Gingrich Rejects Calls to Kill Book Deal

WASHINGTON — Spurning suggestions from fellow Republicans that he drop his controversial book deal with a publishing firm owned by media magnate Rupert Murdoch, House Speaker Newt Gingrich angrily accused Democrats on Thursday of trying to use the deal as a device to “destroy” him.

“There is a small group of people so bitter about losing control of the House that they have decided that any device which destroys me is legitimate,” the Georgia Republican told reporters as he sought to quell a growing controversy over the deal.

Privately, however, even some Republicans were voicing new misgivings, saying they feared that the controversy had risen to a level where it could begin to undermine Gingrich’s authority and, with it, the GOP’s efforts to deliver on the legislative agenda contained in its “contract with America.”

Vowing to go ahead with plans to write two books for HarperCollins, Murdoch’s publishing house, Gingrich strongly insisted that the potentially lucrative arrangement poses no conflict of interest, despite the fact that Murdoch has enormous financial interests at stake in telecommunications legislation now before Congress.

There would be no point in his backing out of the book contract, he said, because Democrats bent on “my personal destruction” would just find another pretext with which to attack him.

But while the clearly exasperated Speaker urged the press and the public to keep their attention focused on what he described as a history-making debate on the House floor, the political histrionics of the book deal continued to get wide attention.

Escalating their attacks on Gingrich, Democrats accused him of bringing shame upon the House by using his office to enrich himself as they served notice of their intention to introduce legislation that would ban members from receiving more than one-third of their annual salaries in book royalties.

“It makes every member of the House look like a money-grubber,” Rep. David R. Obey (D-Wis.) said of the book deal for which Gingrich initially was to have been paid a $4.5-million advance.

Although Gingrich later agreed to give up the advance, Obey said that he also should forgo the entire deal or be forced to abide by a provision of a Democratic bill that would ban members of Congress from accepting book advances and limit their royalty payments to one-third of their annual salaries. Gingrich’s annual pay is $171,500.

“All of us feel very strongly about limiting gifts and royalties because of the disgrace it brings on the House,” said Rep. Pete Peterson (D-Fla.). “We must never allow the perception that we are purchased by special interests.”

Partisan sniping over the book deal erupted into a rancorous free-for-all on the House floor Wednesday, when Republican efforts to strike Florida Democrat Carrie Meek’s criticism of Gingrich from the Congressional Record touched off a daylong battle of words as bitter as anyone could remember.

The ill will on both sides was still running high Thursday, when the stakes were upped as word circulated of a memo that Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Jim Leach (R-Iowa) had quietly sent to the White House the day before.

Leach, the House GOP point man on President Clinton’s emergency bailout bill for Mexico’s economy, warned White House Chief of Staff Leon E. Panetta that the intensely personal attacks on Gingrich could jeopardize passage of the bailout legislation.

“The atmospherics have gone from bad to worse. . . . In the wake of White House attacks on the Speaker this weekend, House Democrats launched ad hominem criticisms of the Speaker today. In this setting, comity on controversial legislation is difficult to obtain,” Leach wrote.

Into this partisan battlefield, meanwhile, stepped Murdoch himself, as the Australian-born publisher joined other telecommunications industry executives invited to a closed-door meeting to discuss industry issues with House Republicans.

Brushing aside reporters on the way in and ducking out a back door on the way out, Murdoch refused to respond to queries about the book deal, saying only that he had “nothing to hide.”

Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas J. Bliley Jr. (R-Va.), who invited network and other industry executives to the meeting, said later that neither the book deal nor a dispute over federal regulations involving Murdoch’s Fox television network were discussed.

However, Democrats pounced on the Republicans for meeting behind closed doors and for excluding them from the consultations.