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Mahe: Well, I think his philosophy has been remarkably consistent ever since I've known him. There are many who say it was different before 1974. That may be true. I did not know him before 1974, but since he first sat in my office in 1974, he has been consistently right of center on issue after issue after issue.

Clearly he has refined his capacity to explain those issues. He has refined the way to make them more salient to more people. Clearly new issues have arisen that we were not talking about 20 years ago, that have required new positions. But I don't believe his fundamental sense of the country, the role of the federal government and the role of the individuals within that government has substantially changed.

Q: You don't agree with some of his colleagues, professors for example and associates at the time, that he was sort of the essential Rockefeller Republican?

Mahe: Well, as I say, he may have been before '74, he has not been since '74. And 21 years is a long enough track record for me in terms of consistency.

Q: As a political operative, what work did you perform or what function did you serve for the up and coming Newt Gingrich?

Mahe: Well, for openers, I've never been involved in any of his personal campaigns. I think, at times, I have functioned as a sounding board for him, someone who would help him expand and challenge his ideas. Over the years he's had different people that he tended to reach out to on a personal basis for advice and counsel. Not advice and counsel so much as just an opportunity to have someone to discuss things with. And there was quite a period of time when very regularly on Sunday afternoons I was one of the ones that Newt would call. I'm sure there were others. As I said, when I was up with Newt on the book tour I was in Boston, and I had my daughter who lives up there now, come by with me to see if she'd met him and she said, 'Oh, yes, I used to talk to you every Sunday afternoon when I was in high school.' So it was, it was that kind of a relationship.

The one thing that I believe that I contributed to, that made the greatest difference in where we are now, is that there were two of us, myself and Owen Roberts of Florida in a GOPAC meeting several years ago, who promoted the idea of starting the tape program for GOPAC. Which I believe did more than any single thing that we ever have done since Newt came up here to parlay his language, his vision, his positioning, his rhetoric, his knowledge out across the country to 10,000 people. Ten thousand up and coming political leaders every month, most of those freshmen, listened to those tapes every month because we sent them to everybody each month. And, Owen Roberts and I were the two strong advocates for doing that, and I feel very proud of having done that.

Q: So what was the practical effect of that idea? It was a brilliant idea as far I know, nobody else has done it even now. So what was the practical effect?

Mahe: We got 10,000 people on Newt's message. Ten thousand people who understood his energy, understood his thinking, understood how he analyzed issues, understood how to explain national issues. And we solved a lot of our problems in our party with those tapes because we had rhetorical problems as a party. We scared people. Our description of the role of government scared a lot of people. And especially when we started this six or seven years ago. And Newt worked people through this, a lot of state senators, state reps. Those tapes were kind of what they used to help them. Because we did them on state issues, global issues, it was a powerful series. But it got most of the Republican activists elected officials thinking and speaking --to some extent-- in the same language about the same issues.

Q: Is it wild to suggest that the '94 Republican majority in the House is sort of the fruit of that?

Mahe: I would say it's a direct result. I think it's really sad that the tape program is not being continued. I mean we get them very sporadically now and I understand he's very busy and everything. But I still believe the audience that we're getting is singularly the most important audience to be communicating with in terms of a philosophy of government. Because these are the people that are putting government into place at the local level and I think if they were to continue to get these tapes from Newt --even if it was every two months-- it would connect them to what is happening in a way that they cannot possibly be connected to at this time.