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Gingrich: Well, first of all, I think they are always sequential. I think that if you are rational about it, they are always sequential. And I think that it partly goes back to [management expert] W. Edwards Deming's argument that the key to all management is a theory. And if you do not have a theory of how you cook an egg, then why do you engage in behaviors in the kitchen?
TIME: But in your early years in the House people certainly thought of you more in terms of tactics than vision.
Gingrich: That is because in my early years, if I had talked about a vision, they would have thought I was nuts.
TIME: What have you learned about yourself in the past 15 months?
Gingrich: I am not sure I can answer it the way you asked it, because I do not think in self-analytical categories. I try to learn; I do not try to psychoanalyze myself. I will give you an example. Last year Marianne [his wife] and I were driving down to the Georgia coast for Thanksgiving. I said to her, this is really a big leap, from being the Republican minority whip to the Speaker of the House. And she looked at me and laughed. And she said, this is a lot bigger jump than you think it is. And we were driving down this year and I said, well, let me report in after a year. You were right.
At least half the scarring is a function of the habits and patterns that made perfect sense if you were the minority whip but that had really potential self-destructive capabilities if you were the Speaker. When you are a backbencher, you use very strong language--and this is still a weakness of my current style. If you are in everybody's living room virtually every night having a conversation, that intensity of language is counterproductive.
TIME: Well, what is the best example that you can think of?
Gingrich: I think if you just go back through your files, you will find plenty of them. [Laughter.]
But the experience has been very painful to me--and I am still not fully readjusted to it. Because there is a part of me that passionately wants to be a teacher, and I am not in a teaching job. And so I have consistently, all year, said things that make no sense for the Speaker of the House. They would be terrific comments from an analyst or a political-science teacher, but they just did not make any sense. I am trying to think through how to remain a teacher without being self-destructive.
TIME: The House ethics committee has voted to appoint an independent counsel to investigate whether you improperly used tax-deductible contributions to fund a college course you taught. Where do you think this investigation will end up?
Gingrich: If there is any unethical behavior going on, it is on the part of Democrats who have filed totally false charges. There were 65 allegations, 64 of them dismissed. They did conclude I should not have used an 800 number once. Would you like to go back to the Congressional Record and find out how many people have ever put an 800 number in the record?
So now we are down to one charge. Except that next week, David Bonior [the Democratic minority whip] will file new charges. And it will be reported with a straight face. It is a joke.
TIME: Where do you hope to be by the year 2000? Running for President?