GINGRICH. . . GOOD GOP, BAD GOP

Incoming House Speaker Newt Gingrichmade an effort to be more statesmanlike in an interview aired last night, apologizing for calling the Clinton White House staff a bunch of "McGoverniks" after Election Day and ruin his "enemies of normal people" remark. "The truth is, occasionally, I'm not very smart," Gingrich told Dateline NBC. "I probably need to be 30 percent less pugnacious and 50 less negative." Meanwhile, the first comment's indirect target, former Senator and Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern, responded in a column in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "I fully welcome the scorn of Gingrich. I have nothing but disdain toward this unscrupulous demagogue . . . In any event, the 'McGoverniks' whom Gingrich fears did not get to the White House in 1972."Post your opinion on theWashingtonbulletin board.