Two years later, in 1965, Ford challenged and beat the minority leader of the House, gaining the position from which he eventually was appointed vice president and succeeded to the White House. A distant episode with lasting lessons. No perch is slipperier than the one at the top. Washington loyalties are less than durable.
Insurgents soon become the establishment, which begets new insurgencies.
All of that is on display as House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who got where he is by tackling the GOP establishment, deals with sometime allies now restive and dissatisfied with his leadership. The current complaints stem largely from the GOP stumbling that led to surrender to President Clinton after he vetoed a bill providing disaster aid funds because of his objections to unrelated Republican policy riders. Clinton and the Democrats were winning the political argument, and Gingrich agreed to drop the terms Republicans had tried to force on the White House. Ardent GOP conservatives didn't want to yield. Nor were they satisfied with earlier settlements Gingrich had accepted in budget negotiations and on other issues.