Snapped Shot

WASHINGTON -- For 12 long years in the minority, House Democrats used the lazy hours of legislative debate to score political points on the ruling party, using procedural objections to make Republicans squirm before the C-SPAN audience.

But when Republicans tried to turn the tables yesterday, they had a well-schooled adversary sitting in for the speaker of the House: Representative Barney Frank , the Newton Democrat who had done his own time on the House floor performing for the cameras. In typical Frank fashion, the Republican objection was dispatched quickly -- and with a bite.

TO DEMOCRATS, TURNABOUT IS NOT FAIR PLAY
CRIES OF HYPOCRISY GREET REPUBLICANS' AMENDMENT BAN
Published on January 6, 1995
Author(s): Jill Zuckman, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- It was only last year when Rep. Newt Gingrich of Georgia bitterly complained that Democrats were silencing the GOP, prohibiting the minority from offering amendments on the crime bill. The real crime, Gingrich said, was being committed by the Democratic Party. Republicans swore they would never do the same should they control the House. They blamed a ''corrupt Democratic machine'' for rigging the game, as Gingrich liked to say.

BY THEIR WORDS Y'ALL WILL KNOW THEM NEWT-NIKS
Published on January 8, 1995
Author(s): David Nyhan, Globe Staff

So another smooth-talking Sunbelt politician elbows his way to the mike, dazzles the Greek chorus of the media with his sharp wit, knowing leer, encyclopedic grasp of government arcana, surefootedness with colleagues, airy disdain for the ink-stained wretches who chronicle the game, a shock of prematurely-graying hair, his utterly confident grab for the levers of power. Last week it was Newt. Two years ago it was Clinton. Two years from now . . . Sonny Bono? Why not? The Washington press corps...