When Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, brought about the “Republican Revolution” back in 1994, I was still a liberal. I wrote about it (in a law school newspaper) and lamented that Republicans controlled Congress (by picking up 52 seats and becoming the majority in the House for the first time since 1954).
His Contract with America sounded like so much bunk at the time. The attempt to inject accountability into the government wasn’t a bad idea, but Republicans were advocating it, and that was enough to dismiss it outright. (See also Wikipedia’s entry, a Heritage Foundation article and a nine-part series on the Republican Revolution).
Now a different kind of Revolution has taken place, one in which Gingrich would be a liability. Lately there’s been talk in the media about his running for the presidency in 2008. I can’t tell you how cringe-worthy that is. And when I heard about his “Walking Tour of God in Washington, D.C.,” I thought, “That’s just what we need. A Republican philanderer lecturing people about God.” (See a transcript from a recent appearance on FOX.)
Why do I react this way? Because I think Gingrich is a man of low character. He served his first wife divorce papers while she was in the hospital suffering from cancer. During Bill Clinton’s impeachment scandal, he’d been cheating on his second wife with one of his staff and told her over the phone while she was attending her mother’s birthday party that he wanted a divorce. I won’t even get into the ethics violations.
Contrary to smooth Bill “Slick Willie” Clinton and his supporters, who made the nonsensical claim that a man’s personal life is separate from his professional/political life, a person is who he is in all areas of his life. Unfaithfulness is a character flaw, and that flaw affects the whole man, not just the “personal” one.
(As an aside, here’s a little advice for women in the audience. If you’re seeing a married man and he leaves his wife for you, it has little to do with you, despite what he says. While you’re feeling special and better than she, understand that one day he’ll probably do the same thing to you. Your man’s low character will manifest itself again when the next pretty young thing crosses his path. So don’t act surprised when he serves you divorce papers — if he marries you, that is — at the most inopportune moment.)
You’re tainted goods, Mr. Gingrich. Stay away from public office. Republicans don’t need you and the real conservatives in the party can’t afford you. Write your books, do your public policy work behind the scene, and for crying out loud, don’t embarrass yourself (or us) with lectures on “moral values.”
