Gingrich "Bon Vivanting" 'Round London at Driller's Expense
"Not bad… but don't you think my name should be on top?… Oh… forget it."
WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 8th 1998: NEW YORK -- Ultra-Sleaze Speaker Newt Gingrich, only his way out quicker than you might have thought, was red-faced again as the Associated Press (AP) fingered him and the Atlantic Richfield Co. for underwriting Gingrich, his wife and two lackeys for a five day imperial trip to London.
ARCO's legislative agenda? Drilling in the U.S. Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a flashpoint for American and Western European environmentalists. 
"How dare you question my Imperial Legacy?"
Heads will roll at ARCO's super-sophisticated Los Angeles-based office of public affairs.
"This isn't supposed to happen." one ARCO staffer confided to American Politics. Yet ARCO knew that its seemingly unlimited largesse would be published by congressional regulation. Why did they take such a chance?
It's the money stupid. Plain and simple.
It's legal. Plain and simple.
ARCO ponied up nearly $50,000 for the former "nutty professor" and his wife to fly first class (nearly $9,000 per seat ticket) to London and have a limousine on call for Newt et al 24 hours a day.
One might forgive Gingrich, a little, if he was on U.S. Congressional business. But the fact is he was in Britain primarily to make a "private" speech to oil company executives and others "dignitaries." We don't know what he said (that's classified) but it must have been a doozy at $10,000 a day.
Newt Dressed like Little Lord Fauntleroy for Westminster
Here's how it works:
First: Gingrich, of course, sought prior permission from the House Ethics Committee for the trip. Now, what's the chance of getting nixed by a GOP controlled committee? How bout ZERO. It's the standard cover. The Congress kept a loophole open two years ago when it banned almost all gifts to members of Congress. The exception? Expense-paid travel. The only thing required for your local Representative to spend $10,000 or $100,000 a day of some coporation's money is that the trip be connected with a his or her "official duties" and be reported, in full, within 30 days. The Republican controlled congress - Friends of the the Working Man made sure that first-class travel and luxury accommodations were permitted as reasonable expenses.
Give us a break!
Second: Gingrich made sure he did some "official" stuff. He had a 20 minute meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair who probably thinks Newt is a pariah. He also made a public speech at London University as a sort of "emissary" of the United States. No attention was paid to the fact that the President, not Congress is the chief diplomatic representative of the United States.
Now, Newt could jump aboard that plane with total immunity except for public opinion which couldn't go much lower in Gingrich's case.
This writer travels a lot - on my own money. I've stayed where Newt and Marianne did -- at Claridges, one of the most exclusively snotty hotels in London, where a standard room can cost more than $600 per night. Of course Newt and Marianne don't stay in mere rooms, they had super-digs which went for a whopping $2,500 a night, including bath robes and shoe shines. That's more spent on a room, in one day, than the average cleaning lady takes home in 3 months under Newt's touted workfare programs.
Gingrich, his wife and staff didn't splurge on meals, the four spent only about $1,000 dollars pigging out between exclusive hosted luncheons and dinners paid for by ARCO and others who influence Newt.
To prove he was an intellect, Gingrich stopped by the London Museum of Natural History and paid a reverent visit to Westminster Abbey - dreaming of an America where he would be King complete with coronation in that venerable landmark.
To prove he was "bankable" he also had a private meeting with ARCO Chairman Mike Bowlin - for what Newt says was "preparation" for his speech to a roomful of oil barons.
We have a transcript of the Bowlin/Gingrich meeting held in Bowlin's suite:
BOWLIN: "Hey Newt buddy what's up, are you ready to wow 'em?"
NEWT: "You bet Mike, and thanks for that pound of Beluga. We literally rolled in it in that bathtub of champagne you sent up. Look, I'm really not up on this Alaska crap. What do you want me to say? How do you think I can rationalize your drilling to those peace-queer environment boys back home?"
BOWLIN: "Why bother Newt? Just tell 'em they'll have to mothball all those gas-guzzling Jeep Cherokees if we don't get 'em more oil...[then Bowlin breaks into an edited theme song from the Beverly Hillbillies] "C'mon listen to my story 'bout a man named Newt, a poor Georgia boy, never thought his ex-wife cute, and then one day he was shootin ' at the Dems and up from the ground came a bubblin' gem... "
THEN NEWT JOINS IN...
NEWT: "Oil! Black Gold! Texas Tea! So the family said "Newt move away from here," buy yourself a mansion in the hills of Virginy... So Newt bought himself a congressional seat, and moved his secretary to to the mansion's master suite! ." Ha, ha, haha Mike you're a card!"
BOWLIN: (Chuckling and sitting down with a crystal bar glass filled with 200 year-old scotch) "But let's get serious Newt. You're a short term loser. This trip alone will mess you up big time. So we want one last favor from you. Then that job you're lookin' for - you know Executive VP of ARCO or any of the Seven Sisters for that matter - is yours. 'Course, we'll bankroll you for that laughable presidential run you wanna make. Even though you'll lose big, it wouldn't be bad to have a board member who at least ran for president. But we need you to call in all those IOU's that WE paid for and get those turkey colleagues of yours to give us an "A-Pass" to carve up the Arctic. No bullshit Newt. That's what we want. And if we don't get it, you'll be teaching History 101 at a local junior college in Macon. That clear?
NEWT: "Damn straight Mike. Now where's that pate' foi Gras - This diet makes me voracious!"
The "GingGrinch" then proceeded, in five days, to tote up the most expensive trip recorded in the two years since the new congressional travel rules took effect.
In five days he ran up a tab matching the annual salary of a senior New York cop.
Now comes his sick defense.
"I defy you to oust me!"
Gingrich and his people rationalize the expense by saying the trip cost less than a 90-minute flight on Air Force One. What they don't mention is that the President didn't ask for the plane. It exists primarily for security and communications for the single most powerful man on the earth. Remember, Newt himself flew in Air Force One, and complained that he didn't get a "good enough" seat.
To be fair, Gingrich isn't the only porker feeding at the corporate trough. Witness Mourn Dowd's devastating column yesterday on Dwayne Andreas and sell-out video-journalist David Brinkley. Corporations have shelled out nearly $5 million for private but "official" "travel expenses" for congress in the 1996 reporting year alone. The majority of it to Republicans.
And you thought they were guarding your "family" and its "values."
What does ARCO have to say? Well, soon to be chucked, spokesperson Al Greenstein, said that ARCO sponsors this private oil mogul tete-a-tete every year and has done so since 1976. He claims the petroleum giant merely seeks speakers (pardon the pun) "whose views are of interest to an audience of government and business leaders of the United Kingdom and top ARCO executives."
Tee-hee.
Yes, especially ARCO executives.
In the past the ARCO search for the Holy Grail has ended with such oil-related speaker "giants in the field" as Ron Reagan, George Bush, Jimmy Carter, and none other than Bob Dole. And gee, they're all Republicans except for Carter (maybe) , who just builds houses for the poor to assuage his guilt.
Isn't it time Newt?
Oh… in the interest of fairness - ARCO also gave Democrats nearly $500 thousand last election cycle and Mike Bowlin attended the White House dinner for Chinese Leader Zemin. Wonder why? Maybe it was that oil refinery ARCO bought on the Chinese mainland?
© 1998, 1997, American Politics Journal Publications Inc.