Wonderful History
July 4th may be in the rearview mirror, but former House Speaker Newt Gingrich adopts the week to teach important insights on a few of our founders.
I’ve become a huge fan of podcasts, or as they say in the craft, “on-demand media.” I subscribe to several, from radio talker Hugh Hewitt’s “The Hughniverse” (his radio show without the commercials) to “What the Hell is Going On” by American Enterprise Institute senior fellows Marc Thiessen and Danielle Pletka. There are others.
But also on my iPhone is former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s, entitled “Newt’s World.” A college history professor before winning a seat in Congress on his third try in 1978, he has parlayed his remarkable knowledge into a terrific podcast series for “Founding Fathers Week.” He features 40 to 60-minute long podcasts featuring George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and Benjamin Franklin. So far.
Each one is a masterful walk through the lives of each, all with insights and stories I’ve never heard before. I was tickled to hear Newt mention that a favorite local restaurant where I proposed to my wife nearly 39 years ago - Gadsby’s Tavern in historic Olde Towne Alexandria - was where Washington held all his birthday parties, presumably while residing at Mount Vernon, about 10 miles to the south.
While I’m not finished yet - I need to listen to his lectures on Madison, Hamilton and Franklin - I am sure you will learn something new. Even as an amateur historian, I certainly have. You can also subscribe to Newt’s World on iTunes and whatever they use for Android phones.
For many of us who have worked in and around Congress over the past 40-plus years, Speaker Gingrich’s career heavily influenced our own. I came to Washington as a young 22-year-old very junior staff assistant to a 7-term Arkansas Congressman at the same time as the newly-elected Gingrich (R-GA). I watched as he almost singularly transformed the House Republican Conference from an unconfrontational minority into an offensive juggernaut that wanted to change history.
And by 1994, it did. Republicans won a majority for the first time in 40 years. Their early missteps during the Clinton years would help the Democratic President recover politically, including winning reelection and surviving impeachment.
My own 12-year congressional staff career closely mirrored his own tenure, even as I never worked directly for him. He influenced every part of it, even while I worked with Senators who didn't think much of his “Contract with America” or his style and tactics. He would only serve four years as Speaker before a messy coup led to his departure following the 1998 elections. He ran for the GOP nomination for President in 2012.
Some find it easy to blame Gingrich’s combativeness for today’s toxic politics, but it is way more complicated than that. After all, Republicans were “well behaved” before he came along, starting with his 1979 ethics-driven assaults on US Rep. Charles Diggs (D-MI) and then-Speaker James Wright (D-TX). It led to legislative and political tactics that include lengthy “special orders” with the C-SPAN cameras running. That led then-Speaker Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill to order House cameras to pan the House chamber during those speeches to show the lack of an audience. It didn’t matter and actually drew media and public attention to the speeches. Democrats didn’t take new GOP assertiveness lying down.
Gingrich would eventually launch a new internal House caucus or coalition - the Conservative Opportunity Society - that attracted bright, young, and like-minded reformers intent on changing Congress, from Minnesota’s Vin Weber to my future boss, then-US Rep. and future Senate Majority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ). Gingrich would use morning weekly COS meetings to school colleagues on creative conservative solutions to vexing problems and brainstorm on legislative and oversight matters. I attended a few of those fascinating sessions in 1987-88.
Even some of the “old-timers” came around to Newt’s vision, strategy, tactics, and style of operating. My first boss, the late John Paul Hammerschmidt (R-AR), elected in 1966, nominated Newt to serve as the Republican Whip after then-President George H. W. Bush nominated then-Whip Richard Cheney (R-WY) as Secretary of Defense in early 1989. Gingrich won a close 87-85 vote against Robert Madigan (R-IL). That set the stage for eventually denying the legendary Republican Leader, Bob Michel (R-IL), a chance at his career dream - serving as Speaker of the House. The less-confrontational Michel chose not to run for reelection in 1994, the year that the Republicans won control. The wise and humble World War II veteran passed away in 2017.
Newt is a historical figure in his own right. And history, told by him, has special insights and meaning.