Vote Will Keep Gingrich Ethics Records Private

House Republicans on Thursday fended off a Democratic effort to force disclosure of a preliminary report on alleged ethics violations by Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.).

The 225-179 vote, split largely along party lines, killed a measure that would have required immediate public disclosure of a special counsel’s initial findings in a two-year investigation of Gingrich’s use of a tax-exempt, nonprofit foundation to finance a college course that he taught in Georgia. Critics and political opponents argued that Gingrich acted improperly by using the money because the course was more politically partisan than educational.

While no one expected the measure--offered by Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.)--to clear the House, Democrats pushed for the roll-call vote to compel GOP incumbents into a vote of support for Gingrich, who polls show is unpopular among many voters.

James Cole, the committee’s special counsel, last month delivered to the Ethics Committee a preliminary report, which has not been publicly released.

House Minority Whip David E. Bonior (D-Mich.) said at a news conference before the vote that Democrats wanted the results of the partial report revealed before election day Nov. 5. Failing that, he said, Democrats will use the House vote as a tool in races against GOP candidates who voted to keep the report from being made public.

Gingrich spokesman Tony Blankley said the Democratic move was part of “the ongoing and desperate actions of a small band of Democrats who have abused the ethics process by filing one baseless claim after another” against the speaker.

Democrats countered that Gingrich used the same tactic to undermine former House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Texas), the subject of a 1989 special investigation into ethics and financial deals that ultimately led to his resignation.

Republicans demonstrated their pique over Thursday’s Gingrich-related resolution by forcing a tit-for-tat vote on a measure calling for the appointment of an outside counsel to investigate real estate deals by House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.). That resolution, offered by Rep. John Linder (R-Ga.), was rejected, 395 to 9.

Linder has charged that the Democratic leader may have broken House and federal rules by failing to properly disclose a series of complicated transactions involving his swap of a condominium in Duck, N.C., for a million-dollar, oceanfront lot in nearby Corolla, N.C. Gephardt and his Democratic allies said the Republicans have raised the questions to punish him for his party’s focus on the financing of Gingrich’s college courses.