Many of the pundits who have been watching this field of candidates are now saying that Gingrich may have the Republican nomination sewed up.
I’m not so sure. Although Gingrich’s polling numbers have risen in a spectacular fashion, it is still a couple of weeks until the first contest in Iowa, and we have seen candidates rise and fall during this primary season.
Just a couple of weeks ago Gingrich suggested that money could be saved on schools by firing the janitors and having the poor kids clean up after the rich kids.
Perhaps from Gingrich’s perspective (and for those who share it), this would have the added advantage of conditioning the children of the poor for the future that Newt has envisioned for them. Naturally, the reaction to Gingrich’s comments was immediate and volcanic. The entire fiasco reminded me of another Gingrich gaffe, about this time of year back in 1994. Gingrich declared that Susan Smith, the woman who killed her own children and then told police that her children were “carjacked” by a black man, did what she did because Democrats had a majority in the House of Representatives. That was not, however, the first time Gingrich had made an absurd statement. Even back then, Gingrich was already notorious as an extremist who would say anything to get his name in the headlines.
Gingrich first gained national attention back in the early 1980’s. Back then, C-SPAN, which was then in its infancy, would televise speeches from the well of the House of Representatives by anyone who cared to make them. Gingrich would make speeches attacking the Democrats, accusing them of being “traitors,” and challenging them to come up to the microphone and deny it if it wasn’t true. What the viewers didn’t know was that Gingrich was speaking to an empty House, so there was no one there to come to the microphone. Speaker O’Neil heard about it and ordered that the cameras pan around the chamber so that viewers could see that it was empty. Accordingly, the next time Gingrich tried his stunt the cameras scanned the empty House, and Gingrich was left looking like a fool, shouting his baseless charges to an empty chamber.
Newt Gingrich was forced out of the office of Speaker of the House after four years.
Usually a Speaker either retires (as, for example, John McCormack and Tip O’Neil did) or loses his office as Speaker because his party went from the majority party to the minority in the House. Newt Gingrich was forced out by his fellow Republicans. When the Monica Lewinsky affair exploded on the national scene, Gingrich thought he had found a political gold mine. He organized the congressional hearings for maximum political effect on the 1998 elections. He pushed for the House to impeach President Clinton, and the Republicans followed him.
As it turned out, the American people saw through it all and the Republicans actually lost a few seats in the House in ‘98. The Republicans realized that by following Gingrich, they had missed an opportunity to increase their majority.
(Historically, the President’s party loses seats in the House in the mid-term elections of the President’s second term). Gingrich was forced out as Speaker and he resigned his seat in the House. He was the only Speaker in the history of the House of Representatives to be fined by the Ethics Committee. ($300,000 for misusing his tax-exempt “foundations” for political gain. A good example of this was the “Abraham Lincoln Opportunity Fund” which was supposed to be an inner city scholarship program. Gingrich transferred money out of this tax-exempt “foundation” to GOPAC, his political action committee, which funneled money to Republican candidates.)
It was only after Gingrich resigned his seat that it became public knowledge that he had been cheating on his (second) wife with a staffer in his office for a period of seven years. This time span included the entire period of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, when Gingrich pushed his fellow Republicans so hard to impeach Clinton for his dalliance with Monica Lewinsky. The revelation of Gingrich’s affair with a staffer only added to his reputation for hypocrisy, which was already legendary.
Since he resigned from the House, Gingrich, like many other former officeholders from both parties, has cashed in on his notoriety and on his connections. He has formed several companies which run the gamut from influence peddling to selling motivational videos and “Businessman of the Year” awards. (For a mere $5,000 you can receive an “official” Newt Gingrich “Businessman of the Year” award, complete with a plaque commemorating the honor. This made the news when the proprietor of a topless bar featuring “exotic” dancing received a notice in the mail that his business had been selected and he need only send in the money to get his “official” plaque).
Gingrich contends that he is not, and has never been, a lobbyist. Technically he is correct because in Washington, D.C., where Newt has lived since he resigned, the term “lobbyist” means “registered lobbyist.” One must register as a lobbyist in Washington if one is going to visit an elected federal officeholder in person at his office on behalf of a client. Obviously, this leaves a large amount of “wiggle room.” One could, for example, talk to an elected official by telephone, or meet him at a place other than his office (such as at one of Washington’s many fashionable restaurants), or communicate by text message or e-mail. After stating publicly that any congressman who took money from Freddie Mac should be “thrown in jail,” Newt was forced to admit that he had taken $1.2 million from Freddie Mac. He claimed that this was for his services as a “historian.” The derisive contempt that most of those who heard this “explanation” received it with can better be imagined than described. Gingrich’s monumental reputation for hypocrisy was thus further enlarged (if that is possible).
Newt Gingrich has been in Washington for 30 years, and he has done many things that younger voters don’t know about and some older voters have forgotten. Many of the things that Newt has done are a matter of public record, and no amount of mendacity will allow him to escape responsibility for them. He has more baggage than a fully loaded Boeing 747. He may win the Republican nomination anyway but if he does it says more about this year’s field of candidates than it does about him.
Paul Schwietering is a former Democratic state central committeeman. He lives in Union Township.