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Newt Gingrich nationalized the congressional elections by appealing to Americans' distaste for Bill Clinton's fiscal and social liberalism and swung fifty-four seats from the jackasses' to the elephants' camp.

No he didn’t. He appealed to Americans’ love for a positive message and a plan.

Newt Gingrich nationalized the congressional elections by appealing to Americans' distaste for Bill Clinton's fiscal and social liberalism and swung fifty-four seats from the jackasses' to the elephants' camp.

Newt Gingrich did not do anything. He went out on the steps of the congress for 15 seconds of air time. No one paid a bit of attention to him until the Media totally surprised by the democrats loss of the house, came looking for a reason. Newt was there with the Contract with America.

But where was Newt in 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004? It took a lot more than all the Contract with America crap to hold the house in 2000. Remember... GORE WON THE POPULAR vote .. but the Democrats did not come close to winning the house.

The facts are the Republicans won control of enough state houses that they were able to Gerrymander a majority of the house districts. It is pretty simple... put as many Demorats as possible into a few House seats where they will win by 70 Percent to 30 percent. Put the remainder of the seates in districts where the Republicans advantage is 54 to 46.

I will give you ohio as an example. In 1980 the Democrats controlled this state and they got to redistrict. And guess what! They made 1/3 of the seats very very Republican and 2/3 of the seats mildly Demoratic. They won 2/3 of the Ohio seats.

Then in 1991 the Republicans gained control of a majority of state houses, includeing Ohio and they proceeded to gerrymander Ohio to their advantage. As a result Ohio went from a 2/3 to 1/3 Democrat state to a 2/3 to 1/3 Republican state. Ross Perot screwed the situation up in 1992 or we would have won the house as Clinton was winning the Presidency.

All Newt did was what he always did.. he was there to take the credit. And as is the usual case when men take the credit for things they didn't do, no one stood up for his horny butt when the chance came to kick him out of the House.

Also, as I recall, the ten points he brought up was that they would vote on them. Under the rules at that time, the Republicans were not even allowed to bring those points up for a vote. After they won the majority, the did vote on each and every one of them. Promise made, promise delivered.

Point one - Newt should have kept his big mouth shut! When he said the President is irrelevant, I believe that caused people to rally behing him. Just as we object to State and CIA trying to do a end around this President, he should not have announced his plans concerning Clinton. Just do it and let America see he was irrelevant. They might have voted him out in 96.

Point two - about every third election cycle - whether in power or not - the Republicans should come out with a ten-pont Contract plan. Keeps the people engaged with what Congress is doing.