GOP Chief Wins Second Term

Jim Nicholson overcame an aggressive challenge Friday to win a second term as chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Nicholson, a Colorado businessman, defeated Florida Republican Party chairman Tom Slade, 127-36, despite disappointment with the party's showing in the 1998 midterm elections.

In his acceptance speech, Nicholson blasted President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2000.

"Clinton has few ironclad beliefs, but he does believe this: Winning is the sole judge of right and wrong," Nicholson asserted.

He conceded, however, that the Republican Party has "sustained political damage, at least in the short term," for its poll-defying push to impeach Mr. Clinton.

But he predicted Democrats will pay the price in the long term. "In failing to stand up for basic democratic ... values, Democrats have sustained damage that goes way beyond the political and will cling to them for years."

As for Gore, who he said was Mr. Clinton's chief defender, Nicholson promised to keep tabs on the administration's spending policies with a display at the RNC Washington headquarters that he will call the "Gore Spend-o-Meter."

He said Gore is "the chief defender and heir-apparent and leader of the tax-and-spend wing of the Democratic Party.