GETTING THE EDGE

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Newt Gingrich's office, decorated with bloody Civil War battle scenes, makes an ideal command headquarters. Atop the highest ground in the city, he can survey the entire territory he hopes to conquer-and plot the ambush he says can clinch that victory. By fall, Gingrich predicted in an interview with TIME, the Republican Congress will have passed a raft of bills to implement its seven-year plan to balance the budget and will confront Bill Clinton with an excruciating choice. He will have to sign on to spending cuts that will inflame his Democratic supporters or veto them and force the shutdown of all but the most essential federal functions, such as air-traffic control and the mailing of Social Security checks. "He can run the parts of government that are left [after the cuts], or he can run no government," Gingrich said, adding wryly, "Which of the two of us do you think worries more about the government not showing up?"

President Clinton, for his part, was having a harder time deciding on a strategy that would best serve his re-election plans. Should he blame the G.O.P. for cutting popular programs like Medicare, or should he join the budget-balancing campaign by seeking a compromise? For months, Clinton sided with his wife and other liberal advisers in defending the status quo and refusing to propose any alternative plan for balancing the budget. But at just the moment when that approach appeared to be bearing fruit, with Clinton's poll numbers rising and the Republicans beginning to squabble among themselves over tough spending cuts, the President waffled. During a New Hampshire radio interview, he said he would propose what he called a "counterbudget" embracing the G.O.P. goal of balance by a certain date. "I think it clearly can be done in less than 10 years," he added. The White House tried to play down the remarks as only somewhat inconsistent. Several days later, however, Clinton reversed himself again, saying it was more important to safeguard vital social programs than to eradicate the deficit in the relatively near future.

Some Clinton aides blamed this triple somersault on Dick Morris, a G.O.P. political consultant from Connecticut who helped Clinton in his Arkansas campaigns and whom the President has lately turned to for advice. Morris has warned Clinton not to get on the wrong side of the public desire for a balanced budget.