HERE'S A DISTINCTION THAT USED TO BE DRAWN BETWEEN
congressional Republicans and presidential Republicans. They were of different temperaments and styles. Gingrich is obviously someone who would like to run for President, but 1995 shows that he really is more of the congressional-Republican mold. It fits him a lot more. Usually the skills of someone who is powerful in Congress and someone who is an effective President are different.

Kennedy was a very undistinguished Senator. He was not much of a parliamentarian. His colleagues did not think very well of him. On the other hand, for all his failings as President, he was a very effective national spokesman. Johnson was a wonderfully effective majority leader, and as President, one of the things he did best was to get votes in Congress for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. A President without all those parliamentary skills would not have done that well. On the other hand, even Johnson would say that one of his weaknesses was as a national spokesman for a certain set of ideas. Gingrich has tried to be both, and the experience of 1995 suggests that is very difficult to do.

Gingrich is also a revolutionary leader, a man comfortable with the kind of turmoil required to bring about change. But revolutionary leaders in America, even when they are successful, usually flare for only a year or two, and then they tend to fade. Gingrich may be able to resist that, but history suggests that would be very tough.