This article was reprinted from the August 2, 1997 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.
There is no end to the changes in our political scene.
The Republican Governor of Massachusetts resigned because Clinton nominated him to be Ambassador to Mexico. But another Republican, Jesse Helms, has decided to block the nomination, without even a hearing. It's become a big issue and has furthered the split in the Republican Party.
The squabbling and feuding in the Republican Party has turned into a serious split in the top circles of the Party. This affects the entire top leadership, which is very unusual.
Although many are now denying they were part of the plan to get rid of Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, or claiming they were there but didn't participate, the fact is that most of the top leadership were at the strategy meeting and all were for the movement to remove Gingrich.
What foiled the coup attempt was the question of Gingrich's successor. Who would succeed Gingrich as the Speaker of the House? On this question there was no agreement and the plan fell apart, for the time being.
The disagreement, however, is not only about who would replace Gingrich, but on much more fundamental questions than the role of individuals.
Many Republican leaders want to be Speaker. Bill Paxon was one of the main contenders. Paxon did not quit. Gingrich got rid of him because he saw Paxon as a traitor, as a ring leader in the conspiracy to dump him.
The firing of Paxon, who is a younger, influential force in the Republican leadership with ambitions to be Speaker, is now a problem for the Republicans.
The attempted coup and the split will have repercussions within and way beyond the Republican Party. A few of them are:
* The extreme right wing of the Republican Party, the Texas delegation in the first place, who mainly tried to pull off the coup against Gingrich, is weaker. They may have felt the time and conditions were ripe, but they were wrong. They failed. This weakened them considerably, not only in the party, but also in the public eye. Gingrich has now a below 25 percent approval rating in the public opinion polls. That's as low as Nixon was a day before he resigned.
* Paxon is much weaker because he failed to get himself accepted as Gingrich's successor and instead found himself ousted from his appointed post in the Republican party leadership.
* And, of course, Gingrich is much weaker. Gingrich cannot last past the November 1998 elections, that is, if he makes it that far. He may be forced out within the next few months.
The fact that the coup failed was not due to lack of desire or intentions by the coup makers to rid the party of Gingrich. It was because of lack of agreement on the part of the right-wing leadership of the Republican Party.
So Gingrich is undesirable to his own party, especially the right wing of his own Party, who now view him as a "moderate" because of his attempt to opportunistically back off extreme positions, but also the whole Republican Party is unhappy with him.
The split, perhaps most significantly, is a reflection of the growing weakness of the Republican Party as a whole. They have been going through one crisis after another.
The Repulicans' image as a party of, by and for the rich has reemerged stronger than ever, especially because of their anti-workingclass, pro-corporate positions on welfare and taxes.
So far they have weathered the multiple crises. But each has left them weaker. Now, after the failed coup attempt, they are a weaker party, still dominated by an ultra-right wing, but that is also a weakened force.
The Republicans are divided over the role of the trade unions. The extreme right is openly anti-trade union. In every speech they make they attack labor. The moderates are anti-union but silently. They have difficulty with this among the Republican rank and file, because the rank and file is closer to the working class.
The only victories the Republicans win is the ones that Clinton gives them. Although it is not yet totally in the open what effect this will have on Clinton and the Democratic Party.
Clinton has moved to the right on both domestic and foreign policy questions. The most recent example is his administration's denial of U.S. young people's right to travel to Cuba for the World Youth Festival. Clinton's endorsement of the budget is another example.
But this split, if responded to appropriately, could potentially be used to pressure Clinton to move away from Republican positions.
However, at the moment there isn't much difference, and none on some issues, between the Democrats and Republicans.
On the budget it seems that the Republicans won the big issues and Clinton won a number of the smaller issues.
Both pushed wrong policies, Republicans in some areas, Democrats in others.
Both sides want to make the cuts at the expense of workers and the poor.
This split is serious and it will continue to tear at the Republicans. It is deeper and more significant than appears on the surface.
One of the early obvious signs of the effects is that one after another candidate now announcing for Congress are all taking positions for or against the Republicans who are key players in the split.
The Republicans have held three crisis meetings since the coup attempt. Gingrich and others quoted a lot from the Bible, but there was no discussion about the questions that were the basis of the attempted coup.
The split in the Republican Party creates the possibility for the defeat of the extreme right wing forces in November and in the next Congressional elections.
The campaign for Congress can be different. In fact it must be different.
It is now possible to get better candidates working class, trade union, African American, Mexican American, Puerto Rican, women and Communist candidates - to run and win.
Gus Hall is the national chairman of the Communist Party USA.
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