Newt Gingrich

From dKosopedia

Newt Leroy Gingrich (June 17, 1943- ) was the speaker of the House of Representatives between 1995 and 1999 when scandal forced his resignation.

The now dishonored Dr. Gingrich was born Newton McPherson in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. While still in his youth his parents seperated and the young Newt lived with his mother, Kathleen McPherson. Kathleen would eventually marry Robert Gingrich who would then adopt little Newt. Newt's half-sister Candace is a lesbian activist and performed a same-sex marriage ceremony in a 1996 episode of hit NBC sitcom Friends.

1 Political Life
2 The Fall of Newt
3 Quotes
4 Affiliations
5 "Newt, Inc."
6 Related articles
7 External Links

Political Life

Gingrich was first elected to the House of Representatives in the November 1978 election year. Gingrich would be elected 10 times, but would only take his seat nine of those times. In 1989, Gingrich served as Minority Whip where he drafted the Contract with America. The success of that election year brought Newt immense popularity. He was elected to be the Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1995 and served in that position until his disgraceful behavior led to his resignation in 1998.

The Fall of Newt

Gingrich, preacher of personal responsibility, honesty, and ethics, used tax-exempt foundations for political purposes in violation of House Rules. To his credit, Gingrich admitted his guilt, and was fined $300,000 by the House Ethics Committee.

Gingrich, critic of the president's infidelity and preacher of family values, was also carrying on an affair with a much younger congressional employee who reported to him. Gingrich served his first wife (Jackie Battley, his high school math teacher) with divorce papers while she was in the hospital with cancer, and split with his second wife (Marianne Ginther) over the phone on Mother's Day, soon after learning that she had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.

Gingrich has admitted that he was having an extra-marital affair while he was condemning President Clinton for infidelity. ([1]).

Quotes

Claiming to speak for 300 million Americans (through collective telepathy), Gingrich said, "The American people believe English should be the official language of the government. ... We should replace bilingual education with immersion in English so people learn the common language of the country and they learn the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto." March 31, 2007. Source: Kasie Hunt. "Gingrich Decries Bilingual Education." Associated Press. March 31, 2007. News Report
"Well, I think what you're seeing happen is that Senator Clinton is trying to go to the left on the Iraq War to compete with John Edwards and with Barak Obama." (Newt Gingrich in his guise as "Fox News Political Analyst" rather than as AEI "intellectual.") "Hillary Clinton Flip Flops on Iraq War." The O'Reilly Factor. February 2, 2007.
"What I reject, out of hand, is the idea that by five to four, judges can rewrite the Constitution, but it takes two-thirds of the House, two-thirds of the Senate and three-fourths of the states to equal five judges...the other two branches have an absolute obligation to render independent judgment [in cases] at variance with the national will." Remarks at the Georgetown University Law Center Conference on the Judiciary, September 29, 2006.
"This is a serious long-term war, and it will inevitably lead us to want to know what is said in every suspect place in the country." Remarks at the Annual Loeb First Amendment Dinner in Manchester, New Hampshire. New hampshire is the state with the two-fisted motto "Live Free Or Die."