"THE PARALLEL IS F.D.R."

OVER A BANANA-AND-DIET-COKE BREAKFAST, SPEAKER NEWT GINGRICH MET with TIME editors and correspondents last week. His office is decorated with mementos, including a handwritten note by Ulysses S. Grant. It says, "I propose to fight on this line all summer if necessary."

TIME: You are coming to the end of your first 100 days. What do you think you might have learned from this process?

GINGRICH: As Wellington said after Waterloo, this is a close-run thing. We've had five or six near-death experiences, and we're now going to see if we can pass the tax bill. I think, in part, the strength of it all has been that we were able to create a momentum that I think is literally unprecedented in American political history. The only parallel is F.D.R. in '33. The design worked overall, but I don't think you could sustain it. I mean, we never thought you could do 200 days. The next round has to be almost the opposite. Where this one was a function of decisive, disciplined unity, the next round has to be one of talking it through, listening carefully, growing a consensus.

TIME: Will your supporters see this as going back to business as usual?

GINGRICH: We are going to get to a balanced budget in seven years. We are going to transform the entire Federal Government, except for Social Security. It will be so large, so comprehensive and so daring that I don't think anybody is going to say this is business as usual.

TIME: You can get to a balanced budget without inflicting any pain?

GINGRICH: Who is screaming? If the ones screaming are the school-lunch association, who want their annual trip to Washington, don't let them exploit children as the excuse for their trip.

TIME: But isn't there going to be real screaming when you get to Medicare?

GINGRICH: Why should there be? What we're going to suggest to senior citizens is, we can give you 10 or 12 choices. One of them will be the old system. We're not going to take it away. I'm saying this very clearly, because I'll guarantee you somebody is going to get up and say we're abolishing it. It will not be true.

TIME: You have openly invited corporate lobbyists to help draft your initiatives. Isn't that dangerous for Republicans?

GINGRICH: As long as it's out in the open, I have no problem getting the finest experts in the country on a particular bill, even if they happen to have actually earned their living representing somebody.

TIME: Why are you resisting demands that a special counsel look into your book deal, the college course you teach and your political organization?

GINGRICH: Why should I dignify a systematic smear campaign of dishonesty by suggesting it needs anything except dismissal? Because it is simply not true.

TIME: How long can you put off debates over such issues as abortion, gun control and school prayer?

GINGRICH: You can't, in a free society, permanently postpone major arguments. And the job of leadership is to manage it. Try to figure out how to keep bringing people along. What we've got to do on some of these tough issues is figure out the least divisive, most positive step that holds the coalition together.