’s a demagogue with no sense of national interest.

To his many admirers in the House, he is a pit bull whose dogged determination may one day help the Republicans recapture Congress after decades of Democratic domination.

To his many critics, he is an ambitious demagogue, obsessed with politics and indifferent to public policy or the national interest.

To President Bush, he is a potential saboteur of a $500-billion deficit reduction plan embraced by the White House and congressional leaders of both parties.

He is Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), a 47-year-old former history professor, who upset the old boy network in his party to become House minority whip and now is leading the fight against a budget agreement that he calls “a nutty package.”

“I’m very saddened we got to this point,” Gingrich said in an interview, a tiny smile at the corner of his lips. “But we’ll pick up the pieces.”

By staking out a strong stand against the budget deal on grounds that it would “kill jobs and weaken the economy,” Gingrich, more than any other single House member, threatens to derail the agreement fashioned after four months of hard bargaining.

“It is not beyond his ability to torpedo the package,” said Rep. Leon E. Panetta (D-Carmel Valley), chairman of the House Budget Committee. “He can make it very difficult for Republicans to vote for it by demagoguing the tax issue.”

The White House negotiators--who worked closely with Gingrich in shaping the package--apparently think that they have been betrayed by the leader of the younger, more activist Republicans who could hold the fate of the five-year budget deal in their hands.

John H. Sununu, the White House chief of staff, reacted strongly Sunday when he was questioned about Gingrich’s lack of support for the package, first symbolized by the minority whip’s absence from a Rose Garden ceremony announcing the President’s endorsement.

“Newt Gingrich laid down some specific concerns,” Sununu said with a trace of anger. “He asked that the tax rates not be raised. The tax rates have not been raised. He asked that there be no cut in COLAs (cost-of-living adjustments). The COLAs have not been cut. He asked that there be some strong incentives for investment in there. . . . There are.”

Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Highland), the House GOP caucus chairman who is reluctantly supporting the package, deplored Gingrich’s opposition to an agreement that he had a part in shaping as one of 21 participants in the budget talks. “Very unfortunate,” said Lewis, who could find himself in a race against Gingrich some day for the top GOP leadership post in the House.

Democrats have expressed similar frustration with Gingrich, a chubby, bushy-haired bundle of political energy who has become a lightning rod for radical Republicans in Congress. Not only is he known as the back-bencher who unhorsed former Speaker Jim Wright by filing ethics complaints, he has directed unorthodox GOP protest tactics, such as demanding roll call votes on routine matters, that have disrupted the work of the House.

“This is a man who, when he goes to hell, will organize a negative campaign against God,” grumbled one Democratic leadership aide.

But Gingrich, apparently delighted to be the center of attention, shrugs off the complaints. His closest friends say he has a long-term agenda: defining a sharper profile for the Republican Party in Congress, even if it means clashing with a Republican President from time to time.

“Our goal is to be in the majority,” explained Rep. Bill Thomas (R-Bakersfield), an old friend and ally of the whip. “Gingrich believes that you need to dramatize the differences between Democrats and Republicans, not paper over them.”

Gingrich--a Baptist who is married and has two children--prides himself on his refusal to be vanquished even when defeated. After winning a doctorate in history from Tulane University and teaching briefly at West Georgia College, for example, he ran for the House twice and was defeated both times before succeeding on a third try.

With virtually no legislation to his credit and no experience even in a low-level leadership post, he ran for House minority whip in 1989 and defeated the favored candidate, Rep. Edward R. Madigan (R-Ill.), by a single vote.

“Newt’s doing what he’s doing to maintain his political base,” said an old Republican hand in the Capitol. “He’s a great ally and an opponent you ought to respect.”

“We’re in prison as the House’s minority party,” said Thomas, a former housemate who used to ponder strategy with Gingrich over beers late into the night. “I’d rather plot the great escape with Newt than mark off the days with someone else.”