Dick Armey, Stepping Ahead to ead `Yes' or `No'-Conservative Learns to Say 'Maybe—Even to M derates 51( By Guy Gugliotta Kan.), the party's presumptive pres dential nomi- Washington Post Staff Writer nee. In Gingrich's absence, House M 'ority Leader Dick Armey loves free markets, the balanced Richard K. Armey (R-Tex.) has ste ped forward, budget and the . He hates farm subsidies, the bringing with him an impeccable reput tion as a red- Commerce Department and the minimum wage. meat conservative with rough edges, who, even in He's not shy about saying what he thinks, and he his current job, often serves as the lea ership's ideo- doesn't play to the crowd. logical last line of defense. This is pe haps both his "You gotta understand," he told a group of high greatest strength and his weakness. school honor students from Florida who asked him Armey's suggestion Sunday on NB 's "Meet the about the future of federal education grants during a Press" that the government cut edu tion spending recent visit to the Capitol. "I'm not a big fan of the to fund the repeal of a 4.3 cents-per- allon gasoline federal government." tax prompted immediate cries of ou age from the Two months have passed since House Speaker Clinton administration. (R-Ga.), whose national popularity But inside the House, Armey wins r spect for hav- was sinking out of sight, "stepped back" from the ing the courage of his convictions and e willingness day-to-day legislative grind to raise money for GOP to state them. Both his friends and his nemies agree House candidates and coordinate reelection strate- that he doesn't lie, doesn't take ch ap shots and gy with Senate Majority Leader Robert J. Dole (R- See ARMEY, A4, Col. 2

ARMEY, From Al the wage is anathema to conservatives, he doesn't stab colleagues in the back. With Ar- said. Instead of rolling ove now, wait a while mey, what you see is what you get. and craft an alternative proposal that creates "The speaker thinks laterally rather than jobs and increases take-ho tt e pay. It was "a vertically . . . it's a really creative way to very forceful argument," 'd one leadership problem-solve," said freshman Rep. Mark Ed- source who described the eeting, and it car- ward Souder (R-Ind.). "But it's an fflusory ried the day. style. He's never pinned down, and you often Saying "no" was vintage Armey, faithful to wonder what's going on." his belief that "you should n ver do the wrong With Armey, the microeconomist from thing to reward your ene 'es." It was also , this is never a problem. "He's much music to conservative ears the kind of hard- more straightforward," Souder said. "And if headedness that made him t e man the fresh- you're in a straightforward group like the men wanted in the room • Clinton during freshmen, you're much more comfortable last year's budget battles. with that." And saying no also wa a "defining mo- But now Armey is being asked to do more. ment" for a GOP still stuns: by its defeats at Now it is Armey who takes the beating from Clinton's hands, according to David Mason, Democrats on the minimum wage, who urges vice president of the con rvative Heritage President Clinton to sign Congress's bills on Foundation and longtime ey ally. "They health care, product liability and missile de- [the Republicans] lost on the budget, and fense. It is Armey who chastises the presi- they're trying to get back in the fight," Mason dent for his threatened vetoes. said. "If they had given up on the minimum And it is Armey who must smother his own wage, they would have been in full rout. agenda to enlist help from GOP moderates You've almost got to give Armey the credit whose support he must have to pass bills. He all alone." is a "yes" or "no" person now called upon to But although Armey may have stopped a say "maybe," and to do it diplomatically. GOP retreat, a week later he was worried Over the past two weeks, his colleagues that his harshness had alienated moderate have seen both sides. At a recent House lead- supporters of the minimum wage who were ership meeting, it was Armey who blew the reluctant to fall on their swords during a whistle when Gingrich was about ready to al- tough election year. low a floor vote to raise the minimum wage. "It's all well and good for me to talk about Democrats were giving Republicans a fearful the minimum wage as a 'cruel hoax,' " he said beating on a popular issue, and the GOP was before a Republican conference meeting. "But thinking about cutting its losses, taking the there are guys who are saying, 'There's Ar- defeat and moving on. mey standing high and dry pi the river bank, Not this way. counseled Armey. Raising i1,...;.,11/5 V IQ. -I/ LJ• 'When you talk to Dick Armey you know what he beli ves, and where he stands," Souder said. s approach is to ,apply those beliefs, and thin those confines to find 218 votes." If he 't find them, pragmatism will cause him to oderate his position, but, col- leagues say, 's doesn't mean he's changed his mind. "He's easy o work with, but he's narrow," agreed Rep. harles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), a Brooklyn libe who worked with Armey for years to cut f programs. "He doesn't real-_ ly try to see e other person's viewpoint, but when you disa ee, he'll let you know." It troubles ey that his plainspoken con- servatism can come across as mean-spirited or evil-temp red, as it did on "Meet the Press." Yes, e acknowledged, "I have said `confrontation is a tool,' " but "I don't do an- ger—in my w de career here I cannot recall FRE PHOTO/BY JAMES k PARCELL- a time when I House Speaker Newt Gingrich, flanked by Majority Whip Tom DeLay, left, and Majority Leader as angry." Richard K. Armey in December. In Gingrich's recent absence, Armey has stepped forward. Still, it is a arently no picnic to cross him on something he cares about. Souder and Rep. John B and while I'm drowning, he's telling me that den Shadegg (R-Ariz.) recall ment shared by much of the GOP caucus. trying to cir ate a letter in early I'll learn to swim eventually.' " "Gingrich has been in and out," Souder said. 1995 nig- Cold comfort, and during the conference a ing colleagues to oppose the balanced budget "Armey has been mostly the same." amendment ess it included a provision few hours later, he acknowledged as much. And Souder, like many of his colleagues, re- quiring a thre fifths House Stay with us, he told his colleagues, and there expects that Gingrich will reassert himself "supermajority" will be a floor vote that will address the needs to raise taxes. when the time is right. Gingrich remains the "The leade ship doesn't mind letters as of society's poor working families. GOP's main man, and "has to engage publicly, long as they d n't have the words `I And even though "I believe in my soul" that because we have no one else." will not raising the minimum wage is a bad idea, it Now 55, Armey is a tall, solid-looking man vote for' in th m," Souder said. "They were may be there "in some form," said one leader- with a 1950s haircut, a PhD in economics getting heartb ." Shadegg and Souder were ship source, quoting Armey. On that day, the from the University of and a good sent individuall to Armey's office for serious source said, the moderates "saw him at his ol' boy Dallas drawl that has all but erased his discussion. best." roots in small-town . "Basically I as taken to the woodshed," For conservatives, dealing with Armey can Today he sports a pair of cowboy boots Shadegg recall d. "Armey said, `You can't do be a relief, especially after the budget deba- this.' I said we were going to do it. An hour cle. Freshman Rep. Charles Joseph Scarbor- with the seal of the House of Representatives on them and uses an office computer with a later, we were going round and round. . . . It ough (R-Fla.), an ardent crusader, said Gin- was fairly ag essive." Souder reported grich "could have been tougher" in the budget screen saver photograph of Dick Armey kiss- the ing a bass. He is loaded with folksy good hu- same experien e. "I understood we were on negotiations and suggested that the current the same page philosophically," Souder said. popular wisdom—that Gingrich is somehow a mor and an endless stream of one-line apho- risms culled mostly from country music "But he was going that bringing down the "moderate" and Armey a true conservative— balanced budge would bring us all down.* ; "is not inaccurate." lyrics. Anney blamed the budget crisis for briefly But even at the beginning of his House ca- Chastened b t unconvinced, Souder went blurring the division of labor between him and reer 12 years ago, most of this fooled nobody. back to the fl r, only to be grabbed by Gin-, Gingrich, worked out at the beginning of this "From the moment he arrived, he was grich. Vote for e balanced budget now, Gin- Congress and abandoned late last year during marked out as a fast burner and a true believ- grich said, and ell give you a vote on the su- the budget meltdown when "everybody was er motivated by ideas," said Heritage's Ma- permajority ne t year on tax day. doing everything." son. Souder agr ed; the balanced budget Now, Armey said, the leadership as a Some of Armey's ideas caught on. In 1988, amendment pa sed the House; and a super- whole, not Gingrich, has gone back "to the he scored a major tour de force from the mi- majority amen ent was voted on and reject- model we had." Gingrich, he said, is the out- nority back bench when his proposal for an in- ed this past A 15. "When you look back, side man—a better fund-raiser and a "good dependent commission to shut down obsolete you could see lot of the variables," Sotide.r visionary" who "gives great speeches." military bases was signed into law. said. Armey s ftened them up, "and that Armey is the inside man. "I have had more Other ideas have not fared as well. Since made us more enable to a deal. But it was of a penchant for legislation," he said. "I can the late 1980s, he has waged a crusade to get Gingrich who st pped in to do the deal." do the politics, but I don't like it. I'm much rid of farm subsidy programs, first drawing Now, howe er, Gingrich is not always more comfortable in this role of managing the attention and fire in 1990 with an article he available as the court of last resort, and Ar- House." wrote for the Heritage Foundation entitled mey has to act s his own referee. He says, He noted that while Gingrich took on the "Moscow on the Mississippi." "lily wife tells ie I have a tendency toward job of proselytizing for the "Contract With This year, Congress enacted a major sim- conflict avoidan e." Others note that conflict America" and organizing the GOP's new ma- plification of farm programs, but many of Ar- is what got him o the pinnacle. jority enthusiasm, it was Armey who put to- mey's favorite whipping boys, like sugar and "He didn't s e me as a leadership type, gether the bills that brought the contract to peanut subsidies, survived almost intact. because he said what he thought too much, the House floor. In this case, Souder said, Armey was fol- and he didn't g out of his way to reach be- And while more of the limelight is falling on lowing another Armey aphorism—"Don't let yond his own vi wpoint," Schumer said. "I'm him now, Armey maintains this has occurred the perfect be the enemy of the good"—but surprised he's jority leader, but in this more by default than by design, an assess- Souder and others caution that compromise Congress he fits "