Isle of Newt

Gingrich on a typical day

A judgment of Newt Gingrich can go either way just by looking at him. He can either be a fun-loving jolly sort or the arrogant sourpuss that he is. One could assume that when Newt looks in the mirror he sees the fun-loving jolly sort. Why else would he think he stands a snowball’s chance in hell of being elected president? If Newt knew himself better he would appreciate the fact that his bristle got him to the highest glory he will ever realize when he was chosen as Speaker of the House.

Gingrich was great as the face of the opposition. He had no problem positing himself in front of the cameras to show just how he and the Republicans were going to push around Bill Clinton and the Democrats. It must have been a good time to be a Republican, for about two minutes. Early into the 104^th Congress was the Federal Government Shutdown during which Gingrich said he had been intentionally difficult after being snubbed by Clinton. It was the first time the country got to see Gingrich as the flimsy excuse generator that he is. He would wear the shutdown around his neck for the rest of his troubled tenure.

After exiting Congress in some disgrace in 1999, Gingrich kept his face in front of the cameras adding no harm or foul to the national debate. It wasn’t that he was inoffensive; it’s just that no one cared about what Newt had to say except for Newt. Given his credentials he could just show up and networks would let him speak. In fairness, Gingrich has always been a guy interested in solutions, not afraid to call opponents to the table to find common ground, even when he didn’t have to. It was the side of his persona that was antithetical to side that most people saw that made him somewhat of an enigma.

In the end it is the unpleasant side of his that dominates. Anyone who disagrees can challenge themselves by naming five political friends of the Newtster. Hell, name one! That’s why his glory days were the 90s. Back then, he didn’t need friends, but just enough backers to keep him around as House speaker, but even that fell out from underneath him.

It was clear from the first day of his speakership that Gingrich wanted to be president. His ascendency was high profile mostly because he made it that way. Compare his bravado with Nancy Pelosi’s reticence prior to her elevation to speaker; Pelosi promised there would be no hearings to impeach George W. Bush during her tenure. But what if he murdered someone in cold blood? Gingrich would have never taken anything off the table. He was gunning to be some sort of alternate president. He smelled Clinton’s blood in the water and tried to move in for an immediate kill. Then Clinton ripped Gingrich’s eye out. It may have not been smooth sailing from there but together Clinton and Gingrich entered into serious negotiations leading to some good things including a balanced budget and even a budget surplus.

The 90s could have been a period of growth for Gingrich. He had a lot to learn about temperament and image, but for all the good he was a part of and exposed to, none of it seemed to make an impact. He had to be him. He had to be him when marshaling Congress’ impeachment proceedings against philanderer Bill Clinton while he was having an affair of his own. He had to be him when he was the first Speaker of the House to be disciplined for ethics violations. He had to be him when stating there was a “predictive model” of what damage the president would do to America based on his Kenyan heritage. He had to be him when he alienated the bulk of his party by speaking out against its key piece of legislation in the 112^th Congress, backpedaling on his words and then blaming the Democrats for his slip-up. 

Newt’s tragic flaw is his lack of awareness of himself. Because he hears the sound of his voice so often, he assumes that there are people firmly lined up behind him. Because he is so unaware, he has no idea just how many people he turns off. If very few people liked Newt Gingrich before, nearly no one likes him now.  While he tells himself that anything could happen in this race that would put this Ryan Plan fiasco behind him, everyone else is taking bets on when he gets out.  Gingrich overstayed his welcome as Speaker of the House. Now he is overstaying his time in the limelight.