I have to write a paper about the rise and fall of Newt for my APUS history class, and it seems that the events were too recent for there to be any good sources of information about him. Does anyone know of a good bio of him? or maybe something that could help me figure out why his movement failed?
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
Constipation?
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
His movement didn't fail, he led the largest takeover of the US legislative branch in history.
Newt Gingrich was (and is) a brilliant man, if someone I consider to have deplorable personal morals and certain unsavory political opinions (though not on all things by any means).
His ousting was because of those deplorable personal morals, not because his movement in any way failed. Without Newt there never could have been W (which is amusing, as my distinct impression is he rather doesn't like W -- he's been allying with Hilary Clinton on policy initiatives W doesn't like, of late).
Posted by Meshugener (Member # 7601) on :
What sort of immoral things did he do, though?
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
*blink* His movement failed?
Newt Gingrich is the man to whom we owe the popularity of Ann Coulter, the Bush presidency, and our lax air pollution standards. All in all, the guy was a roaring success -- for a loathsome pudding.
-------
As far as immorality goes: he was a liar, a schemer, and an adulterer. But, hey, he was a politician, and those things will only get you in trouble if you're not able to wrangle control of Congress. *grin* Seriously, though, he was stained enough by scandal and personal dislike that his higher political ambitions had to be scuttled for a while.
Posted by Meshugener (Member # 7601) on :
Well, I'm far too young to have followed the whole fiasco when it was going on, so I honestly dont know what happened. So, I'm asking you guys.
Posted by TMedina (Member # 6649) on :
Don't forget to mention his drug addiction.
I shouldn't find that as amusing as I do.
-Trevor
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
Hmm...if this is a school assignment, I'd suggest you go use Google and read up on some archival news sites.
Just putting his name "Newt Gingrich" in as a search term got me to his personal home page, a link purporting to talk about the "long march of Newt Gingrich" and his official bio at the Congressional website.
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
I'm particularly partial to badgering his wife to agree on divorce terms while she was in the hospital for treatment for cancer; that's not why he was ousted, though, that's ancient history. (This is his wife who was his high school geometry teacher, whom he started dating while in high school).
Newt resigned in part due to political pressure from Neocons, and in part due to pressure on various fund-raising activities and allegations of impropriety in pursuit of the Lewinsky case (which Newt has since publicly stated he now considers to have been a bad idea).
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
Tom -- he did bring about those things, sadly, but he's actually not nearly as radical as Coulter or W (even on air pollution standards). The man is governmentally principled on issues, even as he isn't personally or politically.
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
See, I don't think he is at all.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
You should be able to find these at a good library.
Posted by Jay (Member # 5786) on :
There’s talk he might run for President in 08
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
quote:it seems that the events were too recent for there to be any good sources of information about him.
I hope my links make it clear this isn't true.
For everything that's out on the Internet, there's still an awul lot of information in those old analog databases called libraries.
Posted by Megan (Member # 5290) on :
I voted against him the one time I had the chance to do so. Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
You can also try http://www.ajc.com/ --the website for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. They have written a lot about Newt over the years, both editorials and straight-up news coverage.
fugu, I always thought that story about Newt negotiating his divorce while his wife was recovering from cancer showed Newt to be such a sleazy jerk.
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
Yep, and she wasn't just recovering, she was still undergoing hospitalizing treatment, and was in the hospital.
Posted by TheHumanTarget (Member # 7129) on :
quote: There’s talk he might run for President in 08
Hahahahahaha...I don't think our collective memory is that short (god, I hope it's not )
Either way, I thought Laura Bush was going to run against Hillary Clinton. I personally think another Clinton/Bush runoff would be great entertainment. Posted by TheHumanTarget (Member # 7129) on :
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