READY, AIM, MISFIRE

(2 of 3)

The plan was to have Armey, DeLay, Boehner and Paxon present Gingrich with a fait accompli: step aside or be voted out by parliamentary maneuver. What happened next is murky. By some accounts, when DeLay reported back to his fellow leaders later that Thursday night, he brought news that the rebels wanted Gingrich to be succeeded by Paxon, not Armey, who was next in line. Early Friday, Armey told his colleagues that he spent the night "praying with my wife" and decided he could not support the coup. "When Armey realized he wasn't going to be Speaker, he backed out," insists a knowledgeable source.

Not so, says Armey. When details of the aborted putsch broke in the July 16 edition of the scrappy weekly newspaper the Hill, he issued a statement that "any and all allegations that I was involved in some ridiculous plot to oust the Speaker [are] completely false, and, in fact, ludicrous." But later when Armey stood up in a meeting of House Republicans and declared that the Hill story was inaccurate, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a rebel leader, lunged for a microphone to challenge the assertion--knocking over a chair before another member could restrain him. Later, Armey changed his story. To his utter surprise, sources close to him now claimed, he realized that several of his fellow leaders--in other words, Paxon and DeLay--had been conspiring against Newt. Asked at a press conference whether DeLay should resign, Armey remained silent. DeLay wouldn't comment on any of it. And Boehner said he'd been assessing the rebel threat, nothing more.

Gingrich no longer trusts any of them. But unlike Paxon, who served in the leadership at Newt's pleasure, the other three hold elected posts and can't be removed by the Speaker alone. Besides, Gingrich's team has just two weeks to finalize a budget and tax-cutting deal with President Clinton before the August recess. "The Speaker doesn't want to waste time figuring out the intricacies of what happened," a Gingrich aide said. "He wants to move forward."

The Speaker did have time, however, to plot his revenge--and he settled on DeLay as his next target. Privately, Gingrich told associates that he wanted to remove the whip and replace him with DeLay's chief deputy, Illinois moderate Denny Hastert. Late last week Gingrich supporters began circulating a petition calling for an emergency meeting of the House G.O.P. conference this Tuesday. At least, DeLay and the others would have to explain themselves in front of all 228 Republican members. At most, DeLay could lose his post in a vote of no confidence--the very fate the rebels considered for Gingrich.

Armey is another matter. Though not convinced of his innocence, Gingrich believes Armey suffered a crisis of conscience and refused to participate in the coup. In fact, it was Armey's chief of staff who first alerted the Speaker's office to the insurrection. Besides, even if Gingrich could replace his entire leadership, he is in many ways better off with a wounded, chastened Armey than with some rookie at his side.