It is easy to understand Mr. Clinton's anger: inaccuracies aside, the attacks on him and his wife from conservative firebrands have been malevolent.

A newly elected conservative firebrand getting his shoes buffed muttered, "Sit down, you silly old man."

Mr. Abramoff was "a conservative firebrand," Mr. Reed wrote in his book "Active Faith."

But on the campaign trail, he is more the political offspring of a conservative firebrand like Newt Gingrich, the House Republican whip, than of his split-the-difference father.

But he talks more like the offspring of a conservative firebrand like Newt Gingrich.

Education and health care to some extent symbolize a new style, but it would be wrong to characterize Mr. Pataki as a onetime conservative firebrand.

Mr. Helms, the 18-year incumbent and conservative firebrand, declared gleefully last night, "The mighty ultraliberal establishment struck out."

But Republican voters flouted the party's urgings, picking Al Salvi, a conservative firebrand and wealthy businessman, who subsequently lost to Richard J. Durbin.

"Freshmen see themselves as having a mandate," said David M. McIntosh, a freshman Republican from Indiana who has become one of the conservative firebrands of his class.

Newt Gingrich, who had been elected to Congress soon after Crane announced his candidacy for president, soon surpassed him as the leading conservative firebrand in the House.