It seemed somehow the ultimate irony of this strange political year, the year stigmatized by President Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky. Instead of Bill Clinton being the one to fall, it was Newt Gingrich.

Four years after the Georgia Republican was hailed as the visionary who won control of Congress for his party in 1994, Gingrich stepped down Friday night, facing a mutiny from Republicans who insisted that his flaws could cost them the very majority he had created.In more heady days, the mercurial Georgia Republican had called himself a "transformational figure" and a "definer of civilization." But Friday evening at 4:30 p.m. (MST), facing a leadership challenge, Gingrich told his fellow House Republicans in conference calls that he was "a target" and would step down for the good of the party. He was not just leaving as speaker. He was leaving Congress at the end of this year.

Republicans said that he tried to discuss his decision with dignity. But they said he could not hide his bitterness and sadness as he spoke of those who would "cannibalize" the party because they wanted things their way or no way.

Gingrich's sudden fall came just four days after a midterm election that dealt Republicans a setback even more unexpected than their 52-seat pickup, which he organized in 1994. But losing five seats was the occasion, and yet not the cause, for the antagonism that brought Gingrich's turbulent reign as House speaker to such an extraordinary end.

The anger against him had been building all year, and Republicans say that by Friday Gingrich's troubles ran extremely deep - fueled by his miscalculations on election strategy, his persistent unpopularity with the public and his failure to rally the divided House Republicans around an agenda.In 1994, House Republicans ran and won on an organizing theme, the "Contract with America," which stressed less regulation, tax cuts, term limits and a balanced budget. But once they worked out a balanced budget, with tax cuts, in 1997, they seemed an ideologically spent force.

The Republicans went into this year's election largely running on the past. And its result provided one more reason for change. Gingrich is almost universally disliked by House Democrats, and some Republicans said that now that they have an almost unworkable six-vote majority, they need a speaker who can work with Democrats, not infuriate them.