Gingrich Begs Perot Forces Not to Split Conservatives : Politics: Speaker warns a third-party run could reelect Clinton. If GOP gets support, he sees ‘smashing’ victory.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) implored members of Ross Perot’s political movement Sunday to abandon any talk of forming a third political party, saying such a plan may only wind up getting President Clinton reelected.

In broadcast interviews, Gingrich said his GOP initiative rightfully has earned the backing of supporters of the Texas billionaire, who captured 19% of the presidential vote in 1992. If GOP conservatives get their support, Republicans “will win a smashing victory” in the 1996 elections, the Speaker said.

But if Perot backers put up their own candidates, “the only person helped by a third party is President Clinton and the liberal Democrats.

“If we split into two factions,” he added, “then you can imagine a circumstance where President Clinton could get reelected, and the Democrats might do even fairly well in the congressional races.”

Gingrich later sounded similar themes on Perot’s radio call-in show.

He identified the Perot supporters, some of them affiliated with the United We Stand America organization, as “the pro-term limits, anti-tax increase, decentralized-government, shrink-the-bureaucracy folks” that his wing of the Republican Party has done much to satisfy in the first 100 days of the current Congress.

At the same time, Gingrich struck a conciliatory note toward Clinton, who said in a speech Friday that he hoped to avoid a “pile of vetoes” over domestic legislation the Republican-led Congress passes.

Gingrich said that Clinton is “without question” closer to him in his policy view than many other Democrats--particularly those in Congress.

“Congressional Democrats, having lost control of the House for the first time in 40 years, have rejected every information coming from the American people,” he said.

“I have been truly surprised and frankly saddened at the level of bitterness and the level of nastiness that they’ve resorted to--I’m talking about their leadership.”

Democratic leaders have put Clinton in “a difficult position” by pressing him to veto bills coming out of the GOP-led Congress, Gingrich said.

“He doesn’t want to automatically be forced into a veto. I respect that,” he said.

Gingrich said Republicans will soon take another major step toward enacting their agenda when they unveil new budget proposals. Although they will call for deep cutbacks in many costly programs, he sought to assuage fears of older Americans about the fate of Medicare and Medicaid. Those health programs will remain intact, he said, though changed.

“We believe you can remake the system to have a better Medicare, where people have choices including health maintenance organizations, professional plans . . . and medical savings accounts,” he said, adding that he plans to talk with Medicare critics and seniors.

Four major medical associations and the largest organization of seniors, the American Assn. of Retired Persons, have attacked Republican plans for cuts in the growth of Medicare and Medicaid spending.

Asked about affirmative action programs, which Republicans have threatened to scrap and which the President may revise, Gingrich said job preference plans should be based more on economics than on race or gender.

“I think any American who is poor--whether they are white or black or Hispanic or American Indian or Asian--if you are poor we need to help you, because we want all Americans to be in the middle class,” he said.

“So I’d rather talk about how do we replace group affirmative action with effective help for individuals, rather than just talk about wiping out affirmative action by itself.”