[skeptoid]

You mean a sometime conservative, sometime liberal suck up, Republican backstabbing, amnesty loving, consummate insider, "maverick"? Na, no similarity at all.

I'm thinking of the Speaker who oversaw the contract With America, four consecutive budget surlpuses and the only significant welfare reform ever passed. He's the man who was totally exonerated of any wrongdoing after a four year investigation by the IRS.

[DuncanWaring]

Here’s the record of the national debt over the four years you like to cite:

09/30/2002 6,228,235,965,597.16
09/30/2001 5,807,463,412,200.06
09/30/2000 5,674,178,209,886.86
09/30/1999 5,656,270,901,615.43
09/30/1998 5,526,193,008,897.62
09/30/1997 5,413,146,011,397.34

Maybe you could point-out the surplus to me. I’m having trouble finding it.

[Prokopton]

He's the man who was totally exonerated of any wrongdoing after a four year investigation by the IRS.

You know, I didn't even mention that as a "similarity" but, come to think of it, Gingrich's cover up, for which he paid a huge fine, does remind me of McCain's "Keating Five" antics.

You started out with a shovel, then you had to bring in the backhoe.