By Molly K. Hooper, CQ Staff

Drill, drill, drill is the message Americans want to hear on energy and GOP candidates should stay on that message, former Speaker Newt Gingrich told House Republicans Wednesday.

The former Speaker was “complimentary,” of the House Republican leadership, according to Rep. Lynn Westmoreland , R-Ga., who attended the closed-door meeting at the Capitol Hill Club.

“They’ve had a very good couple of weeks, the question is: can they keep building on that to the next three months — but they’ve had consistent focus on energy — energy feeds into the economy, those are key issues,” Gingrich said following the meeting. He was speaking about recent efforts by House Republicans to highlight Democratic opposition to opening areas off the U.S. coast and in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling. Republicans have focused on increased domestic oil production as a means of reducing high gas prices.

His tone was a marked change from early May when he called on Republican rank and file to make drastic changes, including a “complete overhaul” of the National Republican Campaign Committee. A trail of special-election defeats this year has fed discontent with the NRCC, the bluntest of which came from Gingrich (1979-99), the former Speaker who helped win a Republican majority in 1994 for the first time in 40 years.

“It’s time to face a stark choice,” Gingrich wrote in the magazine Human Events, saying GOP lawmakers needed a new message by Memorial Day. “Without change, we could face a catastrophic election this fall.”

“The message was different today, in the direction that we’re going on energy,” Westmoreland said of Gingrich’s reflections on his party’s progress at Wednesday’s meeting.

NRCC Chairman Tom Cole , R-Okla., said he spoke Monday with Gingrich and agreed with the need for good candidates, an able NRCC and a national agenda.