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At last the moral, political and philosophical imperatives came crashing down on their House. Gingrich spent the rest of the day talking with various factions within his ranks, and at 7 p.m. Thursday he summoned them to the Cannon building to offer his proposal. Dole had, in essence, taken 10 steps so the others could take five. It was the sort of leadership that earned him, in another venue, a chestful of medals and a withered right arm. Some freshmen could not believe their own House leader was deserting the cause. "There is not a need to cave," said an incredulous Todd Tiahrt, a freshman from Kansas. "All the issues we have been talking about for the past 12 months are still very important to us." But to others, Gingrich was simply facing reality. "We're drained and we're tired, and we're not moving ahead," said a Republican second-term Congressman. "If the troops don't get a break soon, we will crack." He also noted a favorite Gingrich maxim, not original to him, which says the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect a different result.
By Friday morning the Speaker was brooking no dissent. "He walked in and told us to sit down and stop the side conferences," said several members who were there. After a brief explanation of his plan to return 760,000 workers to the payroll, Gingrich urged their support and unveiled his threats. "If you don't vote for it, don't come to me..."--he paused for a long and very pregnant moment before continuing--". and talk about teamwork. If you think you should be Speaker of the House, then run for Speaker. I'm here to tell you this is a team decision." The freshmen got the message. "Yesterday it was a democracy," said one. "This morning we were in a dictatorship."
If his luck holds out and he doesn't squander his opportunity, Clinton could walk away with the big prize--a deal that reflects his essential beliefs and robs Dole of his premier campaign issue. House Republican leaders are contemplating a last-chance offer that could attract bipartisan support: cutting $155 billion in Medicare, providing targeted tax cuts worth $180 billion, fattening the pool of discretionary spending a bit to woo liberals, and then getting in line behind the Senate's more moderate welfare-reform plan. If that plan goes nowhere with Clinton, Republicans will try to spend the next two weeks bragging about their new flexibility while pointing up his continued intransigence. Indeed, many members remain convinced that whatever the President says, whatever he offers, Clinton will never sign a deal. "We realize that, and now we have to go to plan B, and plan B is to get the government back on its feet," said Representative Chris Shays of Connecticut, a close ally of Gingrich's. "The President simply isn't going to balance the budget, and so we take this to the November election.''