Right Makes Might

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Control of Congress also will flood Republican campaign treasuries with even more special-interest contributions, which will be useful in defending newly won seats and seeking to oust Clinton in 1996. But there is a danger of voter backlash if the G.O.P. panders too cravenly with legislation designed to enrich its traditional supporters in Big Business and finance. Already last week, Representative Thomas Bliley of Virginia, whose constituency is the heart of tobacco-growing country, reassured cigarette-company executives that + they need not fear any further embarrassing hearings or new antismoking laws when he takes over Energy and Commerce's health subcommittee. And at a postelection barbecue at a German beer garden in Austin, oil and gas producers were drooling in their steins at the prospect of Texas Representative Bill Archer's taking charge of the Ways and Means Committee, which writes tax laws for the petroleum industry. Barry Williamson, a Texas Republican official at the barbeque, exulted that since last Tuesday, "the air smells sweeter and the sky is bluer."

One of the first tests of Republican cooperation with President Clinton will come later this month, when Congress briefly reconvenes in a lame-duck session to attempt to pass the GATT global trade treaty. Though that measure promises to create thousands of new export jobs in the U.S., it is opposed by textile manufacturers, some unions and other influential interests. When the White House last week conducted an informal count of Senate votes, the tally came up two votes shy of the number needed to approve the measure. Welfare reform and GATT were the first two subjects Clinton wanted to discuss with Gingrich when he phoned the Georgian on Wednesday morning. Gingrich couldn't take that call immediately because he had just been wired up for an appearance on CNN.

Tell the President I'll call him back. The bumptious Gingrich likes the sound of that, and in other ways large and small is relishing his new role at the center of things. On Friday evening Gingrich rushed from his first postelection meeting with Representative Richard Gephardt -- the Missouri Democrat and outgoing majority leader -- into his own tiny, crowded office just off the House floor. Prominent just inside the heavy doors were a dozen red roses with a thank-you card signed by the National Right to Life Committee, the nation's most powerful opponent of abortion rights. All around were signs of change, but a small one was particularly telling. As his secretary leafed through the phone messages left for the Speaker in Waiting, she came across this one: "All you have to do is call them, and they will open the gym for you." Special hours at the House gym are the very least of the perks Gingrich can expect now that he runs the place.