GOP Rallies Behind Livingston

Twenty years ago he was the first Congressman ever to spend more than a million on a House race. Rep. Bob Livingston has used that skill to build a cash machine to help nail down the Speakership.CBS News Correspondent Eric Engberg reports.

Before winning a place in history as the Newt-Terminator, Bob Livingston was known chiefly for two things, a titanic temper and a prodigious ability to raise money.

With no re-election threat this year Livingston had $600,000 in his campaign fund leftover to give to Republican campaigns all over the country.

He then formed a second political committee named BOB'S PAC which doled out another $800,000.

The total

"That's why Bob Livingston doesn't have any competition in trying to become the next Speaker of the House. He found the path to power," said Larry Makinson of the Center for Responsive Politics.

CBS News also found that Livingston exploited gaping, the legal loopholes in the election laws, to get more bang for his buck by channeling donations from business lobbyists through his political action committee to other GOP campaigns.

Federal Election Commission records show how it works.

Example: In September,

All told, business PACs delivered checks totaling about $50,000.

"What raises people's stature in the halls of Congress today more than anything else is the ability to raise money and deliver it to other party members," says Makinson.

Playing the money game better than anyone, Livingston became the unopposed King of the Hill by first becoming the King of Cash.

Reported By Eric Engberg