Bill Clinton: “Well, first of all, you have to look and say that they've held together pretty well. And you have to give him credit for…”

“Well, first of all, you have to look and say that they've held together pretty well. And you have to give him credit for that. He's held them together pretty well on a course that I have often disagreed with, but you must give him credit for that. The only time that they had a significant breaking of ranks that moved toward the Democrats was on some environmental issues that I--and of course, I agreed with those who broke because I think we should have a stronger environmental policy in the United States than most of them do. But otherwise, they've pretty well stayed together. Now, on the Government reopening, there were 17 that were, if you will, to Mr. Gingrich's right; they wanted to leave the Government closed and continue to play out this strategy, which I think was wrong. But I think he did the right thing there, just as I believe Senator Dole did in abandoning the strategy first. I think that when Speaker Gingrich saw that we had a plan that the Congressional Budget Office had scored, that I was continuing to work hard with him to reach an agreement, and it was wrong to keep the people out of work or have people working and not be paid--you know, you never--I say, ``never''--you often don't get 100 percent. So I think he's still clearly the Speaker and clearly the leader of that House group. And I think he has a strong hand there.”