PENALTY SAPS GINGRICH'S POWER : UNCLEAR HOW MUCH AUTHORITY SPEAKER LOSES ALONG WITH $300,000.

Byline: Steven Thomma and David Hess Knight-Ridder Tribine News Wire

House Speaker Newt Gingrich will stand in the well of the House on Tuesday while his colleagues vote to reprimand and fine him - an unprecedented act that will leave him a diminished force.

But how diminished? And what will happen when he tries to rebuild his power and his ability to press the Republican agenda for the country?

The best hope for House Republicans is that Gingrich is merely wounded. And that if he can direct some substantial legislative accomplishment, and keep the political rhetoric low key, that the public will forgive or forget about his ethical transgressions.

What House Republicans fear, however, is spending the next several weekends at home hearing from constituents angered by their own support of Gingrich and alarmed by a $300,000 fine that belied GOP claims that his offenses were minor.

The offenses cited by the House Ethics Committee were that Gingrich improperly pressed his political agenda through the use of tax-exempt foundations, a possible violation of federal law, and then misled Congress about his activities.

James Cole, the committee's special counsel who investigated the charges, concluded that Gingrich had participated in a ``serious violation of the House rules'' and that ``Gingrich showed a disregard and lack of respect for standards of conduct that applied to his activities.''

``This is a wound that's going to fester well into this year and even as long as he remains speaker,'' said Al Tuchfarber, a political scientist for the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Cincinnati.

``He never can gain the moral high ground that he had been claiming for some time. That's probably the thing that he and Republicans will miss the most,'' Tuchfarber said.

Retiring White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, himself a former member of the House, said ``this will continue to remain a cloud over him and over this session.''

And how Gingrich tries to disperse that cloud could have a big effect on the most pressing matters now before Congress.

``What people want are solutions to our most serious problems - ensuring the solvency of Medicare, better schools, a clean environment, better medical care,'' said Martin Farrell, a political scientist at Ripon College in Wisconsin. ``If Gingrich can get in front of this, his effectiveness can be restored to a significant degree.''

``The American people often have short attention spans and short memories,'' said Barbara Perry, a political scientist at Sweet Briar College in Sweet Briar, Va. ``If he can focus on getting things done, then many people will put this behind them and come to view him as a capable leader.''

Still, the fact that Gingrich is the only speaker in history to be punished by his colleagues this way - and the fact that he agreed to pay such a large fine, $300,000, may give some Americans pause.

``The reprimand and very large fine, out in the country, will have a strong impact on how people view him,'' Perry said. ``And to the extent that power is largely based on the trust that people put in their elected leaders, all this will undercut his ability to influence his colleagues and party policy.''

How Gingrich pays the penalty may also affect his standing.

To some, it might look best for Gingrich to pay the $300,000 penalty out of his own pocket. But he is not an independently wealthy man and, even with an annual salary of $171,600 and $1.2 million in book royalties, may have difficulty just writing a check for that amount.

He could dip into his election campaign stash, which has more than $1 million. Federal law prohibits the conversion of campaign contributions for personal purposes, but the Federal Election Commission has allowed members of Congress to use campaign funds for political expenses not directly related to ongoing election campaigns.

His spokeswoman said Saturday that Gingrich has not yet decided whether to use campaign money to pay the penalty.

He also could set up a legal defense fund, akin to the kitties set up by President Clinton and many others to pay for attorneys' fees and other direct legal and court expenses. The issue here is whether such a fund can be used to pay for a fine or other sanction.

Gingrich's supporters say the $300,000 was not a fine but simply a required reimbursement for the extralegal expenses incurred by the ethics committee as a result of having to investigate suspicions that he had not told the committee the truth. Eventually, a federal court - or the ethics committee itself - probably will have to iron this one out.

Whatever option he chooses, Democratic leaders made it clear Saturday that they are going to scrutinize closely the way he pays the fine. Rep. Ben Cardin, D-Md., the senior Democrat on the ethics committee, warned that ``whatever he chooses to do, he had better clear it with the committee, or he could run into trouble again.''