HOW HE SEES IT Newt is thinking: 'I can be president'

By JAMES P. PINKERTON
SPECIAL TO NEWSDAY
Inside the mind of Newt Gingrich:
If I can help shape the agenda for both parties in 2006, I can win the presidency in 2008.
I'm looking now at the recent record, starting with two hot issues: health care and immigration. On health care, the June 12 Washington Post ran a front-page story, "States' Changes Reshape Medicaid/New Restrictions Aim to Save Money"; the piece gave me, and my group, The Center for Health Transformation, credit for instigating the shift toward prevention and personal responsibility among Medicaid recipients. Outcomes are improved, and money is saved -- it's a win-win for governors of both parties.
And as for immigration, I was one of the first to see the importance of border control. Even before Sept. 11, I argued for a Department of Homeland Security. So now, Bush's plan for guest workers will have to wait. The House Republicans, who still listen to me, will be the big winners; they will block the White House plan and reap the benefit with the voters. By contrast, the Senate Republicans sided with the White House, taking the side of open borders; now they will reap an unpleasant political whirlwind. Indeed, the Senate whirlwind-reapers include most of the '08 hopefuls: John McCain, Bill Frist, Chuck Hagel and Sam Brownback. All voted wrong this year; all will be blown away in the GOP primaries.
Meanwhile, the Democrats are using my political ideas. Look at this headline in The Hill on June 15: "Democrats can't get enough of Newt Gingrich's slogan." Back in March I had said the Democrats could recapture Congress by using a two-word slogan: "Had enough?" Those two simple words, after all, were used by the Republicans back in their victorious year of 1946.
And now the Pelosi Democrats, proving again that they have no ideas of their own, have taken my advice. Here's a quote from that newspaper piece: "During her speech to the liberal group Campaign for America's Future this week, (House Democratic Leader Nancy) Pelosi asked the crowd, "Have you had enough?'" Those Democrats sure are blockheads. I tell them to use a 60-year-old campaign slogan, and they do it. Maybe I should next tell them to buy a big billboard at Ebbets Field.
'Contract With America'
And if "Had enough?" is such a good slogan for modern times, the Dems should have wondered, why didn't I, Newt, use it in 1994 when I led the Republican campaign to recapture Congress? Well, 12 years ago, I didn't use just two words; I laid out an ambitious 10-item agenda, "The Contract With America." That's why the Republicans won --they had the better vision. And I articulated it. Meanwhile, if the Democrats draw their inspiration from the 1940s, the GOP will be OK in November.
And if we do well in the midterm elections, I'll get points with the party yet again. I'll soon find out how many points I've earned, because I'm running for the White House in '08. I see Gallup has me in third place among GOPers, behind McCain and Rudy Giuliani. That's better than it sounds, because New York City's former mayor probably won't run, and, as I said, McCain can't be nominated; he reopened that political chasm between himself and the Christian Right on immigration and gay marriage. So it'll be me vs. the rest of the pack, and I'm already leading that pack.
Finally, this is a Republican country -- I know, because I helped make it such. When the '08 choice becomes clearer, voters will like me better than some liberal. So if I get the nomination, I can win this thing. The 44th president.
X Pinkerton is a columnist for Newsday. Distributed by Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service