Gingrich Worries That Powell Could Sidetrack GOP Agenda

House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) has recently told fellow Republicans he is worried that a presidential candidacy by retired Gen. Colin L. Powell could frustrate the goals of the party’s 1994 electoral victory and asked them whether he should become a candidate himself.

Gingrich made a series of telephone calls within the last week to some GOP elected officials and strategists, apparently prompted by polls showing sagging support for the Republican Party and indicating that right now President Clinton would defeat the Republican front-runner, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), in a head-to-head contest.

According to several Republican sources, Gingrich said he was concerned that if Dole continued to weaken in the polls and frustration mounted with the rest of the Republican presidential field, Powell could win the GOP nomination without Republicans knowing for certain whether he shared the party’s enthusiasm for its conservative economic and social agenda.

According to one Republican, Gingrich asked people: “Do you think the Powell thing is for real, because if you do, you need to know it’s going to go in a different direction than we’ve been going, and what does that mean? Do I need to get back in it?”

Another Republican who has talked with Gingrich said the House Speaker has a more complicated view of a Powell candidacy and still does not want to enter the race himself. “I think Newt has a question and a point of view combined that says if Powell runs, there is some exciting potential to it,” this Republican said, particularly if Powell embraced the GOP agenda more fully than he has so far.

But this Republican said Gingrich still questioned whether Powell would “be a leader of the movement and the cause of the revolution of 1994,” or whether Powell “would try to run and take the party in another [direction] that would not be acceptable to a majority of House Republicans.”

Powell received another boost Thursday when Barry Goldwater, the GOP’s 1964 presidential nominee and a supporter of Dole’s candidacy, said he hoped Powell would run for the nomination.

“I think you could almost call him automatically elected--he’s that good,” Goldwater told the Arizona Republic. “Either party would be lucky to get him.”