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Newton Leroy Gingrich, (born June 17, 1943) is an American politician who is best known as the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. In 1995 he was named Time Magazine's Man of the Year for his role in leading the Republican Revolution in Congress, ending 40 straight years of Democratic majorities in the House. During his tenure as Speaker he represented the public face of the Republican opposition to President Bill Clinton.

A college history professor and prolific author, Gingrich twice ran unsuccessfully for the House before first winning a seat in November 1978. He was re-elected ten times, and his activism as a member of the House's Republican minority eventually enabled him to succeed Dick Cheney as House Minority Whip in 1989. As a co-author of the 1994 Contract With America, Gingrich was in the forefront of the Republican Party's dramatic success in the 1994 Congressional elections, and was subsequently elected Speaker. Gingrich's leadership in Congress was marked by contentious opposition to the policies of the Clinton Administration and Gingrich presided over the House during the impeachment of President Clinton. Public disapproval of the House's activities, along with the Party's poor electoral results in the 1998 elections, amidst criticism of his ethics and adulterous personal life, led Gingrich to resign his position and his seat.

Subsequently, Gingrich has maintained a career as a political analyst and consultant, and continues to write works related to government and other subjects such as historical fiction. He has expressed interest in being a candidate for the 2008 Republican nomination for the Presidency.

1943-1978: Early life and education

He was born Newton McPherson in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the son of Newton Searles McPherson and Kathleen Daugherty. His parents separated soon after Newt's birth, and his mother raised him by herself until she married Robert Gingrich, who adopted Newt. Gingrich has a younger half-sister, Candace Gingrich, who was born when he was already a young adult. Gingrich rarely saw her when she was growing up.

Gingrich's adopted surname has been generally pronounced "Ging-ritch" since his entry into public life. However, his adoptive family has always pronounced the name "Gin-grick," as would be customary in the Pennsylvania Dutch ethnic milieu.

Gingrich attended school at various military installations and graduated from Baker High School, Columbus, Georgia, in 1961. He received a B.A. degree from Emory University in Atlanta in 1965. He received an M.A. in 1968 and Ph.D. in 1971 in Modern European History from Tulane University in New Orleans. He taught history at West Georgia College in Carrollton, Georgia, from 1970 to 1978, although he was denied tenure.*

1974, 1976, 1978: Elections

In 1974 and 1976, Newt Gingrich made two unsuccessful runs for Congress in Georgia's sixth congressional district, which stretched from the southern Atlanta suburbs to the Alabama border. Gingrich lost both times to incumbent Democrat Jack Flynt.

Jack Flynt was a conservative Democrat of the Georgia delegation who had family political ties that bound him to a particular powerbase within his district. He had served in Congress since 1955 and never faced a serious challenge prior to Gingrich's two runs against him. In both cases, Flynt just barely squeaked by even though 1974 and 1976 were generally considered bad years for Republicans due to the Watergate scandal. Flynt's struggle, which was emblematic of the struggle of many southern Democrats to hold onto political power, is documented in Richard Fenno's Congress at the Grassroots.

Flynt chose not to run for re-election in 1978, and the Democrats fielded state senator Virginia Shapard in his place. Shapard's support of the Equal Rights Amendment * backfired against her in the socially conservative district, and Gingrich defeated her by eight points.

1979–1993: United States Representative

Gingrich was reelected ten times, facing only one truly difficult race. That came in 1990 when he barely defeated Democrat David Worley.

Pre-speakership Congressional activities

In 1981, Gingrich cofounded the Congressional Military Reform Caucus as well as the Congressional Space Caucus. In 1983 he founded the Conservative Opportunity Society, a group that included young conservative House Republicans. In 1983, Gingrich demanded the expulsion of fellow representatives Dan Crane and Gerry Studds for their roles in the Congressional Page sex scandal.

In May 1988, Gingrich (along with 77 other House members and the nonpartisan good government group Common Cause) brought ethics charges against Democratic Speaker of the House Jim Wright, who was alleged to have used a book deal to circumvent campaign finance laws and House ethics rules and eventually resigned as a result of the inquiry. Gingrich's success in forcing Wright's resignation was in part responsible for his rising influence in the Republican caucus. In 1989, after House Minority Whip Dick Cheney was appointed Secretary of Defense, Gingrich was elected to succeed him. Gingrich and others in the house, especially the newly-minted Gang of Seven, railed against what they saw as ethical lapses in the House, an institution that had been under Democratic control for almost 40 years. The House banking scandal and Congressional Post Office Scandal were emblems of this alleged corruption.

In his memoir "Man of the House", long time Democratic House Speaker Thomas "Tip" O'Neill took note of Gingrich, characterizing him as having a spark of genius and a passion for politics, but an erratic nature.

Election of 1992

During the 1990s round of redistricting, Democrats in the Georgia state legislature tried to draw Gingrich's district out from under him by splitting most of his old territory among two other districts. At the same time, they created a new 6th district located in Fulton and Cobb counties in the wealthy northern suburbs of Atlanta—an area that Gingrich had never represented. However, the plan backfired when Gingrich sold his home in Carrollton, moved to Marietta in the new 6th and won a very close Republican primary. His opponent, a local politician, used Gingrich's carpetbagger status and the recent House bank scandal against him, and almost pulled an upset. The primary victory was tantamount to election in the new, heavily Republican district. Also, five-term incumbent Richard Ray, whose district was redrawn to include much of Gingrich's former territory, lost to Republican state senator Mac Collins.

1994-1998: Speaker of the House

1994: The Contract with America and Rise to Speakership

In the 1994 campaign season, in an effort to offer a concrete alternative to shifting Democratic policies and to unite distant wings of the Republican Party, Gingrich presented his famous Contract with America, a list of campaign promises given as intended acts of Congress. The contract was signed by himself and other Republican candidates for the House of Representatives. The contract ranged from issues with broad popular support, including welfare reform, term limits, tougher crime laws, and a balanced budget law, to more specialized legislation such as restrictions on American military participation in United Nations missions. In the November elections of 1994, Republicans gained 54 seats and took control of the House for the first time since 1954.

Longtime House Minority Leader Bob Michel of Illinois had not run for reelection in 1994, giving Gingrich, as the highest-ranking Republican returning to Congress, the inside track to becoming Speaker. The Congress fulfilled Gingrich's Contract, voting on all ten of the Contract's issues within the first 100 days of the session. Legislation proposed by the 104th Congress included term limits for Congressional Representatives, tax cuts, welfare reform, and a balanced budget law, as well as independent auditing of the finances of the House of Representatives and elimination of non-essential services such as the House barbershop and shoe shine concessions. While many of the major proposals of the Contract did not become law or were substantially weakened, they represented a dramatic change in the legislative goals and priorities of previous Congresses. The Contract was criticized by the Sierra Club and by the left-leaning labor magazine Mother Jones as a Trojan horse tactic which, while deploying the rhetoric of reform, would have the real effect of allowing corporate polluters to profit at the expense of the environment it was also accused of being designed to make the rich richer at the expense of the poor and middle class [http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/1995/03/garrett.html. It was often referred to as the "Contract on America" by its opponents (where a "contract on" somebody is an agreement to have them killed).

Government shutdown and the Air Force One "snub," 1995-1996

The momentum of the so-called Republican Revolution, however, was stalled in late 1995 and early 1996 as a result of a budget fight between Congressional Republicans and President Bill Clinton. Without enough votes to override President Clinton's veto, Gingrich led the Republicans not to submit a revised budget, allowing the previously-approved appropriations to expire on schedule, and causing parts of the Federal government to shut down for lack of funds and generating media attention they used to claim Clinton would not agree to a balanced budget.

The effort backfired, however. Gingrich inflicted a severe blow to his public image by suggesting that the Republican hard-line stance over the budget was in part due to his feeling "snubbed" by the President the day before, after being forced to leave Air Force One via the back door during his return from Yitzhak Rabin's funeral in Israel. Gingrich was lampooned in the media as a petulant figure with an inflated self-image, and editorial cartoons depicted him as having thrown a temper tantrum. Democratic leaders took the opportunity to attack Gingrich's motives for the budget stand-off, and the shutdown ultimately contributed to Clinton's re-election in November of that year. PBS.org, NationalReview.com

1996: Ethics charges

Gingrich was accused of hypocrisy and unethical behavior when he accepted a $4.5 million advance as part of a book deal, in light of his previous role in the investigation of Jim Wright. Following the accusations, Gingrich returned the advance.

Including charges related to the book deal, Democrats filed 84 ethics charges against Speaker Gingrich during his term, including claiming tax-exempt status for a college course run for political purposes and using the GOPAC political action committee as a slush fund. All charges were eventually dropped following an investigation by the Republican-led House Ethics Committee. However, Gingrich admitted to "unintentionally" giving inaccurate information to the House Ethics Committee during the course of the investigation. The committee did not indict him on charges of intentional perjurypbs.org. The matter was settled when he agreed to reimburse the Committee $300,000 for the cost of prolonging the investigation. The payment was described as a "cost assessment" and not a fine by the Committeewashingtonpost.com. He also agreed to not "spin" the story in the media, but admit publicly to his transgressions.

On January 10, 1997, the New York Times printed a story that revealed Gingrich, in collusion with other House Republicans, planned to abrogate his agreement by misrepresenting the ethics violations he committed. The story was proven by quotes from a taped phone conversation between Gingrich and his fellow Republicans. A firestorm of controversy ensued, with Republicans insisting that the privacy of the participants in the conversation has been breached, and others insisting that the public has a need to know about Gingrich's intent to violate his agreement with the Ethics Committee. The couple who taped the conversation, John and Alice Martin, who "lucked" into it over their police scanner, pled guilty to charges surrounding the taping and pay a $500 fine. Five years later, Democratic representative Jim McDermott publicly admitted that he leaked the tape. Republican John Boehner, one of the participants in the conversation, sued McDermott for $10,000 in civil damages; as of May 2006, that court case is in the US Court of Appeals in Washington, possibly heading for the Supreme Court. Many media organizations and watchdog groups support McDermott, saying that if Boehner prevails, the ability of news organizations to reveal embarrassing and potentially criminal behavior of government officials will be drastically curtailed thestranger.com.

Coup attempt of 1997

In the summer of 1997, many House Republicans had come to see Gingrich's unsavory public image as a liability and attempted to replace him as Speaker. According to Joe Scarborough of Florida, a member of the Republican freshman class of 1994, the coup attempt resulted from a view that Gingrich's public notoriety was becoming a drag on party efforts. House Majority Leader Dick Armey started his efforts in 1997 by whispering to so-called "rebels" tired of Gingrich's leadership. Armey and other Republican leaders started approaching these rebels after the July 4th break in 1997.

Twenty-four House Republicans met on the night of July 10th in South Carolina congressman Lindsey Graham's office in an attempt to vacate the Speaker's chair. A simple majority was needed to oust Gingrich; when Democrats' votes were included with those of the dissident Republicans, he would have had to step aside. However, due to a last-minute disagreement between Armey and Tom Coburn over whether Bill Paxon or Armey should become the new speaker, Armey informed Gingrich that his position as Speaker was at risk. Gingrich and the House leadership quickly and successfully moved to restore order within the party, and Paxon didn't run for reelection in 1998. However, the incident would prove a precursor of Gingrich's future prospects as Speaker.

Fall from Speakership, resignation from House

By 1998, Gingrich had become a highly visible and polarizing figure in the public's eye, making him an easy target for Democratic congressional candidates across the nation. In 1997 a strong majority of Americans believed Gingrich should have been replaced as Speaker of the House, and he held an all-time low job approval rating of 28%.* At the time, he was at the forefront of Republican calls for the investigation and impeachment of Bill Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and focused on the scandal as a unifying campaign theme in national Republican advertising. Democratic candidates in races across the country used the same opportunity to target Gingrich himself during the campaign season, with commentator David Horowitz estimating that 80,000 television spots ran over the course of the election season on Gingrich. These Democratic efforts would ultimately prove successful.

The Republicans expected big gains from the 1998 Congressional elections. In fact, Gingrich predicted a 30-seat Republican pickup. Instead, the Republicans lost five seats, the poorest results in 34 years for any party not in control of the White House. Having led the GOP to focus on the impeachment project as a principal strategy, Gingrich took most of the blame for the defeat. Amid threats of a rebellion in his caucus, he announced on November 6 that he would not only stand down as Speaker, but would leave the House as well. He had been elected to an 11th term in that election, but declined to take his seat.

Gingrich's role as master GOP strategist ended with his resignation from the House and Speakership, but his legacy in politics remains today.

Legacy in Politics and Language

A major part of Gingrich's legacy as a politician has been in achieving the effective use of language and the news media to further political goals.

Gingrich took the chair of the Republican political action committee GOPAC in 1986 and transformed it into an effective vehicle for electing conservative candidates to office. This was accomplished in significant part by establishing and promoting a consistent language and theme for use by Republicans at all electoral levels. This theme, in Gingrich's own words, was that of "a conservative opportunity society replacing the liberal welfare state", emphasizing "workfare over welfare" and promoting the idea that "we are the majority". GOPAC training tapes containing advice on "Newtspeak" were sent out to rising GOP political candidates throughout the country.

Similarly, GOPAC distributed a memo to freshman Republican House members. Entitled "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control," it listed a number of "optimistic positive governing words" that candidates could use when campaigning in order to "speak like Newt," (movement, opportunity, passionate, e.g.) and a parallel list of contrasting words, such as "bureaucracy, cheat, coercion, etc.," which it advised the candidate to apply to their "opponent, their record, proposals and their party."utk.edu, thenation.com

At the start of the Republican Revolution, Gingrich and GOPAC's efforts had succeeded in dictating the theme of national political debate at the time.

Post-congressional life

Gingrich has since remained involved in national politics and public policy debate. He is a senior fellow at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, focusing on health care (he has founded the Center for Health Transformation), information technology, the military, and politics. He sometimes serves as a commentator, guest or panel member on television news shows. He is listed as a contributor by Fox News Channel, and frequently appears as a guest on the channel; he has also hosted occasional specials for the FNC.

In June of 2006 Gingrich publicly called for Jack Murtha to be censured by the United States Congress for, what Gingrich claims, was Murtha's statement that America was a greater threat to world stability than Iran or North Korea. The paper which originally printed the statement has recently backed away and admitted that Murtha had been misquoted and was merely citing a poll that showed the world believed the United States was a greater threat than either of those nations. Gingrich, however, has refused to apologize or repeal his call for Murtha to be censured.* Gingrich added the following comments:

"it's conceivable that Murtha woke up one day a year ago and said, 'You know, if I don't start bashing America, and bashing the military, and repudiating everything I've stood for my whole life, these guys aren't going to allow me to be chairman of the committee that spends the money.' "*

Possible 2008 presidential run?

Since the release of Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract with America in January 2005, Gingrich has been mentioned as a potential Presidential candidate for the 2008 U.S. presidential election. He has made several trips to Iowa and New Hampshire to discuss his book and on April 1, 2005, David Yepsen wrote in the Des Moines Register that Gingrich was "setting a high standard for what other GOP candidates need to be talking about - and doing - if they want to win here."Desmoinesregister.com Gingrich has voiced criticism against the Republican Party, and has argued that the party must adapt if it is to remain a dominant force in US politics.

In 2005, Newt Gingrich and his wife Callista established the Newt L. and Callista L. Gingrich Scholarship for instrumental music majors at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. (Gingrich's wife is a Luther alumna.) This scholarship provides Gingrich with valuable public relations in Iowa, which will hold the crucial Iowa caucuses in 2008.Decoranewspapers.com

In May 2005, he raised eyebrows when he announced that he was collaborating with Hillary Clinton on a new health-care bill.Washingtonpost.comshowmenews.com Some analysts speculated such a move was a calculated attempt to project a more "moderate" front on the part of both politicians, in anticipation of a potential 2008 run.

On October 13, 2005, Gingrich suggested he's actually considering a run for president, saying "There are circumstances where I will run", elaborating that those circumstances would be if no other candidate champions some of the platform ideas advocated by Gingrich.theunionleader.com

In March 2006, Gingrich began a regular series of daily radio commentaries, titled "Winning the Future", the same as his recent book. These commentaries are modeled after Ronald Reagan's radio addresses in the mid-1970s.

On April 10, 2006 Gingrich raised eyebrows when he was quoted in an Argus Leader article titled "Newt: Pull out of Iraq" as saying "It was an enormous mistake for us to try to occupy that country after June of 2003...We have to pull back, and we have to recognize it." The headline of the article later changed to "Gingrich at USD: Scale back to small force in Iraq." On April 11th, Gingrich clarified his statement by posting an audio clip and transcript of the Iraq portion of the speech in question on his website[http://www.newt.org/backpage.asp?art=2921. The transcript makes it obvious Gingrich does not favor a withdrawal from Iraq. Instead, he believes the strategy used by the CPA after June 2003 was a mistake and that we need to turn over control to Iraqis as rapidly as possible.

On April 29, 2006, supporters launch http://www.draftnewt.org to form a grassroots movement to support a possible Gingrich run for the Presidency.

On June 2, 2006, the Minnesota Republican Party at their state convention held a straw poll for the GOP nomination in 2008*. Gingrich came in first place at 40%, with the next highest in the straw poll of GOP delegates being Senator George Allen at 15%.

Personal life

While in high school, Gingrich started to date his geometry teacher, Jackie Battley. On June 19, 1962, they were married. Their first child was born the following year.

In 1980, Gingrich separated from his first wife. Battley developed cancer: while she was in the hospital recovering from surgery, Gingrich tried to discuss the terms of a divorce. In February 1981, the divorce was finalized, and in August 1981, Gingrich married his second wife, Marianne Ginther.

In December 1999, Gingrich divorced his second wife, Marianne, after she discovered that he had been carrying on an affair for the past five years with a House aide twenty-three years his junior, Callista Bisek. * Critics such as David Corn blasted him for hypocrisy, noting that this activity was concurrent with his leadership role in the impeachment of Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal and his ascension to speaker on a family values platform. On August 19, 2000, Gingrich married Bisek as his third wife.

Books authored

Nonfiction

  • The Government's Role in Solving Societal Problems. Associated Faculty Press, Incorporated. January 1982 ISBN 0867330260
  • Window of Opportunity. Tom Doherty Associates, December 1985. ISBN 031293923X
  • Contract with America (co-editor). Times Books, December 1994. ISBN 0812925866
  • Restoring the Dream. Times Books, May 1995. ISBN 0812926668
  • Quotations from Speaker Newt. Workman Publishing Company, Inc., July 1995. ISBN 076110092X
  • To Renew America. Farrar Straus & Giroux, July 1996. ISBN 0061095397
  • Lessons Learned The Hard Way. HarperCollins Publishers, May 1998 ISBN 0060191066
  • Presidential Determination Regarding Certification of the Thirty-Two Major Illicit Narcotics Producing and Transit Countries. DIANE Publishing Company, September 1999. ISBN 0788131869
  • Saving Lives and Saving Money. Alexis de Toqueville Institution, April 2003. ISBN 0970548540
  • Winning the Future. Regnery Publishing, January 2005. ISBN 0895260425

Fiction

Gingrich, with co-author William Forstchen, wrote four alternate history/science fiction novels: 1945, in which Nazi Germany did not declare war on the United States during World War II, and a trilogy on the American Civil War, in which the Confederacy won the Battle of Gettysburg.

  • 1945 Baen Books, September 1996. ISBN 0671877399
  • Gettysburg Thomas Dunne Books, June 2003 ISBN 031230935X
  • Grant Comes East St. Martin's Press, June 2004. ISBN 0312309384
  • Never Call Retreat St. Martin's Press, June 2005 ISBN 0312342985

Trivia

  • Newt Gingrich frequently posts book reviews to Amazon.com, and at one point was designated a "Top 500" reviewer. (The Weekly Standard covered this hobby in an article.) Amazon has an archive of his reviews.
  • An animal and nature lover, he often recommends Frans de Waal's book "Chimpanzee Politics" to Washington insiders.
  • Candace Gingrich, his sister, works for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest gay and lesbian organization. In years past she has headed up HRC's "National Coming Out Day" campaign.
  • When Congressional Republicans celebrated the fifth anniversary of the Contract With America, the members (many of whom owed their political careers to his mentoring) debated whether to invite Gingrich. Citing his status as a polarizing figure the anniversary party took place without him. By 2004 and the celebration of the 10th anniversary Gingrich's image had healed enough for him to be keynote speaker of the opening dinner.
  • David Maraniss and Michael Weisskopf in Tell Newt to Shut Up! include an anecdote that on the day of the Republican takeover newly elected Congressman Sonny Bono took Newt aside to warn him: "You are not being handled right. This is not political news coverage. This is celebrity status. You need handlers. You need to understand what you are doing. You need to understand the attitude of the news media toward celebrities". Gingrich responded distractedly "Yeah. We'll get around to that."
  • All of Newt Gingrich's official papers and political artifacts are housed in the Annie Bell Weaver special collections area at the University of West Georgia (third floor) in Carrollton, GA. These papers are open to the public during limited hours.
  • In the Dilbert cartoon strip of 15th May 1997 (when Alice doesn't wear makeup) she is mistaken for Newt Gingrich by Asok the intern.
  • Gingrich has appeared in an interview on Da Ali G Show.
  • In August 1998, Gingrich shook the hands of 3,609 people in one day, in an attempt to set a record for "political handshaking."
  • In June 2006, Gingrich appeared as a character in the comic strip Pearls Before Swine. In the strip, a miniature Gingrich was kept by Pig as a pet (who had told Rat he bought "a Newt"). He was eventually eaten by the neighborhood Crocodiles, who commented that he was "like (a) McNugget, but no (sic) as tasty."

References

Books
Journals
Web

External links

1943 births | Living people | Adoptees | Baptists | People from Pennsylvania | Speakers of the United States House of Representatives | Time magazine Persons of the Year | Members of the United States House of Representatives from Georgia | Tulane University alumni | American Enterprise Institute

Newt Gingrich | Newt Gingrich | ニュート・ギングリッチ | Newt Gingrich

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Newt Gingrich".

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