BY PAUL BARTON
Enquirer Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - The aborted coup against House Speaker Newt Gingrich has left Rep. John Boehner and other House GOP leaders politically damaged and facing uncertain futures in their current posts, many analysts said Friday.

"It is utterly devastating," congressional expert Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution said of the GOP leaders.

"At this point, no leader is safe. Nobody looks good in this process," added Norm Ornstein, veteran Congress watcher at the American Enterprise Institute.

The aborted coup attempt, which sources say Mr. Boehner and other Gingrich lieutenants encouraged to varying degrees, came after more than a year of growing dissatisfaction among the GOP rank-and-file with the effectiveness of Mr. Gingrich and the other House leaders. "One of the big factors is that nobody in the Republican Conference has a stomach for this kind of fight and most of the members thought it looked bad," said political analyst Dave Mason of the conservative Heritage Foundation.

"Collectively, the leadership, other than Gingrich, got a black eye and all of them have a part of that."

The fallout has already resulted in the resignation of one leader, Rep. Bill Paxon, R-N.Y.

Speculation is intense that Mr. Gingrich may call for the resignation of another of his lieutenants.

Mr. Boehner, R-West Chester, is the House Republican Conference Chairman, the fourth-ranking position in the command structure. Aides to Mr. Boehner have denied he had any involvement in the coup attempt, but accounts from other sources suggest that he was at least aware of what hard-core dissidents in the House were planning against Mr. Gingrich and failed to stop it.

Others, such as Rep. Joe Scarborough, R-Fla., say Mr. Boehner was clearly involved.

Mr. Boehner has refused to meet with reporters to discuss the coup attempt.

Reportedly, Mr. Gingrich is upset with all of the remaining leaders.

In addition to Mr. Boehner, they include House Majority Leader Dick Armey and House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, both of Texas.

"Just the distrust that is obviously there now . . . . wouldn't you like to be at a meeting among those three or four?" said congressional scholar Charles O. Jones of the University of Wisconsin.

Even if Republicans hold on to the majority in the 1998 elections, each of the four remaining leaders is by no means assured of keeping his job.

Mr. Boehner's job was supposed to be heading up communications for the House Republicans, but earlier this year Mr. Gingrich consolidated many of the communications tasks within his own office.

"There are a lot of rumors swirling about Boehner and whether he will be able to stay in leadership," Mr. Ornstein said.

Others think he will be able to hang on.

"I don't think Boehner has suffered damage. He didn't seem to be stabbing anyone in the back," said Jack Pitney, a political scientist at Claremont McKenna college who has written extensively about the House Republicans.