LAST CALLS

AS CONGRESS WRAPS UP, ETHICS WOES DOG GINGRICH

It was supposed to have been Newt Gingrich's valedictory, the week in which the first Republican House in 40 years could count its accomplishments before returning home to face the voters. As he sat last Thursday afternoon on the sun-washed balcony of his Capitol suite, the Speaker ticked them off: the line-item veto, a sweeping telecommunications law, a crackdown on illegal immigration, an expansion of health insurance, welfare reform, even a savings of $500,000 by ending daily ice deliveries to congressional offices. Then, in Gingrich fashion, he reached back--quite a reach--for a historical analogy. "You could make a pretty good case,"...

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