Restiveness on The Right

By Hays Gorey/Washington

As a Republican leader in the House, Georgia Congressman Newt Gingrich is expected to support the policies of the Bush Administration. And Gingrich seems perfectly willing to oblige -- provided he can formulate those policies himself. Gingrich's sharp-tongued truculence, scathingly defined as "New- Newtism" by Budget Director Richard Darman, is at the core of a smoldering feud that has Republicans brawling like, well, Democrats. If it continues, the rift could hurt George Bush's chances for re-election in 1992.

The struggle for the party's soul pits Darmanesque pragmatism, which recognizes that compromise is essential to governance, against the ideological purity that is demanded by Gingrich and many other House Republicans. "Is the G.O.P. a reform party -- or a manager?" asks Gingrich.

Last week House Republicans sent two messages -- neither of them welcome -- to the White House. They re-elected Gingrich minority whip and retained Michigan Congressman Guy Vander Jagt as chairman of the G.O.P.'s House campaign committee, boldly rejecting White House-backed Tennessee Congressman Don Sundquist. That leaves in place the committee's co-chairman, Ed Rollins, who had infuriated Bush and White House chief of staff John Sununu by suggesting that G.O.P. candidates in last month's elections distance themselves from the President for reneging on his "no new taxes" pledge. Vander Jagt refuses to fire Rollins.

Bush's retreat on taxes simply affirmed the right wing's long-held suspicion that he is not an ideological soul mate. Gingrich led House Republicans in opposing the Bush-backed budget agreement with Democrats, a deal that was negotiated by Darman and Sununu and that left the Republican right seething. Complains Howard Phillips, chairman of the Conservative Caucus: "The Republican Party no longer articulates conservatives' concerns."

Former Democratic national chairman Robert Strauss, who has served as an occasional adviser to both Bush and Ronald Reagan, thinks the right-wing disaffection could spell real trouble ahead. Says he: "When a President lets his own troops take him on, he pays a big price." Strauss believes that Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter paid the ultimate price -- losing the presidency -- because of internal party fissures.

Though the right-wing ideologues are not yet strong enough to destroy the Bush presidency, they are capable of inflicting political damage. Phillips and other conservatives, encouraged by the election of independent Walter Hickel as Governor of Alaska on an antitax platform last month, are organizing what they call the U.S. Taxpayers Party. Phillips concedes that the party lacks a "rallying point" so far. But the incipient revolt could drain off crucial Bush votes in 1992.