Friday, November 20, 1998

Livingston has good chance as new speaker

Bob Livingston, the Louisiana Republican who is due to become speaker of the House in January, has a black belt in Tae Kwan Do, and some are kidding that his martial-arts skills could come in handy in his new job.

The opposite, however, seems to be nearer the truth. What will work for him will be his skills at compromise and getting along with his political opponents.

Livingston faces a task that ranges from difficult to impossible. The Republicans hold their majority by precious few votes and are divided on any number of issues. Partisan fever runs high, and the president is hugely talented at manipulating public opinion. To get bills passed, Livingston will ordinarily need help from Democrats, and that will require that he put together some bipartisan coalitions.

He seems to have a talent for that, along with a slow but sure way of finally getting things done no one felt could be accomplished. The question some have is whether he can accommodate all the differences he will encounter and still stay true to some core Republican principles.

A good guess is that he can. Livingston does not possess Newt Gingrich's brilliance in articulating issues, nor his ferocity in defending what he believes in, but he has been a solid fiscal conservative and an enemy of an ever-expanding federal establishment. He is a conservative, too, on social issues, but not a shout-in-your-face kind. He has not been known to abandon his central convictions even while staying focused on finding practical, accommodating ways to get things done.

Livingston is not a sure thing to succeed in his important new undertaking, but his style, along with the decency that is said to mark the man, give him a better than even chance.