Newt Gingrich
Newton “Newt” Gingrich was born on June 17, 1943. After receiving his BA from Emory in 1965, he got his MA and PhD at Tulane, finishing up in 1971. From 1970 to 1978, he taught History at the University of West Georgia. In 1978, Gingrich ran for the House against Democrat Virginia Shapard and won, his first of 10 consecutive Congressional election victories.
Gingrich had no trouble getting re-elected from his district and performed ably, moving up the ladder within the House and within the Republican Party. In May 1988, he was a major player in the filing of ethics violation charges against then Speaker of the House Jim Wright (D), who subsequently resigned. This got Gingrich much national exposure and recognition. In 1989, he took over the position of House Minority Whip from Dick Cheney when he stepped up to Secretary of Defense.
In 1994, Gingrich was one of the primary architects of the Republican Contract with America; ten items including welfare reform, term limits, tort reform, social security reform, tougher crime laws, and balanced budget regulations that legislators who signed on promised to pass within 100 days, if they were given a Republican majority in Congress. The Republicans won control of the House in the 1994 mid-term elections, the first time that happened in 40 years. Newt Gingrich was elected Speaker of the House.
While the House did its part in keeping the contract, most of the ten items got held up in the Senate, altered in negotiations, or vetoed by President Clinton. The “Republican Revolution” began to lose steam by 1996, due, in part, to continual standoffs with Democratic President Clinton. In a show of rebellion and to slow spending, Gingrich orchestrated a delay in the passage of governmental appropriations bills, which resulted in portions of government having to temporarily shut down due to lack of funding. It came out during a press conference that part of Gingrich s motivation for the shutdown was because a perceived snub of him by Clinton during a state trip. This show of pettiness and self-concern severely damaged Gingrich s reputation and credibility.
In 1997, there was an attempted Congressional coup to oust Gingrich from the position of Speaker of the House that failed. Later that year, ethics violations were filed against Gingrich for misuse of tax exempt funds, which resulted in a Congressional reprimand and a fine of $300,000. As a result of this and the Republicans losing 5 seats in the 1998 elections, Gingrich resigned his post as Speaker and his seat in the House, even though he had just handily won re-election.
Upon leaving Washington, Gingrich worked with several conservative think tanks and published several books before becoming a popular commentator on various networks, including Fox News. He recently founded the non-partisan think tank American Solutions. As author of the Republican Revolution, his name is being mentioned again as a leading figure for the embattled GOP. Polls show strong interest in Gingrich among Republicans for a presidential run in 2012. So far, he has not publicly ruled a run out.
