FUND RAISING

By MICHAEL WEISSKOPF

If Washington's shadowy power brokers operate best in secret, JOE GAYLORD is losing his mystique. It was bad enough when Gaylord, eminence grise to NEWT GINGRICH, was blamed for isolating the House Speaker, antagonizing enough Republican brethren to threaten Newt's leadership post earlier this month. Now it turns out Gaylord took $7,500 a month from a Republican think tank so cash starved that HALEY BARBOUR had to obtain a $2.1 million loan guarantee from a Hong Kong businessman to make good on its debts. The National Policy Forum's payments of about $112,000 to Gaylord in 1995 and 1996 were disclosed in the Senate donorgate hearings last week. Barbour, who chaired both the forum and the G.O.P., testified that Gaylord, a secretive and mannered man who works out of Republican Party offices, was hired by the forum to raise funds. In addition to his fee, an ex-forum official told TIME, the organization had to pay a 10% commission for money raised by associates of Gaylord. Forum president John Bolton sought in vain to stop the arrangement, the source said. The reason: Gaylord earned substantially more in consulting fees and commissions than he raised in his 15-month stint.

--By Michael Weisskopf