Rep. Michel Warns GOP of Evils of Hubris : House: The retiring minority leader tells the new leaders not to be ‘clawing at power.’ He also admits regret for losing a chance at Speaker’s seat.

Republicans marching toward a majority in the House of Representatives got a stern warning from outgoing leader Robert H. Michel: Don’t let it go to your heads.

Michel, the top Republican in the House since 1981, also said in an interview published Friday in the Chicago Tribune that the “contract with America” Republicans campaigned on could actually worsen the federal budget deficit.

The 71-year-old Michel, who was first elected to Congress in 1956, decided not to seek reelection this year, so he was not in the running for the Speaker’s seat when his party won control of the House for the first time in 40 years.

In his first interview since the election, Michel told the paper he was disappointed about that. While watching election returns Nov. 8, it dawned on him what might have been. “I said, ‘Oh my God, wouldn’t it have been nice.’ ”

But he said the power Republicans are now tasting can corrupt them.

“I just hope it doesn’t go to our newly elected leaders’ heads,” he said.

Michel, known for consensus-building rather than confrontation, said he has already spoken to Newt Gingrich, the conservative Georgia Republican who is in line to become House Speaker, about potential excesses.

He cited Gingrich’s plan to concentrate power in the Speaker’s office and install committee chairmen to his own liking, partly scrapping the seniority system.

“That brings a lot more power up here to the leader,” Michel said. “Newt knows what he’s doing. I didn’t crave power when I was leader. I don’t know if it would have changed if I were Speaker.”

“There’s always a danger in clawing at power because power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” he said, borrowing a famous dictum of 19th-Century British historian Lord Acton.

Gingrich spokesman Tony Blankley said Gingrich has great respect for Michel’s opinions, but believes his own style is best for a majority party.

“It was our judgment . . . that the organization we had in the past, while suited for a minority party, would not provide the kind of cohesive leadership we need to actually get legislation passed,” Blankley said.

In the interview, Michel also criticized the “contract with America,” saying its tax-cutting and defense-spending provisions could worsen the budget deficit.

More than 300 Republican House candidates signed the 10-point contract, essentially a congressional party platform.

But Michel said its promised $500-per-child tax credit and other provisions would be money losers and could drive up the debt.

Michel said he was proud to spearhead President Ronald Reagan’s economic plans but acknowledged that “we ran up one healthy deficit for our kids out there.”

Michel acknowledged Republicans had inflicted a devastating blow to Democrats, but said he doesn’t expect Democrats “to take this thing lying down.”

“Overplaying your hand in the majority can lend itself to the minority in justifying itself in really sticking it to you,” he said.

Michel also assailed what he called the election’s “nationalized campaign of antagonism.”

“That was one whale of a negative campaign against the President,” he said.

He recalled listening to conservative radio talk shows before the election.

“Listen to those people’s venom,” he recalled telling his wife. “Ye gods, that’s what people are listening to. I’m thinking: ‘Jeepers, creepers, if that’s what motivating the people out there. . . .’ ”