NEW GOP STAR : SENATE MAJORITY LEADER TRENT LOTT IS MANY THINGS, BUT MOST OF ALL HE IS NOT NEWT GINGRICH.

Byline: Economist Newspaper Ltd.

YOU have to hand it to Newt Gingrich. On Jan. 17, the very day on which his ethical lapses were to be aired on television, Gingrich was due to address the Republican National Committee.

He might have kept his head down, chosen to avoid the press: after all, he was about to become the first speaker in the 208-year history of the House to be fined and reprimanded by the chamber.

But instead he showed up and gave a stirring speech, full of bold ideas and eye-popping analogies.

The frontiers of freedom, he said, could be expanded as greatly as Coca-Cola's sales, which is to say a lot: at present Coke accounts for only two out of the 48 ounces of liquid consumed daily by the average human being.

Then Gingrich let loose the sort of comment that explains why - quite apart from his recent humiliating reprimand - his star has dipped.

Anybody caught bringing drugs into America, he declared, should get a life sentence without parole. Or, if the case is severe, he should be executed.

Gingrich is brilliant, but he is also wild; and, for the moment at least, Republicans are happy to rally behind anybody but him.

Trent Lott, the Senate majority leader, is perfect for this part: he is a man defined by a list of things he isn't. He is not ethically challenged, he is not overbearing, and he is certainly not wild.

Dick Morris, a Clinton adviser who has also worked for Lott, asserts in his recent book that his client is ``not boring.''

He is not a good talker, but he is not bad. He is not brilliant, but nobody would call him stupid. He is not a crusader for the religious right, but he is a godly Southerner all the same. He is not a conservative ideologue, but he is no mere pragmatist.

Most of all, he is not Newt Gingrich.

The rise of Not Newt to the top of Republican ranks has been meteoric. He was barely known a year ago; now Morris declares that he would like to manage his presidential campaign in 2000.

He was first elected to the Senate in 1988; now he runs the chamber.

His big break came two years ago, when he had the guts to challenge Sen. Alan Simpson for the job of Republican whip. Even though Simpson was easily the senior man, he lost.

Simpson was judged too moderate and too shy of partisan brawls; Not Newt was not encumbered by those defects.

Simpson had grown remote from fellow senators. Not Newt has seldom missed a chance to cultivate a friendship.

Not Newt is therefore an old friend of Gingrich. But, as the new front man for the Republicans in Congress, he backs an agenda not like the one advanced over the past two years.

It is not too harsh: he promises to preside over a ``Quality of Life Congress.''

It is not too negative: he has dropped the old talk of abolishing the Education Department, preferring constructive schemes like school vouchers and tax credits for college.

In areas such as medical research, Not Newt advocates more government spending rather than less.

As a product of Mississippi's public schools, he denounces the idea that only Democrats care about government-financed education.

Not Newt's tactics are also not like those of Gingrich. Last year the House speaker caused a government shutdown by rejecting compromise on the budget. That cost the Republicans dearly in the polls, as did a related threat to force Robert Rubin, the treasury secretary, to default on the national debt.

This year Not Newt preaches civility and compromise, echoing the appeals for bipartisan civility sounded by Clinton during the recent inaugural festivities.

All presidents get a honeymoon at the start of their terms, Not Newt says, and Clinton is entitled to goodwill from Congress.

Is Not Newt soft? Not a bit of it. He promises to ``look hard'' at some of Clinton's Cabinet nominees, notably William Daley at Commerce, Alexis Herman at Labor, and Anthony Lake at the CIA: each can expect tough confirmation hearings in the Senate.

Not Newt threatens to obstruct Clinton's judicial appointments, too, if he reckons them too liberal.

Speaking privately to Morris (as he fondly thought), Not Newt once described three of Clinton's aides as ``Sandinistas.''

Not Newt has a bone to pick with Rubin. The treasury secretary is an even-tempered soul, but he got on Republican nerves during the standoff over the debt ceiling.

Recently, when Rubin criticized Republican proposals for a balanced-budget amendment, Not Newt blew his top.

The treasury secretary was ``hysterical,'' he shrieked; by pledging to balance the budget while opposing the amendment to ensure it, Rubin was behaving like ``Chicken Little.''

Not Newt can be equally rude about the Federal Reserve. On television last month, he said he was ``a little bit nervous about the degree of independence'' enjoyed by the central bank.

When The Economist's pundit, Lexington, invited him to reconsider this view, he said, ``Sometimes I feel like the Fed needs to realize that they are in the world with all the rest of us.''

This is not smart. Republicans and Democrats have learned, after painful experiment, that it does no good to criticize the Fed: anything that undermines its credibility as an independent inflation-fighter will tend to force up interest rates.

Equally, a balanced budget is desirable, but it is not clear that this is best achieved by messing with the Constitution.

Naturally, however, Not Newt's views are not alarming all the time. Indeed, much good may come of his tenure as Washington's top Republican.

Trent Lott is disciplined, driven, obsessively organized: His office is as immaculate as his hairdo. He knows when to flatter, when to rebuke: He masters meetings with such skill that even prima donna senators end up striking an agreement.

Lott is not exciting, to be sure. But at least legislation will get passed, and many of the proposed laws on Lott's list are sensible. America may get a smaller deficit, school vouchers, product-liability reform. Not bad, really.

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Photo: Not Newt: Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott meets with reporters on Capitol Hill.

Associated Press