For the last twenty years I’ve blown hot and cold on Newt Gingrich. I’ve admired his fertile mind and his ability to articulate great conservative principles. He’s a natural teacher and it shows. I’ve also admired him for the ‘Contract with America’ – the successful strategy to nationalize local congressional races that resulted in the 1994 Republican Congressional sweep.
On the debit side of the ledger, however, I’ve also viewed Gingrich as someone who’s been willing to shave points politically and personally. He resigned from Congress in 1999 after the House Ethics Panel handed him a $300K fine for laundering campaign money through his college course and he’s struck me as a guy who needs the limelight too much – even at the expense of principle. Too much of an opportunist, in other words, and driven only by a desire to be relevant.
And then there’s his personal life.
In the latest issue of Esquire is an interview with ex-wife No. 2, Marianne Gingrich. I thought the piece was fairly even-handed as these things go, but it tended to reinforce my uneasiness and left me asking, “will the real Newt Gingrich, please step forward?” According to the article, Newt has been working overtime to position himself as a presidential contender and the ex says, “no way”.
Read it yourself and let’s compare notes. In the meantime, here’s a 2008 ad in which Newt flacks for climate change legislation with Nancy Pelosi. The ad itself is courtesy of Al Gore’s Repower America.
You be the judge.
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