DICK ARMEY'S ON THE MARCH

By KAREN TUMULTY/COBB COUNTY

The Dole campaign had all but given up on North Carolina, but Dick Armey was still there fighting for the doomed campaign of G.O.P. freshman David Funderburk. "There's no Republican I know who dares tell the truth about the Clinton Administration," he growled to several dozen of the Republican faithful who had gathered for a Funderburk fund raiser at a Durham-area country club. "If we tell the truth, we're considered meanspirited."

Not that this would bother Armey. Indeed, Newt Gingrich looks statesmanlike next to Armey. The Speaker may have kept his job and his party's majority, but he may have trouble keeping the peace--especially with Armey. "The system worked fine, except when Newt would have a breakdown in discipline," Armey told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram last month. As far as Armey is concerned, the mistake the G.O.P. made with its conservative agenda was in not pushing it further and faster.

Armey spent the campaign season building an enormous reservoir of loyalty among the surviving House members. In addition to campaigning in more than 100 congressional districts to raise $3.1 million, he donated an additional $1.5 million to individual candidates from his own campaign and his political-action committee.

Clinton still needs G.O.P. votes if he hopes to get anything meaningful accomplished. And he shouldn't be expecting any help from Armey's army. Even a relatively accommodating Gingrich may not be able to pry any Armey loyalists away. Armey, who is from Texas, likes to compare the more moderate members of his own party to skittish calves. Look for him to rope them in. By the time his second term is over, Clinton may be longing for the golden days of the past Congress.

--By Karen Tumulty/Cobb County. With reporting by Douglas Waller/Durham

With reporting by DOUGLAS WALLER/DURHAM