House Reprimands, Penalizes Speaker
The House voted overwhelmingly yesterday to reprimand House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and order him to pay an unprecedented $300,000 penalty, the first time in the House's 208-year history it has disciplined a speaker for ethical wrongdoing.
The ethics case and its resolution leave Gingrich with little leeway for future personal controversies, House Republicans said. Exactly one month before yesterday's vote, Gingrich admitted that he brought discredit to the House and broke its rules by failing to ensure that financing for two projects would not violate federal tax law and by giving the House ethics committee false information.
"Newt has done some things that have embarrassed House Republicans and embarrassed the House," said Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.). "If [the voters] see more of that, they will question our judgment."
House Democrats are likely to continue to press other ethics charges against Gingrich and the Internal Revenue Service is looking into matters related to the case that came to an end yesterday.
The 395 to 28 vote closes a tumultuous chapter that began Sept. 7, 1994, when former representative Ben Jones (D-Ga.), then running against Gingrich, filed an ethics complaint against the then-GOP whip. The complaint took on greater significance when the Republicans took control of the House for the first time in four decades, propelling Gingrich into the speaker's chair.
With so much at stake for each side -- the survival of the GOP's speaker and the Democrats' hopes of regaining control of the House -- partisanship strained the ethics process nearly to the breaking point.
All but two of the votes against the punishment were cast by Republicans, including Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett (Md.), many of whom said they believed the sanction -- especially the financial penalty -- was too severe.
Two Democrats, Reps. Earl F. Hilliard (Ala.) and Gene Taylor (Miss.), voted against the punishment. Taylor said the measure should have specified that the $300,000 come from personal funds, not campaign coffers or a legal expense fund. Hilliard did not return telephone calls.
In addition, five Democrats voted "present," many of them saying they believed the sanction was not severe enough. "If Newt Gingrich did what they said he did, he should have been censured," said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), one of the five who voted "present." A censure, second only in severity to expulsion, would have threatened Gingrich's speakership.
House ethics committee members took pride in yesterday's bipartisan resolution of the case. "We have proved to the American people that no matter how rough the process is, we can police ourselves, we do know right from wrong," said Rep. Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.), who headed the investigative subcommittee that charged Gingrich.
In a strongly worded report, special counsel James M. Cole concluded that Gingrich had violated tax law and lied to the investigating panel, but the subcommittee would not go that far. In exchange for the subcommittee agreeing to modify the charges against him, Gingrich agreed to the penalty Dec. 20 as part of a deal in which he admitted guilt.
I realize Newt is a huge baggage car.Realistically, what do you want to do at this point in time where we are now?
That whole thing was nought but a hyped up nothing burger brought by the Clintons, who despisded Newt Gingrich.
The ethical thing, and that joke about Air Force One, and please let us not forget how the Democrats illegally taped Newt during a personal phone call....was all part of a Hillary Clinton orchestration to demonize Newt Gingrich.
Gingrich was the personification of a Clinton nemesis.
It worked. With the help of the media, the great help of the media, they did manage to vilify Gingrich for stuff the Clintons did in spades, not to mention the rest of them.
The Repubs, in typical Repub fashion, went along because they were overwhelmed at the mighty power of the Dems and Lamestream media onslought.
Let’s not do it all again.
Newt isn’t an angel and I’m not going to be his constant defender, but so much that happened back then, an era when I WAS PAYING CLOSE ATTENTION for the first time in my life, was so much nonsense, trumped up claptrap.
I remember it well.
Newt Gingrich ushered in the first Republican takeover of America’s House, he formulated the contract with America, he brought Clinton to his knees with welfare reform and kept Clinton from becoming the Obama he wanted to be, complete with socialized health care reform.
Newt’s at least got a history of going strongly conservative, he did, yes he did. Tell me when Romney’s ever done such a thing.
I believe Newt can do it again. We just got to slap him around a little bit, keep his head on straight.
And there is no better master than the language than Newt and imagine that, a Republican without a mouth full of marbles. The mind gasps with the wonder of it.