Posted on 01/26/2005 1:19:03 PM PST by RWR8189
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) has some unsolicited advice for the House and Senate leadership and fellow congressional Republicans, and it isn’t “You’re doing a fantastic job.”
The irrepressible Newtster, who led House Republicans to the promised land in 1995 after 40 years in the political wilderness before he was ignominiously sacked in 1999, thinks Denny Hastert and Tom DeLay & Co. should quit being control freaks and Bill Frist should crack the whip a little more on Senate Republicans.
“In my view, the Senate is too loose and the House is too tight,” Gingrich said Monday as he looked back 10 years at the Contract with America, the reform manifesto he authored that led House Republicans to their historic victory as they picked up 52 seats while defeating 34 incumbent Democrats, including Speaker Tom Foley (Wash.) and two committee chairmen.
Speaking at a panel discussion of the so-called Republican Revolution (“Lasting Legacy or Faded Vision?”) at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Gingrich minced no words, especially in regard to his successor’s leadership style.
He warned that Hastert and the House leadership are “making an enormous mistake” by continuing the strong-arm tactics that prevent House Democrats from having any significant voice in the legislative arena. “The great virtue of allowing the minority to offer amendments [and engage in full debate] is that you surface problems early,” he said.
Another panelist, former Rep. Vic Fazio (D-Calif.), touched a nerve when he accused House Republicans of “governing in a way that totally eviscerates the appropriations and budget process.” Fazio, who chaired his party’s caucus when Gingrich was Speaker, added that congressional Republicans believe “that absolute control is the only way to preserve the majority, and have a mind-set that allows the leadership to put all other values behind the value of keeping power.”
Gingrich agreed. “A House that is run solely as a machine is a very sterile institution,” he said. “Anybody who believes you can have a machine Republican Party for any significant time and not have it break down simply misunderstands the nature of the system. … If you don’t allow yourself to occasionally lose on the floor, you don’t understand the problem.”
He added, “What you can’t do is run over the minority when it doesn’t matter and then expect them not to be alienated. It only takes about 20 Republicans to lose control on the floor, and the first time 20 Republicans vote against a rule [that will happen]. It’s much smarter to back off now than wait for the majority to erode.”
But Gingrich saved his real bombshell for last as he offered a prediction during a question-and-answer session that must make Hastert furious and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) ecstatic.
“The odds are not trivial that the Republicans could lose the House in 2006” by giving up as many as 16 seats, he said.
“It’s my sense that the Democratic Party is pretty vibrant now,” he added. He singled out Sens. Evan Bayh (Ind.) and Ben Nelson (Neb.) and Gov. Mark Warner (Va.) as the kind of Democrats who could move their party “back to the center-right” and “articulate and communicate” a winning message that would enable them to make major inroads in the red states.
Gingrich, who now chairs his own consulting firm and is a fellow at two conservative think tanks and a political analyst for Fox News Channel, has lost none of his revolutionary zeal. But he clearly wishes House and Senate leaders had more of it.
Too bad Newt. You blew your chance at big politics when you divorced your wife to marry an intern right when the news was politicians and interns.
And stop criticizing Bush.
Any advice?
Newt Gingrich had his chance and blew it and he should be the last one to hand out advice.
The title of this article should be "Newt Continues Run for President and Approval of Liberal Media by bashing House GOP".
At least Newt took on his own. Vic Fazio, I note, had no words of advice for his party's shrieking leadership in the House.
Newt must be losing it.
shrill maybe. vibrant? I don't think so.
I agree with that.
PUKE
Newt's a wannbe McCain. GO AWAY NEWT.
The only statement in there that made sense.
Hastert is not strong-arming, IMHO-not enough as far as I am concerned!!
"“The odds are not trivial that the Republicans could lose the House in 2006” by giving up as many as 16 seats, he said."
Newt's putting up trial balloons for his 2008 run at the White House. Although I do appreciate some of his ideas, he's dilusional if he thinks he can ne a GOP force in the primaries, his political capital is long gone.
He also tends to speak in a pompous, abrasive manner which turns a lot of people off.
Ben Nelson is retiring, and Mark Warner is barred from re-election, so he'd have to take on an incumbent Senator to go anywhere. Evan Bayh is trying to suck up to the hard left from a red state. None of these losers are going anywhere any time soon.
Bah, Newt is just an honest politician who disdains group-think.
That is why he got sacked and the backroom dealers were searching for any reason to ditch him.
The Republicans did not really expect to win a majority in the House way back and when they did, they were a little flat-footed, but got back on the ball when they realized that they really did have power.
Then they ditched the idealist Newt and went with more opportunistic leadership.
And the lefties thought that they had improved their position in getting him and Lott removed, lol!
Yes! Hastert is being the leader of Congress, acting ver non-partisan. He has allowed Tom Delay to act as the majority leader, rightfully, since that is his job.
Ironically, what hurt Newt the most was that he failed to recognize the distinction between Speaker and Majority Leader. He acted like a majority leader running things while the Speaker was out of town.
Oh yeah, they're vibrant. They're danged near epileptic.
You hit it. Newt is so full of himself that he doesn't understand that he has become a parody of himself. And that's hard to do.
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