72. “Gingrich Urges Final Ethics Push for 100th Congress,” press release, September 2, 1988, box 664, File: Dear Colleague, NGP.
73. House Committee on Ethics, Executive Hearings, September 14, 1988, transcript, 78.
74. Irvin Molotsky, “Wright Inquiry Examining Events Occurring Long Ago,” New York Times, November 13, 1988.
75. “Wright’s CIA Disclosure Sparks Call for Probe,” Chicago Tribune, September 22, 1988; “House Panel Seeks Information on Wright Remark,” Washington Post, October 1, 1988; “Wright vs. CIA,” Wall Street Journal, September 29, 1988.
76. Peter Osterlund, “Controversial House Speaker Wright: Is He a Daring Leader or Ruthless Operator?,” Christian Science Monitor, October 21, 1988.
77. Tom Kenworthy, “The Speaker’s Cloudy Future,” Washington Post, October 19, 1988.
78. Steven V. Roberts, “Wright’s Style: Both a Strength and a Weakness,” New York Times, October 25, 1988.
79. “Bush Meets with Wright,” Philadelphia Inquirer, November 19, 1988.
80. Elaine Povich and George E. Curry, “Bush Spends a Busy Day Fence-Mending,” Chicago Tribune, November 19, 1988.
81. Robert Shogan, “Sharp Partisan Split Threatens Bush Program,” Los Angeles Times, January 22, 1989.
82. Lee, Insecure Majorities, 96–110.
83. Schlafly to George Eagle, October 31, 1988, box 1019, File: Campaign Political 1988, NGP.
84. William Eaton, “Wright, Renamed as House Speaker, Lists Party Goals,” Los Angeles Times, December 6, 1988.
Chapter 5: Missing the Tempest
1. Charles Mohr, “Congress, Forget the Deficit, a Real Crisis Is Looming: Raises,” New York Times, December 9, 1988.
2. Walter Shapiro, “Talking Wright,” Washington Post, January 23, 1983.
3. “The Perks of Congress Pensions, Tax Breaks, Etc. Would Fill a Trunk,” Akron Beacon Journal, January 29, 1989.
4. Sara Fritz, “Panel to Urge Big Pay Hike for Top Officials,” Los Angeles Times, December 13, 1988.
5. Tyson Foods compensated Representative Tommy Robinson of Arkansas with $1,000 to take a cursory tour of its poultry plant. The Chicago Board of Trade, under federal investigation for fraud, contributed $130,000 in 1987 to members of the House and the Senate. The top earner of the time was Ways and Means Committee chairman, Dan Rostenkowski, whose jurisdiction included the tax code, Medicare and Medicaid, trade, and Social Security. These stories come from W. J. Michael Cody and Richardson Lynn, Honest Government: Ethics Guide for Public Service (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1992), 54.
6. Fritz, “Panel to Urge Big Pay Hike for Top Officials.”
7. Gregory Jaynes, “About New York: A Radio Nomad Enjoys a Pause in Life on the Air,” New York Times, April 6, 1988.
8. Jeffrey Yorke, “Calling for a Confrontation,” Washington Post, December 20, 1988; Richard Viguerie and David Franke, America’s Right Turn: How Conservatives Used New and Alternative Media to Take Power (Chicago: Bonus Books, 2004), 182.
9. Bill McAllister, “Taxpayer Discontent Coming to a Boil,” Washington Post, December 30, 1988.
10. Don Phillips, “For Long-Allied Activists, Raise Issue Fosters a Fight,” Washington Post, January 30, 1989.
11. Michael Oreskes, “Congress Will Bar Honorariums as Soon as Pay Rises, Wright Says,” New York Times, December 15, 1988.
12. Brian Rosenwald, Talk Radio’s America: How an Industry Took Over a Political Party That Took Over the United States (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2019).
13. “Now, Populist Radio,” New York, February 27, 1989, 28.
14. Nichole Hemmer, Messengers of the Right: Conservative Media and the Transformation of American Politics (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016).
15. Sean Theriault, The Power of the People: Congressional Competition, Public Attention, and Voter Retribution (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2005), 61.
16. S. Robert Lichter and Richard Noyes, Good Intentions Make Bad News: Why Americans Hate Campaign Journalism (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1995), 238.
17. Mark Rozell, In Contempt of Congress: Postwar Press Coverage on Capitol Hill (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1996), 74–75.
18. Rozell, In Contempt of Congress, 75.
19. Nancy J. Schwerzler, “Raising Pay Also Raises Public Wrath, Call for Reforms, Congress Finds,” Baltimore Sun, January 29, 1989.
20. Mary McGrory, “Reagan’s Revenge,” Washington Post, February 9, 1989.
21. Schroeder to Wright, January 23, 1989, box 734, File: Patricia Schroeder, JWA.
22. Michael Oreskes, “Wright Takes a Pounding from All Sides on Pay Raise,” South Florida Sun Sentinel, February 6, 1989.
23. Michael Oreskes, “Senate Votes Against 50% Raise but the House Plans to Let It Stand,” New York Times, February 3, 1989.
24. Susan F. Rasky, “Fury over Lawmakers’ Raise Finds an Outlet on the Radio,” New York Times, February 6, 1989.
25. “Congress/Pay Raise,” NBC Evening News, February 1, 1989, VTA.
26. William Eaton, “Pay Issue Seen as Slowing Congress,” Los Angeles Times, February 4, 1989.
27. Don Phillips and Tom Kenworthy, “Democrats Singing the Pay Blues,” Washington Post, February 4, 1989.
28. Karen Hosler, “House Democrats Retreat from Heat over Pay at Spa,” Baltimore Sun, February 5, 1989.
29. Robin Toner, “Democrats, Under Fire, Play It Cool,” New York Times, February 6, 1989.
30. Steve Daley, “Democrats Can’t Escape Pay Furor,” Chicago Tribune, February 6, 1989.
31. Nancy J. Schwerzler, “House Vote on Pay Raise Set for Today,” Baltimore Sun, February 7, 1989.
32. Robin Toner, “This Was No Day for a House Party,” New York Times, February 8, 1989.
33. McGrory, “Reagan’s Revenge.”
34. Barbara Vobejda, “Citizens Celebrate as Raise Collapses,” Washington Post, February 8, 1989.
35. Robert Shogan, “’90 Vote Offers GOP Big Chance to Score Gains,” Los Angeles Times, February 21, 1989.
36. John Brady, Bad Boy: The Life and Politics of Lee Atwater (New York: Addison-Wesley, 1997), 222.
37. John Newhouse, “The Navigator,” New Yorker, April 10, 1989, 81.
38. J. Brooks Flippen, Speaker Jim Wright: Power, Scandal, and the Birth of Modern Politics (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2018), 382.
39. Ed Rollins, Bare Knuckles and Back Rooms, with Tom Defrank (New York: Broadway, 1996), 201.
40. David Broder, “Wright Will Pay for Being Weak-Kneed,” Chicago Tribune, February 12, 1989.
41. Robin Toner, “Wright Is Termed ‘Target No. 1’ By G.O.P. Aide Planning for ’90,” New York Times, February 23, 1989.
42. Thomas B. Edsall, “GOP Honing Wedges for Next Campaign,” Washington Post, February 26, 1989.
43. Robin Toner, “Wright Is Termed ‘Target No. 1’ by G.O.P. Aide Planning for ’90,” New York Times, February 23, 1989.
44. Tom Kenworthy, “House Democrats Worry Fallout from Tower Fight Will Hurt Wright,” Washington Post, March 5, 1989.
45. Helen Dewar, “Senate Kills Tower’s Nomination as Defense Chief, 53–47,” Washington Post, March 10, 1989.
46. Dewar, “Senate Kills Tower’s Nomination as Defense Chief”; Michael Oreskes, “Air of Conciliation,” New York Times, March 10, 1989.
47. “Senators and Sobriety,” New York Times, February 25, 1989.
48. Kenworthy, “House Democrats Worry Fallout from Tower Fight Will Hurt Wright.”
49. Kenworthy, “House Democrats Worry Fallout from Tower Fight Will Hurt Wright.”
50. Andrew Rosenthal, “Bush’s Safer Choice,” New York Times, March 11, 1989.
51. “Newt Gingrich on the 1994 Republican Revolution and His Career in Politics,” interview with William
Kristol, November 21, 2014, conversationswithbillkristol.org/video/newt-gingrich.
52. Major Garrett, The Enduring Revolution: How the Contract with America Continues to Shape the Nation (New York: Crown, 2005), 47.
53. Garrett, The Enduring Revolution, 47.
54. “Newt Gingrich on the 1994 Republican Revolution and His Career in Politics.”
55. Mel Steely, The Gentleman from Georgia: The Biography of Newt Gingrich (Macon, Ga.: Mercer Press, 2000), 202–3.
56. Don Phillips, “Reps. Madigan, Gingrich Vie for GOP Post,” Washington Post, March 16, 1989.
57. “Newt Gingrich for Whip,” National Review, April 7, 1989, 12–13.
58. Don Phillips, “Piggyback Entry into House GOP Race,” Washington Post, March 17, 1989.
59. “Newt Gingrich on the 1994 Republican Revolution and His Career in Politics.”
60. Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, “Revolt Against the GOP’s Old Bulls,” Washington Post, March 22, 1989.
61. Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, “Bitter Fight for Republican House Whip Places Divisions in Party Thinking in Stark Contrast,” Wall Street Journal, March 21, 1989.
62. Paul A. Gigot, “Neutron Newt Could Become GOP’s Coelho,” Wall Street Journal, March 17, 1989.
63. Gigot, “Neutron Newt Could Become GOP’s Coelho.”
64. Douglas L. Koopman, Hostile Takeover: The House Republican Party, 1980–1995 (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1996), 12.
65. Phillips, “Reps. Madigan, Gingrich Vie for GOP Post.”
66. Robin Toner, “Race for Whip: Hyperspeed vs. Slow Motion,” New York Times, March 22, 1989.
67. Charles Babcock, “Gingrich’s Book Venture,” Washington Post, March 20, 1989.
68. Newt Gingrich, Window of Opportunity: A Blue Print for the Future, with David Drake and Marianne Gingrich (New York: Tor, 1984).
69. See, for examples, “Rep. Gingrich Discloses Own Unusual Book Marketing Deal,” Los Angeles Times, March 20, 1989; “Gingrich Said to Use Partnership on Book,” Baltimore Sun, March 20, 1989.
70. “Unusual Arrangement on Gingrich Book Disclosed,” New York Times, March 20, 1989.
71. “Gingrich, Too, Has Odd Book Deal,” Philadelphia Inquirer, March 20, 1989; “Wright’s Accuser Has ‘Weird’ Deal of His Own,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 20, 1989.
72. Babcock, “Gingrich’s Book Venture.”
73. Toner, “Race for Whip.”
74. Steve Daley, “2 Illinoisans in House GOP Race,” Chicago Tribune, March 17, 1989.
75. Steve Daley, “For House GOP Post, Sides Chosen—Sort Of,” Chicago Tribune, March 22, 1989.
76. Don Phillips and Tom Kenworthy, “Gingrich Elected House GOP Whip,” Washington Post, March 23, 1989.
77. Denny Hastert, Speaker: Lessons from Forty Years in Coaching and Politics (Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2004), 94; Steve Daley, “GOP Elects Maverick House Whip,” Chicago Tribune, March 23, 1989.
78. Robin Toner, “House Republicans Elect Gingrich of Georgia as Whip,” New York Times, March 23, 1989.
79. Dan Balz and Serge Kovaleski, “Gingrich Divided GOP, Conquered the Agenda,” Washington Post, December 21, 1994. See also John A. McDonald, “GOP Picks Conservative, Aggressive Gingrich for Key Post,” Hartford Courant, March 23, 1989. For an interesting analysis of the final vote, see Matthew N. Green and Douglas B. Harris, Choosing the Leader: Elections in the U.S. House of Representatives (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019), 78–85.
80. “House Republican Leadership Contest,” C-SPAN video archives, March 22, 1989.
81. “House Republican Leadership Contest.”
82. Daley, “GOP Elects Maverick House Whip”; McDonald, “GOP Picks Conservative, Aggressive Gingrich for Key Post.”
83. Cartoon, Clayton News Daily, March 28, 1989.
84. “Newt Goes to the Whip,” Wall Street Journal, March 23, 1989.
85. Stephen E. Frantzich and John Sullivan, The C-SPAN Revolution (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996), 275.
86. John Meacham, Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush (New York: Random House, 2015), 364–65.
87. Phillips and Kenworthy, “Gingrich Elected House GOP Whip.”
88. John Crawley, “Gingrich Predicts Doom for Wright,” Atlanta Daily World, March 31, 1989.
Chapter 6: Scandal Frenzy
1. U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, Report of the Special Outside Counsel in the Matter of Speaker James C. Wright, February 21, 1989 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1989).
2. John Barry, The Ambition and the Power: A True Story of Washington (New York: Viking, 1989), 689–90, 701–2.
3. House Committee on Ethics, Executive Sessions, March 14, 1989, transcript, 18.
4. House Committee on Ethics, Executive Sessions, March 7, 1989, transcript, 45.
5. For a fantastic blow-by-blow analysis of the charges that fell apart, see Barry, The Ambition and the Power, 680–724.
6. Jim Wright, Balance of Power: Presidents and Congress from the Era of McCarthy to the Age of Gingrich (Atlanta: Turner, 1996), 482–84.
7. House Committee on Ethics, Executive Hearings, February 27, 1989, transcript, 27.
8. House Committee on Ethics, Executive Hearings, March 14, 1989, transcript, 157.
9. House Committee on Ethics, Executive Hearings, February 27, 1989, transcript, 30–32.
10. House Committee on Ethics, Executive Hearings, February 28, 1989, transcript, 32–63.
11. Barry, The Ambition and the Power, 710–11.
12. Van Brocklin to Gingrich, March 30, 1989, box 673, File: Newt Gingrich—Ethics, NGP.
13. Brooks Jackson, “Speaker Wright, Facing Ethics Battle, Mounts Strong ‘It’s All Politics’ Defense,” Wall Street Journal, March 14, 1989.
14. Brooks Jackson, “House Ethics Report on Wright Finished; Big Size Seen Suggesting Damaging Data,” Wall Street Journal, February 23, 1989.
15. Tracy Updegraff to Speaker’s Bureau, April 20, 1989, box 664, File: Pre-disciplinary Hearings, NGP.
16. Steve Daley, “Panel Narrows Probe of Wright,” Chicago Tribune, April 6, 1989.
17. David Rogers, “Wright Seeking to Build His Defense Against Likely Adverse Ethics Report,” Wall Street Journal, April 11, 1989.
18. Editorial, “The Old Accuse-the-Accuser Game,” Chicago Tribune, May 7, 1989.
19. William J. Eaton and Sara Fritz, “Republicans Call Democratic Briefing by Wright Lawyer Possible Secrecy Violation,” Los Angeles Times, April 12, 1989.
20. Susan Rasky, Nathaniel Nash, and Michael Oreskes, “Ethics Committee Expected to Find Violations by Wright on Finances,” New York Times, April 5, 1989.
21. Eaton and Fritz, “Republicans Call Democratic Briefing by Wright Lawyer Possible Secrecy Violation.”
22. “Critic Accuses Wright Counsel of Collusion,” Akron Beacon Journal, April 12, 1989.
23. U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Ethics, Statement of Alleged Violation in the Matter of Representative James C. Wright Jr., April 13, 1999.
24. Barry, The Ambition and the Power, 680–724.
25. Brown, interview with author, August 4, 2016.
26. William Eaton, “2 Democrats Who Voted Against Wright Face Pressure,” Los Angeles Times, April 15, 1989.
27. Wertheimer, interview with author, July 21, 2015.
28. David Cloud, “Of Party Fealty—and Revenge,” Congressional Quarterly, April 15, 1989, 793.
29. Nancy J. Schwerzler, “Wright Votes Turn 2 Democrats into Lonesome Pair,” Baltimore Sun, May 30, 1989.
30. Robin Toner, “Loyalists Are Enlisted for Wright’s Defense,” New York Times, April 14, 1989.
31. William Clayton, “The Wright Report—Votes Give
Potent Signal—Ethics Panel Democrats Might Have Set Anti-Wright Tone,” Houston Chronicle, April 18, 1989.
32. Bill Alexander, “My Fellow Democrats: Answer Gingrich or Lose,” New York Times, April 25, 1989.
33. “Formal Ethics Complaint Filed Against Gingrich by Democrat,” Los Angeles Times, April 12, 1989.
34. Tom Kenworthy, “Wright Begins Counterattack,” Washington Post, April 14, 1989.
35. Margaret Carlson, “Wright Fights Back,” Time, April 24, 1989, 16.
36. Sheila Dresser, “The Wright Charges and Other Scandals Become a Washington Growth Industry,” Baltimore Sun, April 23, 1989.
37. Johanna Schneider to Republican Press Secretary, April 17, 1979, box 664, File: Pre-disciplinary Hearings, Karen Van Brocklin Files, NGP.
38. William J. Eaton, “Wright Violated Rules 69 Times, Ethics Panel Says,” Los Angeles Times, April 18, 1989.
39. James M. Perry, “Report Reflects a Shift in Attitude on Ethics,” Wall Street Journal, April 18, 1989.
40. Editorial, “Fair, Not Fearful, in the Wright Case,” New York Times, April 14, 1989.
41. Tom Kenworthy, “House Committee Charges Wright with 69 Ethics-Rules Violations,” Washington Post, April 18, 1989.
42. Elaine Povich and Steve Daley, “Ethics Panel Charges Wright,” Chicago Tribune, April 18, 1989.
43. William Eaton, “Democrats Tell Concern as Wright Vows to Fight,” Los Angeles Times, April 19, 1989. See also Tom Kenworthy, “Wright Courts Caucus, but Pessimism Thickens,” Washington Post, April 19, 1989; “Wright Lays Out Defense for Colleagues,” Miami Herald, April 19, 1989; Robin Toner, “Wright, Stepping Up His Defense, Releases Data on Work by Wife,” New York Times, April 19, 1989.
44. David Hess, “Wright Stages Pep Rally with Democrats,” Akron Beacon Journal, April 19, 1989.
45. Laura Mecoy, “Fazio Takes Heat on Wright, but Can’t Talk About It,” Sacramento Bee, April 18, 1989.
46. McClure, interview with author, September 9, 2016.
47. Alan Murray and Jeffrey Birnbaum, “Opposition Stirs to Possible Boost in Gasoline Tax,” Wall Street Journal, May 2, 1989.
48. Richard E. Cohen, “Gingrich: Don’t Expect ‘Kinder, Gentler’ Politics,” Los Angeles Times, April 2, 1989.
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