Nothing bespeaks the transfer of power in Washington more than the roving television camera crews.
It was, by all accounts, an emotional moment when Gingrich and his wife, Marianne, entered the room at 10 a.m., an hour after the scheduled starting time for the meeting of the House Republican Conference. There were at least three more. Unity was the dominant theme of Gingrich's farewell address, his parting advice to the often fractious GOP Conference that he could not always control. It was not Gingrich's last day as speaker. He will actually preside until the end of the current Congress in early January, when the full House convenes and formally elects Livingston to be his successor.