First of all your comparing apples to oranges. The 94 mid term winners showed up with goals. Tea party republicans are just satisfied on being contrarians. Other than repealing his (admittedly broken) ACA there was nothing the the Republicans wanted, they just sat back and earned political capital by not doing anything.
That's entirely different from Gingrich, who had legislation that he wanted passed. You can thank that willingness to concede for the current American prison population too, since a good part of our current broken criminal justice system was minted during that term.
I also it seems unfair to focus on Clintons highlight reel, this started with a conversation about late term momentum. Like the kind a President without a major scandal might have. Clinton had been reduced to a punchline by this point in his career. Between slinging his jizz all over the whitehouse, committing perjury, and bombing aspirin factories, Clinton needed 10 years of nostalgia Goggles to forget how much of a piece of shit he had proven to be.