Gingrich works to rehabilitate GOP image

WASHINGTON, June 10 (UPI) -- Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich is rehabilitating his image among U.S. senators looking to avoid GOP defeats this fall, The Hill political paper says.

Gingrich is quietly succeeding in softening his hard-right image as a Republican flamethrower who led a conservative takeover of the House of Representatives in the 1990s, and is gaining the ears of GOP senators by counseling them to drop their traditional anti-tax mantras for new messages, the Washington publication reported Tuesday.

"He's trying to identify a path to victory in the fall," Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., told The Hill. "It would be wise for us to listen."

The newspaper said Gingrich has made recent appearances with such well-known Democrats as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and has worked openly with Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., but has also stepped up his work with Senate Republicans.

"His general advice is: Be in touch, don't be just repeating things you heard from the '70s and the '80s," Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., told The Hill.