DuPont: He has done an extraordinary job that shows a side of Newt Gingrich that a lot hadn't seen. He not only has the philosophy right but he has persuaded Republicans from the liberal and conservative camps to each give a little, to each move a little and he's welded that Republican majority, a very small majority, into a powerful political force. That's not one of the things we ever saw in Newt Gingrich but he's done a brilliant job.

Q: Do you think that he's a person who can overcome the high negatives that he has--if you believe the polls--and run for national office?

DuPont: He can when he finishes the job that he has to do that requires those sharp edges to be there. Newt Gingrich's job to capture the Congress was to give Republican candidates an edge and a distinction from their Democratic opponent. That required a very high profile, some very strong language. As Ronald Reagan said, 'Painting your vision in such bold primary colors that nobody can misunderstand what we mean.'

Now Newt's job is shifting. His job is now to build this coalition to take the center in America. When he does that, his rhetoric has got to calm a little. He has to become more the father figure than the pugnacious brother. That will come in time.

Q: What would the effect be on Newt Gingrich and the conservative revolution if Colin Powell ran for president?

DuPont: I think the struggle that you see in the Republican Party today is once again the country club Republican versus the bowling alley Republican. Colin Powell brings us back to the country club image. He's an insider. He's a moderate. Newt is an outsider, bowling alley conservative. There is a real dichotomy there. What you're seeing played out in the Republican primary process, if General Powell runs, is this old struggle that has been going on since 1952 when Eisenhower and [Taft] began the argument.

Things move very slowly in politics. We seem to fight the same wars over and over again.

Q: Newt Gingrich, like Jack Kemp, has argued for quite some time that the Republican party should make more of an effort to attract black voters. Do you think that's a lost cause or is he on to something there?

DuPont: There's a very big gulf between the black civil rights leadership in America, and the black middle class in America. The black middle class are conservative people --They basically believe that the government takes too much of their money. They basically distrust remedies like buffing. I think many of those minorities can be persuaded to be members of the Republican Party. We run very strongly with the Asian community, very well with the Hispanic community, not as well yet with the Black community. I think that's coming. I think Newt and Jack Kemp are both right, if we put forward a program of individual opportunity that appeals to a black family just like it appeals to a white family.

Q: It's been forty years, up until 1994, since the Republicans controlled Congress. Now they do. Do you get the sense that this is the beginning of a real change in American politics? Or is 1994 more of an aberration?

DuPont: The sea change that has come, I think, is the information age. We don't have to just read The New York Times anymore. We can pull up something on the internet and get any news that we like. We can end run all of the organizations and deal, as individuals, in the information age. That is changing the way people perceive politics. So, it is possible, that there'll be a sea change.

The 1994 elections was part of that. But I also think that the 1994 election was really a revolt against a corrupt Congress that people saw as dishonest, as not representing their views. So, it's a little soon to tell. The next election will tell the tale. If the Republicans gain four or five seats in the Senate, ten or fifteen seats in the House, and the Democratic Party sees that 1994 wasn't an aberration, that it was a beginning of a trend, then the Democratic Party will change, that part will be gone. There will be a new conservative leadership. The message of the party will change and then the sea change will be with it.