Beltway Feuds

By JAMES CARNEY/WASHINGTON

During a break in the official program at the House Republican retreat last week in Williamsburg, Va., NEWT GINGRICH sidled up to BILL PAXON and asked if they could have a chat. That raised eyebrows: relations between the two have been ice-cold since last summer, when the New York Congressman lost his leadership job after taking part in a failed coup attempt against the Speaker. Despite the bad blood, Gingrich quietly pressed Paxon for his support when the Speaker runs for re-election in December.

Back me for Speaker once more, Gingrich has been telling Republicans, and I may step down to run for President next year. He has remarked how large and enthusiastic his fund-raising audiences have been. If he seeks the presidency, he almost certainly will not complete his term as Speaker, which is why there is a ferocious race to become his heir apparent. It is also why Paxon, who agreed to support the Speaker, refused when Gingrich urged him to back the re-election of the entire leadership. As Gingrich knows, disgruntled House Republicans are urging Paxon to take on Newt's top deputy, majority leader DICK ARMEY. That way, if Gingrich steps down, Paxon would be in position to replace him. Any doubts Gingrich had about how he's really regarded in the Paxon household were erased later in the week when the New York Post excerpted a book written by Paxon's wife, former G.O.P. Congresswoman turned CBS anchor SUSAN MOLINARI. It described Gingrich as self-obsessed, suffering delusions of grandeur and prone to tears of self-pity.

--By James Carney/Washington