Gingrich Elected Speaker as New Dispute Rages

House Republicans officially anointed Rep. Newt Gingrich as field commander of their conservative revolution Monday but the combative Georgian found himself embroiled in controversy because of his caustic commentary.

Even as House Republicans chanted “Newt, Newt, Newt” after his election as House Speaker, White House Chief of Staff Leon E. Panetta and others were furiously replying to Gingrich’s suggestion Sunday that as much as one-fourth of the White House staff had used drugs before joining the Administration.

“The time has come when he has to understand that he has to stop behaving like an out-of-control radio talk-show host and begin behaving like the Speaker of the House of Representatives,” an angry Panetta told reporters invited into his office.

“We cannot do business with the Speaker of the House, who is going to engage in these kind of unfounded allegations,” Panetta said. “He’s got to abide by a higher standard here.”

Gingrich has said on several occasions in recent weeks that as Speaker he would have to temper his aggressive approach and assume a more-statesmanlike role than the highly partisan one he played as a leader of the opposition.

Gingrich said Sunday that a senior law enforcement official he did not name had told him that “in his judgment, up to a quarter of the White House staff, when they first came in, had used drugs in the last four or five years.”

The charge and the sharp White House response seemed to overwhelm any protestations of good-will that the two parties had offered since the Nov. 8 elections.

To accomplish many of their goals, Republican leaders need the support of congressional moderates on both sides of the aisle--and of the White House. By exercising his veto, President Clinton could frustrate GOP legislation or force Republican leaders to seek the votes of scores of Democrats for the three-fourths margins needed to override.

The GOP leadership elections had a pep-rally quality, and an emotional Gingrich spoke for nearly an hour to more than 200 Republican colleagues in what some lawmakers likened to a presidential inaugural or convention address.

“Yesterday we spent 2 1/2 hours just walking through rooms in the Capitol that the Democrats have never let us in before,” he said to appreciative laughter. “And it was very exciting. It’s a much bigger building than I realized.”

Noting polls that suggest the majority of Americans have a favorable impression of the promises made in the Republican “contract with America,” Gingrich said: “We were elected to keep our word. We will keep our word. . . . There will be fewer committees. . . . There’ll be one-third fewer committee staff.”

Gingrich also thanked his wife, Marianne, who he said had “endured more from the media and more from the process than anyone else.”

In addition to Gingrich, House Republicans elected another aggressive and occasionally vitriolic conservative, Rep. Richard Armey of Texas, to the No. 2 position, House majority leader.

Another Gingrich protege, however, was defeated for the No. 3 leadership post of Republican whip. The job went to Texas Rep. Tom DeLay, not to Gingrich ally Rep. Robert S. Walker of Pennsylvania.

In nominating Gingrich to be Speaker, Rep. Henry Bonilla, (R-Tex.) said that the selection “will go down in history as a turning point for America. Newt Gingrich is a visionary, a believer in basic values.”

In seconding the nomination, Rep. Nancy L. Johnson (R-Conn.) called Gingrich “the most visionary thinker in politics today . . . a strategist and tactician of the first order.”

But at the White House, the mood was different. As First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton showed off the executive mansion’s Christmas decorations, she called Gingrich’s charges “so unfair” and said she hopes the accusation was only “a momentary lapse.”

Panetta was less restrained, arguing that Gingrich’s charges are part of a “troubling pattern” in which Republicans “engage in reckless accusations. They impugn the integrity of not only the President but now every member of the White House staff without facts, without evidence, without foundation.”

Panetta said Gingrich’s allegation “that 25% of the staff engaged in that kind of usage” in the years before coming to the White House was flatly wrong. But he conceded that a small number of White House staff members may have done so.

“It is, at best, a very, very small percentage,” he said. “Those people have been subjected to an FBI background check and they are continuing to be subject to random drug testing.”

In response to questions from Republican congressmen, the White House submitted written information to a House subcommittee claiming that “about 1%” of White House job applicants had indicated earlier drug use, the Washington Post reported.

Clearly, Panetta said, Gingrich’s intention was to imply that people who have used drugs in the past continue to use them now. “There is no one in the White House who uses drugs,” he said. “If Newt Gingrich has evidence to the contrary, he ought to tell me about it; he ought to make it public and I’ll fire them.”

Gingrich offered no apologies, saying that if he were Panetta he would be talking to senior law enforcement officials about the charges. “I am very surprised at the way Leon flew off the handle,” Gingrich said.

He dismissed Panetta’s statement that the White House might not be able to do business with him. “His comment was nonsense,” Gingrich said. “I am constitutionally going to be the chief legislative officer of the House. I don’t know who he’s going to be chief of staff for if he doesn’t want to negotiate with the Speaker of the House.”

Even some of Gingrich’s Republican colleagues, however, seemed uneasy with the incoming Speaker’s remarks and at least one chalked it up to Gingrich’s inexperience.

“I’ll bet a year from now Gingrich does not say the things he says now,” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Gingrich’s close allies, however, suggested that the White House reaction was misplaced. “This White House is going to have to learn that they no longer have lap dogs on Capitol Hill,” Walker said.

Armey said that Republican leaders shared Gingrich’s concerns and suggested that Clinton should replace Panetta if he could not work with Gingrich.