GINGRICH PLEDGES TO TURN ENERGY TO TAX CUTS, HARSH DRUG PENALTIES.Byline: Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. Newt Gingrich promised constituents Saturday that energy spent resolving his ethics problems will be refocused on a Republican agenda that includes tax cuts and swift death sentences for drug smugglers. About 200 supporters greeted with raucous rau·cous adj. 1. Rough-sounding and harsh: raucous laughter. 2. Boisterous and disorderly: "the raucous give and take of American democracy" applause the embattled em·bat·tled adj. 1. Prepared or fortified for battle or engaged in battle: embattled troops; an embattled city. 2. House speaker and his wife, Marianne, as they arrived 30 minutes late to address a GOP convention in Gingrich's district north of Atlanta. The crowd whooped and waved red-and-white signs with hearts alongside the speaker's name, valentines from the faithful. ``Because all of you have backed Marianne and me, because you stayed with us no matter how bad the attacks, how vicious some of our opponents got, we were able to have the moral courage,'' Gingrich, R-Ga., said. ``Because of your support and enthusiasm, I will go back to Washington more determined than ever.'' Thus Gingrich took another step toward putting his ethics troubles behind him after announcing Thursday he will pay his $300,000 ethics penalty with a loan from former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole. Gingrich told reporters after his speech that he feels ``liberated lib·er·ate tr.v. lib·er·at·ed, lib·er·at·ing, lib·er·ates 1. To set free, as from oppression, confinement, or foreign control. 2. Chemistry To release (a gas, for example) from combination. to focus back now on the bigger agenda'' after agreeing to the loan, which he does not have to repay until 2005. ``It's the sort of thing which is always there until you get it done,'' he said. ``So, in that sense, thinking it through and trying to decide what was right and trying to execute it in the right way took a substantial focus.'' Gingrich agreed to pay the $300,000 after admitting that he violated House rules by failing to seek proper legal advice on using tax-exempt projects to advance his political goals and signing inaccurate statements submitted to the House Ethics Committee ethics committee A multidisciplinary hospital body composed of a broad spectrum of personnel–eg, physicians, nurses, social workers, priests, and others, which addresses the moral and ethical issues within the hospital. See DNR, Institutional review board. . He said he's at ease leading a House Republican caucus caucus: see convention. that includes members who have questioned his leadership. He even predicted most Democrats will let the ethics issue rest, leaving only ``a small group of bitter people who sort of chant chant, general name for one-voiced, unaccompanied, liturgical music. Usually it refers to the liturgical melodies of the Byzantine, Russian Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Anglican churches and is analogous to cantillation in Jewish liturgical music, Qur'anic chanting anti-Newt slogans and march in circles.'' |
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