GINGRICH AND CAMSCAM: 1984

Gadsden Times, May 28, 1984
House TV Coverage Feud
By ROBERT J. WAGMAN
WASHINGTON--The feud concerns coverage of House proceedings, which are televised by an "official" system that's under the speaker's direct control. All employees of the TV system are on the speaker's payroll.
It occurred to a group of conservative Republicans that the special-orders
period was taking place during prime time, and that speeches given then would be seen by hundreds of thousands of viewers.
Therefore, members of this group--led by Rep. Robert S. Walker of Pennsylvania, Rep. Newt Gingrich of Georgia and Rep. Vin Weber of Minnesota--began to deliver longwinded speeches during the special-orders. Night after night, with arms waving and voices choked with emotion, they've torn into the Democrats--and especially into the House Democratic leadership.

Eventually the Democrats realized just how these speeches were affecting home viewers: In a matter of weeks, Bob Walker--a relatively obscure eight
termer--had become a major figure. Now O'Neill ordered the cameras to pan the empty chamber during special-orders time. This would embarrass Walker and his colleagues by showing them delivering emotional orations to a sea of empty chairs.

One Republican called O'Neill "a cheap, mean, petty, second-class Boston politician. "The House has never operated under the strict rules of courtesy that are followed by the Senate. However, one of the oldest House rules is that if one representative plans to attack another by name on the floor, he must give that member 24 hours' notice in writing. This enables his "target" defend himself on the floor.

In the course of the special-orders speeches, the conservatives have attacked more than 50 Democrats by name, often in blistering fashion. Those attacks have come without warning: By custom, such notices are hand-delivered, but Walker and company have mailed them--so they generally haven't arrived until long after the attack. In addition, the oratory has been inflammatory and full of innuendo, guilt by association and even red-baiting of a type that hasn't really been heard on the House floor since the final days of the McCarthy era.