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Newt Gingrich
As a uniquely accomplished and effective spokesman for the conservative point of view in American politics he has been subjected to a notable share of both praise and scorn. What appears below, and especially its history of frequent editing, serves as a example not only of the passions his ideas on government and society elicit but also the lengths some are willing to go to to influence public perception of the man and his ideas.
Gingrich was the author of an infamous secret memo to GOP leaders in 1995 titled "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control", which one of America's foremost linguists called an outline of a strategy to frame the word "liberal" as "something akin to traitor" in the media. This was in line with his once-described goal of "reshaping the entire nation through the news media" (New York Times,12/14/94).
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, hence the name change. 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 .
While still in high school, Gingrich started to date his geometry teacher, Jackie Battley. On June 19 , 1962 , he married her. Their first child was born the following year.
Newt Gingrich made two unsuccessful runs as a Republican for Congress in Georgia's Sixth Congressional District, stretching from the southern Atlanta suburbs to the Alabama border, in 1974 and 1976 , losing both times to Democrat Jack Flynt . However, both races were far closer than Flynt was used to facing since his first election in 1954 , and he did not run in 1978 , The Democrats fielded state senator Virginia Shapard in Flynt's place. Shapard's support of the Equal Rights Amendment didn't go over very well in the conservative 6th, and Gingrich defeated Shapard in November by eight points. He was reelected ten times, only facing one truly difficult race. That came in 1990 , when he barely defeated Democrat David Worley.
In 1980 , Gingrich asked his first wife for a divorce. In an infamous incident, Gingrich tried to discuss the terms of his divorce with his wife while she was in a hospital bed recovering from surgery for uterine cancer. In February 1981 , the divorce was finalized, and in August 1981 , he married his second wife, Marianne Ginther.
In 1981 , Gingrich was a cofounder of both the Congressional Military Reform Caucus and 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 1987 , Gingrich brought ethics charges against Speaker of the House Jim Wright , a Democrat, who eventually resigned as a result of the Congressional ethics inquiry. Gingrich's success 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 served as Minority Whip until the election of 1994 , the first midterm election during the Presidency of Bill Clinton .
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, heavily Republican 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 and moved to Marietta in the new 6th. He easily won the Republican primary, which was tantamount to election in the new 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 .
In 1994 , Gingrich defined a Contract with America , a list of campaign promises signed by himself and other Republican candidates for the House of Representatives. The promises were designed to unite the various factions of the party and provide a contrast with the policies of the Democratic Party. Many credit that contract (as well as demographic trends) for the election successes of November 1994 . In that election, 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 financial 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 did not become law or were substantially weakened, they represented a dramatic change in the legislative goals and priorities of previous Congresses.Over the next four years, Gingrich also took aim at the embattled president, investigating various scandals and calling for impeachment of President Clinton.
Democrats filed 84 ethics charges against Speaker Gingrich during his term, including claiming tax-exempt status for a town hall meeting and college course run for political purposes. The charges were eventually dropped following an investigation by the bipartisan House Ethics Committee . However, Gingrich admitted to unintentionally giving inaccurate information to the House Ethics Committee during the course of the investigation, although the committee did not indict him on charges of intentional perjury . 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" rather than a "fine" by the Committee .
The events of 1998 ended Gingrich's career in the House. In early 1998, many House Republicans had come to see him as a liability and attempted to replace him as Speaker with suburban Buffalo, New York congressman Bill Paxon . The coup failed, and Paxon was forced from office and completely retired from politics. At the end of the year, the Republicans expected big gains from the 1998 Congressional elections. In fact, Gingrich had 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. Gingrich took most of the blame for the defeat. Amid threats of a rebellion in his caucus, he announced 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.
In December 1999 , Gingrich divorced his second wife, Marianne, after revealing in August that he had been carrying on an extramarital affair for the past six years with a House clerk twenty-three years his junior, Callista Bisek . His infidelity was viewed as highly hypocritical by many critics in light of his heavy emphasis on family values while in office and close ties with the Religious Right particularly Christian Voice and the Christian Coalition . This was coupled with the fact that Gingrich handed divorce papers to Marianne after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Similarly, in 1981, Gingrich served divorce papers to his first wife, Jackie Battley, after she was in the hospital undergoing cancer treatment. It was also noted by critics that his own adultery had taken place while he was leading moral attacks against Bill Clinton during the Lewinsky scandal for the same behavior. On August 19 , 2000 , Gingrich married Callista Bisek as his third wife.
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.
Since the release of Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract with America in January 2005 , Gingrich has often been mentioned as a Presidential contender for 2008. He has made several trips to Iowa and New Hampshire to discuss his book and on August 16 , 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." In recent words and actions 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 made a donation, through the Gingrich Foundation , of $25,000 to Luther College to establish the Gingrich Scholarship that provides annual scholarships to instrumental music majors studying piano, organ or wind instruments. (Gingrich's wife, the former Callista Bisek, is an alumna of Luther College.)
In May 2005 , he raised eyebrows when he announced that he was collaborating with Hillary Clinton on a new health-care bill. Some analysists 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 September 2 , 2005 , in response to slow federal action in the face of Hurricane Katrina 's devastation of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, Gingrich said, "If we can't respond faster than this to an event we saw coming across the Gulf for days, then why do we think we're prepared to respond to a nuclear or biological attack?"
On October 13 , 2005 , Gingrich explicitly suggested he may run for president in 2008 , 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.
Gingrich has written several books, both before and after leaving Congress. Notables are To Renew America ( 1995 ) and Lessons Learned The Hard Way ( 1998 ); a new book, Winning the Future : A 21st Century Contract with America was released in early January 2005 .
He has also been co-author with science fiction author William Forstchen , of four alternate history novels: 1945 (in which Nazi Germany did not declare war on the United States during World War II in 1941 ), and a trilogy on the Civil War : Gettysburg : A Novel of the Civil War (in which the Confederacy won the Battle of Gettysburg ), Grant Comes East , and Never Call Retreat: Lee and Grant - The Final Victory .
Gingrich was the author of an infamous secret memo to GOP leaders in 1995 titled "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control" which George Lakoff (one of America's foremost linguists) described as a strategy to frame the word "liberal" as "something akin to traitor" in the media Memo and analysis .
This was in line with his once-described goal of "reshaping the entire nation through the news media" (New York Times,12/14/94).
(Source: Don’t Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate" (book) and "How Democrats and Progressives Can Win" (DVD) by George Lakoff, professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley)