Letters: Dec. 7, 1998

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Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy's piece on the "Fall of the House of Newt" was excellent. However, I have difficulty with a simplistic assertion early in the article: "Clinton has an affair with an intern, and Gingrich loses his job over it." Gingrich's position as a politician should not be judged against Clinton's private activities. Gingrich and the Republicans approached the midterm elections with the complete deck of cards up their sleeve. The public betrayal by Democrats of Clinton to protect their own political careers provided the Republicans with invaluable free negative advertising. Throughout the campaign the revelations regarding Clinton's private life grew more embarrassing by the day. For the Republicans to lose in the election, given Clinton's troubles, was reason enough for Newt to resign. Clinton and the Democrats have been judged on the President's political performance. That's why Newt is out and why Bill will survive! GERARD CORRIGAN Limerick, Ireland

When I heard that Newt Gingrich was stepping down as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, I recalled your article [NATION, Oct. 12] "On the Fast Track to Impeach," in which you wrote, "It takes a deft touch to set the right trap; but if you do, the other one will stumble right into it." I believe Gingrich set the right trap, but he himself stumbled right into it! KHASHAYAR RIAZY Tehran

The Conservative Republicans were evidently apprehensive, with good cause, about their basic instincts. This fear led to a heightened self-righteousness and inflamed passion to punish the President for his misdemeanor. But the Republicans carried on the flogging too long, and the people got weary. The Bard of Stratford-upon-Avon wrote in his immortal words addressed to the man flogging the whore, "Strip thine own back;/ Thou hotly lust'st to use her in that kind,/ For which thou whipp'st her" (King Lear). NARAYAN SWAMY Chennai, India

FAREWELL NEWTWORLD

Author Stephen Covey, cited in Andrew Ferguson's "Goodbye, Brave Newtworld" [ESSAY, Nov. 16], is on to us. Management consultants will suffer from the Gingrich fallout now that Newt's "thinking" has been compared with the "banalities...broken down and presented as 'steps' and 'affirmations'" in Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. For years, management mavens have been getting away with best sellers, that, like most of us passing through airport customs, have nothing to declare. Fortunately for the authors, few of their readers have ever read my 1984 article in International Management, "Sifting the Nonsense out of Management Theory."

The Gingrich era may be over, but there will always be a market for bromides, like Covey's counsel to "seek first to understand." Newt is undoubtedly trying to do just that. FRANK O'MEARA Behoust, France

THE FICKLE ELECTORATE

It seems to be common among the cleverest politicians in all democratic countries to grossly underestimate the good sense of the electorate [ELECTION REPORT, Nov. 16]. After the elections proved this homily once again, the U.S. Congress would be well advised to revise its judicial system so that a 34-year-old woman cannot sue a middle-aged man for a million dollars in damages just because she was confronted by him. HANSJORG CZINGLAR Innsbruck, Austria