House Is Expected to Ratify Gingrich Penalty Today

WASHINGTON — The House ethics investigation of Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) will come to an official close today in a manner likely to be strikingly different from the way it was conducted.

The protracted, two-year probe is due to end in the briefest of debates--probably no more than an hour--when the House considers its Ethics Committee’s recommendation that Gingrich pay a $300,000 penalty and receive an official reprimand.

The bruising, partisan slugfests that have buffeted the investigation almost assuredly will give way to a somber, restrained debate in which the leaders of both sides are expected to pull their punches.

After months of intrigue and turbulence, the House is expected to approve the panel’s recommendation with an overwhelming bipartisan majority. With that, the formal investigation of charges centering on a college course Gingrich once taught will end.

But debate within the GOP about Gingrich’s future role will not. Some House Republicans were surprised by the seriousness of the charges against Gingrich, and they are furious that their leadership extracted support for his reelection as speaker earlier this month by likening his impending punishment to a speeding ticket.

“I have yet to see a $300,000 speeding ticket,” said Rep. Marshall “Mark” Sanford (R-S.C.), a second-term lawmaker. “I would dare say the speaker would not be the speaker today if the report had been issued before the vote.”

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The investigation focused on a college course Gingrich taught with financial support from nonprofit foundations. The committee concluded--and Gingrich admitted--that he presented false information about the course’s relationship to his political activities and that he failed to ensure he had complied with laws barring the use of tax-exempt funds for partisan purposes.

Gingrich is expected to address a closed-door meeting of the House Republican conference this morning before the House vote on whether to accept the recommendation that he be formally reprimanded and charged a $300,000 penalty--”reimbursement” for the cost to the House of the investigation, which the panel said was prolonged by the misleading information he submitted.

Republicans are hoping to limit debate to the one hour traditionally allotted for ethics matters, although some Democrats may try to extend the time.

Republican and Democratic leaders have the power during debate to propose increasing or decreasing the penalty proposed by the ethics panel, but neither side is expected to do so. And leaders of both parties have been discouraging their rank-and-file from mounting other efforts to challenge the committee recommendation.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) considered pushing for a weaker punishment but backed down after Gingrich himself accepted the proposed penalty, an aide said.

And talk among Democrats about proposing a harsher penalty--censure, which would force Gingrich to step down as speaker--faded after the committee proposed the stiff financial penalty and issued its sharply worded report.

House Minority Whip David E. Bonior (D-Mich.), Gingrich’s chief accuser, supports the committee recommendation and does not plan to speak during today’s debate, an aide said. “We think the report is strong,” the aide said.

Some GOP lawmakers said they were surprised by the severity of the financial penalty. Before Gingrich stood for reelection as speaker, GOP leaders had tried to calm jittery House members by spreading word that the punishment was likely to be no harsher than a reprimand.

“The problem is, if I’d seen the ethics report prior to taking the vote, I would not have voted [for Gingrich’s reelection],” Sanford said.

He also complained that “a whole other set of red flags” has been raised by reports that Gingrich is considering paying the $300,000 penalty with campaign funds rather than out of his own pocket. Faced with widening criticism of that suggestion, Gingrich aides said he would not decide how to pay the penalty until he has done further legal research.