He Wants It. How Thrilling.

By Rick Horowitz

You can feel the tension mounting, can't you? We get closer and closer to the magic moment, and the crowds are surging and the noise is growing and pretty soon we're counting down those final seconds and --

All together now: Happy Newt Year!!

Huh? Or to put it another way: "Ha!" Gingrich is back. And he wants the White House.

You may have missed it, busy as you've been these past few days spreading comfort and joy and credit card receipts, and I certainly wasn't going to spoil the holiday mood for you. Twas the season to be jolly, right? Of course, the Newtster's always good for a giggle -- when he's not good for a guffaw.

This is one of those guffaw times. The Speaker is thinking of running for president. Of the United States.

"Sure," he said. Not to mention "Of course." This was just the other day, when the local paper down in Georgia asked him whether he wants to be president. No hesitation there. And is this desire...realistic? Does he have a shot at the next Republican nomination?

"If you put together a list of 20," the Speaker declared, "I'm on the list." So much for false modesty. So much for approval ratings in the ebola range.

But.

But just because he wants it, just because he's sure he belongs on the list of possibles, that doesn't mean he's decided to go for it -- not at all. Or at least not yet. It's premature, the Speaker told the paper. In fact, he said, he doesn't have to make a final decision about whether to run for president until Labor Day of 1999. That's his deadline: Labor Day of 1999.

A desperate nation holds its breath. Or is it stifling a yawn?

"I am somewhat incredulous." That's how one Republican strategist took the news, the stories say. He's not the only one. And Gingrich's own office was quick to try to hose down the boss's latest ego eruption. All that presidential talk? Just "a manifestation of hometown pride," his spokeswoman declared. "Nothing but a hypothetical wrapped in a prospect wrapped in a possibility." The Speaker, she said, fully intends to remain Speaker until the year 2003.

Unless, of course, he doesn't. Some of the skeptical types out there (you know who you are) suspect that this whole self-inflating presidential boomlet is nothing but an escape strategy, a face-saving way for Gingrich to bail out of Congress before his loyal lieutenants finally succeed in tossing him out.

After all, what could be a nobler pursuit than leaving the comfort of the Speaker's chair to answer the call of the people, to seek The Highest Office in the Land? If he gets there, it's gravy. And if he doesn't? (Seeing, that is, that being the most detested politician in America isn't the normal road to electoral success?) Hey, it still beats tar and feathers.

Or maybe he means it. Maybe he thinks he's truly the man for the job, and the people's choice. In that case, we can all spend the next year and a half watching him testing the waters, trying out tactics, getting closer, ever closer, to making the big decision. I don't know about you, but I'm keeping my calendar clear for Labor Day '99.

Gingrich for President? The excitement is almost overwhelming.

12/31/97