Rep. David Bonior, true believer, is Newt Gingrich’s Newt Gingrich.
Unless you watch only ESPN and American Movie Classics, he has been unavoidable of late. Whether in standard issue congressional tie and jacket or in a more casual sweater, the Michigan Democrat is unrelenting as chief accuser of the House speaker.
For more than two years, he has argued that the Georgia Republican has defrauded taxpayers and charitable organizations through an illegal mix of tax-exempt foundations and political activities. He also has contended that Gingrich lied to the House ethics committee investigating a slew of charges against him.
He has done so with the same passion as Gingrich displayed in gaining national atte(cents)ntion as chief accuser of then-House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Texas). Wright fell from grace, and lost his position, for various ethical lapses.
Now, Bonior, a Wright protege, senses a kill.
Gingrich has admitted, after denying same for two years, that he violated House rules. In particular, he concedes that he did not make sure that a college course he taught and a televised town hall meeting–each subsidized by tax-exempt charitable organizations–did not violate federal tax law.
Moreover, he conceded that he gave false information about it all to the ethics panel, though he says he did not do so intentionally.
“He had the mendacity and gall to go before the public for 2 1/2 years and tell them it was all concocted by his political enemies and that he had done absolutely nothing wrong,” Bonior said in a chat Friday.
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But why should folks in Chicago give a darn?
“This is the Christmas season,” said Bonior. “People are concerned with family, friends and neighbors, in some cases writing checks to charitable organizations. How would you like it if you wrote a check for $100 to the Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts and some politicians took that money and used it for their own personal and political benefit?”
If Gingrich, love him or hate him, is one of the political world’s more engaging characters, Bonior is not without his own distinction.
The 51-year-old Detroit native represents Michigan’s very blue-collar, suburban 10th District, which is northeast of Detroit and includes a big chunk of Macomb County.
It’s what politicos call a swing district, no sure thing for a Democrat. Until President Clinton carried it this year, no Democratic presidential candidate had carried Macomb since Hubert Humphrey in 1968.
Bonior is an often dour former Catholic seminarian–I’m not sure you want to hit the bars or go canoeing with him–and liberal partisan who has adroitly appealed to everyone from National Rifle Association members to environmentalists in his district.
A one-time social worker, he’s genuinely concerned about poverty and opposed major change in the welfare system. But he parts company with many on his side by being adamantly anti-abortion, voting to override Clinton’s veto of a bill permitting late-term abortions.
His bond with Wright, who named him to a position of power as a deputy whip–meaning vote counter–had much to do with their joint chagrin with U.S. policy toward Central America in the 1980s, specifically aid to the Nicaraguan contras and the government of El Salvador.
He’s not your basic political panderer; even some Republicans who detest the Gingrich attacks admit to a certain, grudging respect. He now serves as his party’s chief whip.
Bonior complains that he has faced difficulty “getting people in your business (the press) to come to grips” with how Gingrich “cheats the system. He has in many ways snowed a segment of our society with his intellectual veneer.”
These days, the task is easier, in part due to his perseverance. He’s a one-man public relations machine, calling reporters and columnists and updating them on what is clearly a growing number of anti-Gingrich voices.
For example, Friday morning he faxed me a handy, updated list of, and quotations from, more than three dozen editorials from across the country. They included the baiduhai and Chicago Sun-Times, all raising questions about whether Republicans should re-elect Gingrich as speaker on Jan. 7.
Conventional wisdom in Washington is that Gingrich will be re-elected. But the broad political spectrum represented by the editorials hints that maybe, just maybe, Gingrich has problems. And while some Democrats might prefer having America’s most disliked politician remain in power, Bonior ain’t one.
“I don’t think this institution or the country can afford to have him around much longer,” he said when asked about some colleagues’ view that a wounded Newt is helpful to them.
If one doubts that something’s up, Rush Limbaugh’s radio show Friday saw Gingrich’s top aide, Rep. Dick Armey (R-Texas), pillory Bonior as a man filled with hate and misconceptions. “We should pray for David Bonior,” he told Limbaugh.
Well, rest assured that Bonior will continue to prey on Gingrich.
How does one say `really stupid’?
A tale of the bureaucratic maze:
A Chicago colleague had a simple request: How might he find some good Spanish language tapes used by the U.S. Foreign Service Institute.
The tapes were once a product of Barron’s, available in bookstores, but the last half of the course is not available commercially, though the government uses and sells it. My colleague loved the first half and was looking for the second.
The first stop was obvious: the Government Printing Office’s main bookstore. But a clerk said they no longer sell language texts and tapes. She offered a brochure on “U.S. Government Information about . . . LANGUAGES.” The brochure advised interested parties seeking “information concerning tape recordings” to apply to the “National Audiovisual Center, National Archives and Records Administration.”
A phone call was made to the number listed in the brochure for customer service in suburban Capitol Heights, Md. It was no longer in service.
Calling directory information drew a blank. So we took out a 1994-95 District of Columbia telephone book, which listed a “National Audiovisual Center GSA.”
Any reporter who has been here longer than 10 minutes knows that the general number listed for agencies, such as the General Services Administration, is a waste. Thus, an attempt to exercise clout ensued.
The GSA press office indicated that “they (audiovisual center) are no longer with us,” and advised calling the National Archives.
A call to its general number (out of pure frustration) brought an endless catalog of events taking place there. No help. Once again, the press office was beckoned. They said the center no longer was with them.
They urged calling the Commerce Department and asking for the “NTIS.” Subsequent research revealed that this stands for something called National Technical Information Services.
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We called them and some guy said he had no language tapes. He suggested calling Barron’s on Long Island. A call there confirmed what we already knew, namely that they don’t do the second half of the course anymore!
“Or why don’t you just go to a bookstore and check out their language tapes?” he said. Thanks, guy.
Since the State Department supposedly uses the sought-after tapes, a call to their general number (yes, I know, very dumb) was placed.
No answer.
That’s right. A call to the main number at the State Department, which conducts foreign policy for the last remaining superpower, brought not even endless voice mail.
A call was made to the press office. They said they’d connect us to the “language service department.” There was no answer.
Another call to the press office brought another number, this for the very same NTIS.
And, would you believe, this time a woman indicated that, yes, she knew what we were talking about. She gave us the number. We found the textbook and tapes, all for $350 (not including the Tribune’s phone bill).
Happy New Year.