Newt's New Tack

WASHINGTON, D.C.: With the great partisan budget battles over and his ethics troubles behind him, Newt Gingrich is returning to the social side of the Contract With America's agenda. In a speech before the National Religious Broadcasters, Gingrich said the GOP should now focus on drugs, education and teen pregnancy. The Speaker's goal? To achieve a drug-free America by January 1, 2001, following a "national crusade fully as intensive as the effort to balance the budget." As part of that get-tough initiative, Gingrich said that second-time offenders caught crossing borders or producing commercial quantities of drugs should get the death sentence. The message, Gingrich said, should be "If you sell it we're going to kill you."