Vin Weber was Newt Gingrich's best friend before everybody was the House speaker's best friend.
During the 1980s, the two Republican congressmen counseled each other through rocky marriages: Weber coaxed Newt and Marianne to work things out; Gingrich helped his Minnesota colleague recover from a divorce.
As Gingrich stood on an empty House floor, lobbing bombs at the Democratic "welfare state" for the benefit of C-SPAN viewers, Weber was his behind-the-scenes strategist. And it was Weber who managed the Georgian's 1989 campaign to be House Republican whip. The two-vote victory put Gingrich in line for the speaker's job.
"He's got a lot of `best friends' now," Weber said recently. "But I was his best friend when he not only wasn't speaker of the House, he was sort of a disreputable backbencher."
Now, the friendship has new meaning for Weber, who has built a successful lobbying and consulting career since quitting Congress 2 1/2 years ago. Last fall's election not only swept Gingrich and the GOP into power, it also transformed Weber into one of the best-connected people in Washington.
His bonds with Gingrich and other GOP leaders are bringing him extraordinary access and a lengthening list of corporate clients eager to capitalize on what Weber calls his "unique understanding" of the speaker's thinking.
"It's like hitting a gusher," said Charles Lewis, executive director of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity. "The guy clearly could not be better situated."
Indeed, Weber's connections to House Republican leaders may be unrivaled. If Gingrich is busy, Weber can phone any of the five of his own former aides and associates who now work for the speaker, including Dan Meyer, Gingrich's chief of staff. He can dial three Minnesotans who work for House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas. Or he can talk with his ex-colleagues who are now powerful committee chairmen. He has Senate ties, too, now that he is a codirector of the presidential campaign of Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan.