Bill Berkowitz: Gingrich's Gasps of Wrath

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Bill Berkowitz

For Newt Gingrich, there are so many battles and so little time. With 2012 in his sights, Gingrich has become a one-man GOP band, trumpeting god, guns and the resignation of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

"The elite media tried to ignore us. The government labeled us 'extremists.' But on April 15, more than one million Americans came together, spontaneously, to defend fairness and freedom. I know because Callista and I were there. Here is our story."

Thus began Newt Gingrich's heart-warming albeit rose-colored glasses-garbed assessment of the Tax Day Tea Parties held across the nation on April 15. However, it is probably less interesting to deconstruct Gingrich's optimistic views of Tea Party-ness, as expressed in "Will the Tea Parties Matter?" -- a disquisition on "the nature of the Tea Party movement" -- then it is to recognize that the former House Speaker, has more and more come to represent both what's left of the intellectual firepower of the post-Bush Republican Party and the critic/commentator/analyst/partisan politician that will take on just about any question that comes his way.

With the Republican Party seeming to settle into a state of beserkiness, what with their call for Democrats to rename itself the Democrat Socialist Party; with McCarthyite claims that there are a host of "socialists" in Congress; with a very strange Michael Steele heading up the RNC, while Rush Limbaugh assumes the Party's head-without-portfolio position, it is left to Gingrich to be in as many places as possible, to criticize the Obama Administration (with an occasional compliment tossed its way), to slash away at current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and to proclaim that the Party still has some guiding principles.

Gingrich's goal? To stitch together a coalition of disparate GOP forces that will back him for the Party's Presidential nomination in four years. Does it matter that the public has never liked the man? Apparently, not to the Newtster!

As is well known, Gingrich has a seamy and steamy history: Ethical violations that ultimately forced him to resign as Speaker of the House; an extra-marital affair, conducted while in hot pursuit of impeaching Bill Clinton for his involvement with Monica Lewinsky; his willingness to genuflect to the likes of Dr. James Dobson, confessing on the Focus on the Family founder's radio program that "There are times that I have fallen short of my own standards. There's certainly times when I've fallen short of God's standards."

The mastermind of the Republican Revolution of 1994 -- when the GOP took control of the House for the first time in decades -- is trying to cover all his bases these days: he writes books, the latest, co-authored with his daughter Jackie Gingrich Cushman, is titled "5 Principles for a Successful Life" -- on Monday, May 18, he and/or Jackie appeared on eight radio or television talk shows; he chats up a storm on any number of network news programs and is a regular -- and I mean regular -- Fox News Channel contributor; he produces films -- his latest, produced with his wife Callista, is titled "Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous with Destiny," and his next film, is titled "Rediscovering God in America Part II"; he teaches a college course now and again; he writes op-ed pieces for a host of venues -- he recently signed on with the Examiner newspapers to write a weekly column that will appear in both the Washington Examiner and The San Francisco Examiner; and he sends out a free weekly e-mail newsletter called "Winning the Future."

In addition, and perhaps most importantly, he has been raising millions of dollars from wealthy GOP donors for his organization, American Solutions.

And, there is also "Newt.org" ("Real Change Requires Real Change") where the fullness of Newt is on display.

In his most recent "Newt Gingrich Letter," the former House Speaker, who knows from resignations, demanded the resignation of current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He wrote in "Why Pelosi Should Step Down" that, "The case against Nancy Pelosi remaining Speaker of the House is as simple as it is devastating:

"The person who is No. 2 in line to be commander in chief can't have contempt for the men and women who protect our nation. America can't afford it.

"To test how much damage Speaker Pelosi has done to the defense of our nation, ask yourself this: If you were a young man or woman just starting out today, would you put on a uniform or become an intelligence officer to defend America, knowing that tomorrow a politician like Nancy Pelosi could decide you were a criminal?

"Would you?"

Gingrich assured readers that "The controversy swirling around Speaker Pelosi isn't political .... It's about national security."

The piece's subtitles tell the story:

"From a Question of Memory to a Question of Criminality"

"Pelosi on the CIA: 'They Mislead Us All The Time'

"Why Did Pelosi Escalate the Controversy into a Full Scale War With the CIA?"

"If Pelosi Consented to Waterboarding in 2002, the Bush Policy Is Vindicated"

"Speaker Pelosi Has Made America Less Safe"

In a recent edition of his "Ideas in Action" e-letter, Ken Connor, the former head of the Family Research Council, had this to say about the state of the GOP: "In the aftermath of the 2008 elections ... the GOP is hemorrhaging badly. It is dazed and confused. It is moribund, but it is not dead yet. Whether the Party of Lincoln will recover remains to be seen. Its prognosis is, at best, guarded."

Despite talk of "reinvent[ion]," "rebranding," whether its time to "get over its Reagan 'nostalgia,'" or the need for "inclusiveness," Connor, reassured his readers that "news of their [the Party's] demise is premature." The Party doesn't so much need a "makeover" as it needs to get back to its historic "principles," Connor maintained. When all is said and done, Connor prefers turning back the clock to the Reagan era and using that period to guide the Party back to predominance. Will Gingrich be that guide?

Judge Richard Posner, a prominent Reagan appointee, recently wrote that the conservative movement suffers from "intellectual deterioration." It is no great surprise then that to a disaffected Republican Party voter, that sees the party's leaders as a hodge-podge of dead-enders (Dick Cheney, John "Tan Man" Boehner), blatherers (Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity), gaffe-prone politicians (Michael Steele, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin), the fullness that is Newt Gingrich might be starting to look good.

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION

Bill Berkowitz is a longtime observer of the conservative movement and a frequent writer for Z Magazine, Religion Dispatches and other online publications. He documents the strategies, players, institutions, victories and defeats of the American Right from a progressive perspective.