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Newt Gingrich

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Newton Leroy Gingrich (born June 17, 1943) is a neoconservative politician who is best known as the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. As a co-author of the notorious 1994 Contract With America, Gingrich was in the forefront of the Republican Party's success in the 1994 Congressional elections, and was subsequently elected Speaker. After he returned to private life, Gingrich remained active in neoconservative politics, becoming a fellow at both the American Enterprise Institute (AEI)[1] and the Hoover Institution,[2][3] two of the big guns in the neoconservative think tank world. He is reputed to be a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and to have ties to the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.

Gingrich also founded the Gingrich Group, which, according to his personal website,[4] is "a communications and consulting firm that specializes in transformational change", and the Center for Health Transformation, a Gingrich Group project launched in 2003.

Gingrich, a "well-paid broker of ideas and influence in the field of health care policy. ... has become probably the most visible spokesman for a set of ideas about health care that is gaining support in the Bush administration and in business," the New York Times said in January 2005.[5]

With the election of George W. Bush, Newt Gingrich was tapped to serve on the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board, a think tank for the U.S. Department of Defense dominated by neoconservatives and criticized because of the perceived conflicts of interests of its members, many of whom have strong ties to defense contractors that could benefit from sensitive information gleaned at policy board meetings. Gingrich is one of only eight Hoover fellows with seats on the 31-member board.[6]

Contents

Affiliations

"Following Newt's Money"

"I raised so much money over the years, from so many different people that ... I don't owe anyone."—Newt Gingrich, quoted by MotherJones.[10]

"Far from owing no one, House Speaker Newt Gingrich has built his power base through a series of dubious transactions that look like political paybacks. At the center of Newt's political machine is GOPAC, which has raised and spent more than $8 million since 1991 while skirting the federal election laws governing PACs to avoid naming its donors."[10]

War in Iraq

"[Gingrich's] basic point: where are the Iraqi faces in the New Iraq? 'Americans can't win in Iraq,' he says. 'Only Iraqis can win in Iraq'.[11]

"Gingrich argues that the Bush administration has been putting far too much emphasis on a military solution and slighting the political element. 'The real key here is not how many enemy do I kill. The real key is how many allies do I grow,' he says. 'And that is a very important metric that they just don't get.' He contends that the civilian-run CPA is fairly isolated and powerless, hunkered down inside its bunker in Baghdad. The military has the money and the daily contact with the locals. But it's using the same tactics in a guerrilla struggle that led to defeat in Vietnam."
"Gingrich faults the Americans for not quickly establishing some sort of Iraqi government, however imperfect. 'The idea that we are going to have a corruption-free, pristine, League of Women Voters government in Iraq on Tuesday is beyond naivete,' he scoffs. 'It is a self-destructive fantasy'".

War in Iraq as WWIII?

In July 2006, Bill Berkowitz reported for Inter Press Service: "For years, U.S. neoconservatives have been ratcheting up the rhetoric -- mostly in small gatherings and on partisan web sites -- claiming that terrorist activities around the world constituted the initial stages of a new world war. But during the past week or so ... Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the United States House of Representatives, is using any platform available to him to convince the public that the U.S. is engaged in World War III. ... While Gingrich's media tour definitely thrust him back into the national political spotlight, it may have also given the public a sneak peek into the Republican Party's political/marketing strategy for the November congressional elections: If the war on terrorism doesn't create a fearful enough climate amongst voters, why not ratchet it up by mentioning the spectre of a World War III?" ... John Stauber, co-author of the book, The Best War Ever, told IPS "'You've got to call it something and five years after 9/11 with Osama [bin Laden] still roaming free and Iraq an American quagmire, and the Republican Party in danger of losing control of Congress, this ploy makes marketing sense.'"[12]

Contact information

Gingrich Communications
1425 K Street, NW
Suite 350
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 202 587-5710
URL: http://www.newt.org
URL: http://www.newtgingrich.org/
URL: http://www.gingrichgroup.com/
URL (American Solutions): http://www.americansolutions.com/default.aspx
URL (Winning the Future): http://www.winningthefuture.net/

Resources

Related SourceWatch articles

References

  1. ↑ Scholars: Newt Gingrich, Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute.
  2. ↑ "Newt Gingrich appointed distinguished visiting fellow," Hoover Institution Newsletter, Stanford University, Summer 1999.
  3. ↑ Bio: Newt Gingrich, Hoover Institution.
  4. ↑ Newt.org.
  5. ↑ Steve Lohr, "Health Care's Unlikely Surgeon," New York Times, January 16, 2005.
  6. ↑ This Center for Public Integrity report link is no longer active.
  7. ↑ Biographies: Newt Gingrich, Distinguished Advisor, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
  8. ↑ About Advisory Board, NanoBusiness Alliance.
  9. ↑ Project Vote Smart's Founding & Executive Board Member, Project Vote Smart, accessed November 12, 2008.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Following Newt's Money," MotherJones, undated.
  11. ↑ John Barry. "Dissent in the Bunker. Newt Gingrich, a quiet Rumsfeld confidant, thinks the U.S. went 'off a cliff' in Iraq," Newsweek/MSNBC, December 15, 2003.
  12. ↑ Bill Berkowitz, "Bringing on "World War III," Inter Press Service, July 20, 2006.

Articles by Newt Gingrich

External articles

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2008

  • Bill Berkowitz, "The ubiquitous Newt Gingrich slogs on: Former House Speaker appeared in an Al Gore-sponsored anti-global warming ad with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but later backtracked", Media Transparency, May 19, 2008.

External resources

Wikipedia also has an article on Newt Gingrich. This article may use content from the Wikipedia article under the terms of the GFDL.

Retrieved from "http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Newt_Gingrich"
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