JUST WHAT DROVE NEWT GINGRICH?

Byline: - David Kronke

Perhaps the most intriguing political force in the '90s was Newt Gingrich, Bill Clinton's arch-enemy. From the outside, he just seems like a cranky guy nostalgic for the America of the '50s, filled with fear, loathing and the last glimpse of ``decency'' this nation has seen.

But what motivated him? How did he engineer the Republican comeback in 1994, was he an engineer of the ``vast right-wing conspiracy'' and what led to his own collapse in 1998? A new PBS documentary, ``The Fall of Newt Gingrich,'' takes something of a behind-the-scenes look at the former Speaker of the House's final days of power in Washington.

Filmmaker Michael Pack had some decent access to Gingrich at the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal; he follows the Speaker's political maneuverings in the '98 election season, dodging press questions on impeachment and traversing the country, campaigning dutifully for fellow Republicans (his own race being already handily sewn up). Obviously, Gingrich believed he had Clinton twisting in the wind, so the Speaker had every reason to believe the resulting film would be something of a coronation.

But something went very wrong for the Republicans, as voters, sickened by their political posturing over a sex scandal, gave the Grand Old Party somewhere between 15 and 45 House fewer seats than it expected. Watching the Gingrich camp's furious spinning on election night is quite a spectacle.

Unfortunately, Pack had access to Gingrich's ``official'' duties, but he wasn't privy to the backroom politicking that was obviously going on at the time. And the later revelation of Gingrich's own failings as a husband (for a second time) are dismissed in a brief coda that allows that ``some'' people saw ``hypocrisy'' in the former Speaker's behavior. That betrayal of his wife (who appears in the documentary) - as much a pattern of Gingrich's behavior as Clinton's - certainly deserves deeper exploration than a simple, glib throwaway line, but by the time that information came out, Pack's relationship to Gingrich had clearly come to an end.

And anyway, you still don't get much of a sense of the man. ``The Fall of Newt Gingrich'' is an interesting portrait as far as it goes, but it doesn't go nearly far enough.

The facts

--The show: ``The Fall of Newt Gingrich.''

--What: Documentary about the former Speaker of the House's final days in power.

--Where: KCET.

--When: 8 tonight.

--Our rating: Two and one half stars.

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Photo: (color) no caption (Newt Gingrich)