<$BlogRSDUrl$>                                                                                                                                                                   
The Third Estate
What Is The Third Estate?
 Everything
What Has It Been Until Now In The Political Order?
Nothing
What Does It Want To Be?
Something

No He Didn't!

Sunday, January 02, 2005
I like Bull Moose. It's a good blog, and the author has a lot of interesting things to say, particularly as they come from a former Republican. He has stayed focused on the hypocrisy and misdeeds of the DeLay-controlled House, for which I have nothing but admiration.

Of course, when you say nice things about someone, it is a set-up for a criticism.

I am appalled by the recent post on Bull Moose in which he speaks with respect for Newt Gingrich and his revolution in the House. He asserts that the Republican takeover was a much needed cataclysm required to reform the House. And in doing so he acts like Newt Gingrich is an honorable person of high principles and strong ethics.

To all of which I must say hogwash. I was in Washington in 1995 when the Republicans took over. The lobbyists were writing legislation then too, in the supposed "glory days." DeLay is more corrupt and more vulgar, but the essence of the Republican House is still Gingrichian. What we are seeing today is not a decline from a noble past, but the distillment of what was there all along. Gingrich is DeLay with a veneer of intellectualism.

I happen to know a little about Newt Gingrich. I went to the undergraduate institution that Gingrich taught at before his political career. He was long gone, of course, but I had many conversations with the people who knew him. The picture of the man that emerged was not a flattering one. Gingrich ran for the House as a Rockefeller Republican against an old-line segregationist Democrat, enlisting the support of much of the faculty at his college. Once he was elected, Gingrich morphed into Ronald Reagan. The whole country would later see evidence of this ruthlessness, of Gingrich's unprincipled ambition, when he proceeded to define anyone who disagreed with him as un-American, and when Gingrich repeatedly broke his word.

I am sure you have all heard how Gingrich divorced his wife while she was in the hospital, so I won't harp on that. I don't have to.

The most damning thing about Gingrich is his pseudo-intellectualism. Yes he got a Ph.D. (in history), but do you know what? He wasn't a very good academic. If he hadn't been elected to the House, he still wouldn't have gotten tenure. People who knew him said Gingrich was a fount of ideas, but that 90% of those ideas were total crap. Those tendencies certainly bore themselves out once he became Speaker.

Finally I will share a personal story. I met Gingrich on a trip to D.C. where he came to speak to us. I asked him real question: how can re-imposing the 19th century socioeconomic and political order be the appropriate strategy if we have as he claimed entered a brand new era in human affairs? And do you know what the big brain's answer was? He didn't have one, so he ducked the question. Not so impressive.

So go damn the DeLay-run House for its many sins, but please no romanticizing of the Gingrich Revolution. The two are one and the same.
Posted by Arbitrista @ 7:24 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home

:: permalink