Media Matters: Newt Gingrich Is A GOP Nobody From the '90s - Why Is He Quoted Like Gospel?

http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/140126/newt_gingrich_is_a_gop_nobody_from_the_%2790s_--_why_is_he_quoted_like_the_gospel

Newt Gingrich Is a GOP Nobody from the '90s -- Why Is He Quoted Like the Gospel?

By Eric Boehlert, Media Matters for America. Posted May 20, 2009.

Every time Gingrich opens his mouth, the media clings on his every word. There's no reason this man should be listened to.

Newt Gingrich made headlines late last week during an interview with ABC News when he unloaded on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi regarding the unfolding Beltway process gotcha story about what she knew about the use of torture seven years ago. Gingrich made a news splash with his red-hot rhetoric, condemning Pelosi as a "trivial politician" who is either "incompetent or dishonest," and accusing her of having "lied to the House." He demanded a congressional investigation and noted that, as "an Army brat," he was appalled by the Democrats' disinterest in defending America.

ABC News posted a news bulletin online, and just as quickly, it landed on the Drudge Report, complete with a red headline. News outlets all over the Beltway jumped on the breaking story, including The Boston Globe, CBS, and CNN.

Personally, I thought the Gingrich slap was of marginal interest. (Gingrich attacked a prominent Democrat? Wow, get me rewrite.) And as often happens when I read breaking, this-is-what-Newt-said dispatches, I couldn't help thinking, "Who cares what Newt Gingrich thinks?" And I don't mean that in the partisan sense. I mean it in the journalistic sense: How do Gingrich's daily pronouncements about the fundamental dishonesty of Democrats (Newt's favorite phrase) translate into news? Why does the press, 10 years after Gingrich was forced out of office, still treat his every partisan utterance as a newsworthy occurrence? In other words, why does the press still treat him like he's speaker of the House?

It's unprecedented.

If you don't think the press' treatment of Gingrich is bizarre, then please point out the prominent Democrat who was driven from office during the 1990s, suffers from dreadful public approval numbers, has no actual base of political support, hasn't been elected to office in more than a decade, hasn't had his hands on the levers of powers since before the iPod was invented, and yet is treated like a Beltway big shot. Who is the wildly partisan '90s Democrat who spits out falsehoods with stunning regularity, wallows in sophomoric name-calling, and yet the press corps obediently follows around, making sure to report his or her every utterance as news?

Who?

The double standard the press has concocted for Gingrich is blindingly obvious. What gives? Asked during a reader chat why Gingrich's "every pronouncement" gets turned into a "media moment," The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz claimed that the former speaker "is quite adept at drawing media attention" and that he "knows how to frame an issue ... in a way that will generate headlines."

So Gingrich has somehow cracked the media code for generating headlines? He has concocted some rhetorical formula such that when he speaks, reporters are forced to type it up as news? I don't buy it.

Instead, the answer seems rather apparent: In the eyes of the Beltway press, if somebody within the GOP routinely stands up and says mean, nasty things about Democrats, and if that person at times uses shocking rhetoric to denounce Democrats, then that person, by definition, is important. That person is newsworthy. And that person must be taken seriously.

But this rule applies only to Republican name-callers. Anybody on the left who engages in those kinds of ad hominem attacks is dismissed as overly partisan and unserious by the press corps.

MORE

It seems evident to me that this washed up former speaker, who has shown such blatant disregard for the truth and for ethics, in both politics and his personal life, is lining up his dominoes in a bid to be the Republican presidential nominee in 2012. And the GOP is in such terrible shape he might actually have a chance..

:kick:

from intercine fighting...maybe he can slide his ass in....his forces are padding the route....

not just for Newt, but in general practice.

I have been calling them out on it. It has been so obvious for years. And every day Limbaugh tells his listeners that we have a liberal media.

Ethics sanctions
Eighty-four ethics charges, most of which were leveled by House Democratic Whip David Bonior, were filed against Speaker Gingrich during his term, including claiming tax-exempt status for a college course run for political purposes. 83 of the 84 were dropped.<29> However, Gingrich admitted to providing inaccurate statements during the probe over the college course and agreed to pay US$300,000 for the cost of the investigation, despite denying the charges over misuse of tax-exempt funds. <30><31> The House Ethics Committee concluded that inaccurate information supplied to investigators represented "intentional or ... reckless" disregard of House rules.<32> Special Counsel James M. Cole concluded that Gingrich violated federal tax law and had lied to the ethics panel in an effort to force the committee to dismiss the complaint against him. However, the full panel refused to reach a conclusion about whether Gingrich had violated federal tax law and instead decided to leave that finding up to the IRS.<33> In 1999, the IRS cleared the organizations connected with the "Renewing American Civilization" courses under investigation for possible tax violations.<34>

Resignation of the speakership and seat in the House
By 1998, Gingrich had become a highly visible and polarizing figure in the public's eye, making him an easy target for Democratic congressional candidates across the nation. In 1997 a strong majority of Americans believed Gingrich should have been replaced as Speaker of the House, and he held an all-time low job approval rating of 28%<36> although his approval later rose to 45% by April 1998. <37>

During this period, Gingrich focused on the perjury charges against Clinton as a unifying campaign theme in national Republican advertising. While Republicans believed this theme would ensure gains in the 1998 midterm elections, they instead lost five seats in the House — the worst performance in 64 years for a party that didn't hold the presidency. Polls showed that Gingrich and the Republican Party's attempt to remove President Clinton from office was widely unpopular among the American public.<38>

Gingrich suffered much of the blame for the election loss. Facing another rebellion in the Republican caucus, he announced on November 6 that he would not only stand down as Speaker, but would leave the House as well. He had been handily reelected to an 11th term in that election, but declined to take his seat. According to Newsweek, he had lost control over his caucus long before the election, and it was possible that he would not have been reelected as Speaker in any case

Personal Life
Gingrich has been married three times. He married Jackie Battley, his former high school geometry teacher, when he was 19 years old (she was seven years his senior at 26 years old).<8><9> They had two daughters and divorced in 1981. She claims he "discussed divorce terms with her while she was recuperating in the hospital from cancer surgery",<10> a fact that was used against him in 1992 by his Democratic opponent Tony Center.

In 1981, six months after his divorce was final, Gingrich wed Marianne Ginther.<11> He remained married to Ginther until 2000, when they divorced. Shortly thereafter, Gingrich married Callista Bisek, with whom he later admitted to having had an affair during his second marriage,<12> at approximately the same time he was leading the Congressional investigation of Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Newt and Callista Gingrich currently live in McLean, Virginia.<13>

A Baptist since graduate school, Gingrich converted to Catholicism, his wife's faith, on March 29, 2009.<14>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newt_Gingrich

from a party other than his own. So possible candidates with such a resume are Jim Wright, Tom Foley, and Dennis Hastert (who really did most of his career under Bush and probably has way more memo-skeletons to hide than Pelosi). So really, who is going to put Wright or Foley on their show rather than Gingrich? He might be washed up, but those two have faded into oblivion.

"He's so smart!" she was amazed I guess because he spoke good English and had a college grad vocabulary.

He is absolutely the best the GOP has to offer in their eyes, and he is nothing but a self serving slime.

Think about it - Newt is their BEST!!!

Sad for them.
But they deserve it.

mark

That would seem to be the very definition of irrelevance. Not only does the public not care what he thinks, but his own party is the one who kicked him to the curb.
GAC

but at the moment that seems unlikely. President Obama, let's just say, is a two-term president. That would leave Gingrich the political choice of an expensive and futile national campaign.

There isn't a strong rationale for him versus a strong rationale against President Obama.

I think he would struggle in both Iowa and New Hampshire, stumbling right out of the gate. He just doesn't seem to me to be an attractive choice for caucus/primry voters in 2012 for the Republicans.

Sometime back in the 90's, right?

And since his ouster has he held any prestigious positions? I don't remember any.

... since he had more affairs than Clinton did. Of course they figure that's the reason why we voted for Clinton in those days too, we being the "evil and without morals" liberals!

Gotta give the Gnewt credit, he's always been able to con the corporate media to consider him a "very serious person" despite what a hypocritical assclown he really is. It goes back to his backbench days...speaking in front of an empty House chamber. People laughed that no one was watching, yet Gnewt knew that if he said someout outrageous, he'd get network teevee time. The more outrageous, the further his carreer went...and the more the corporate stenographers glammed onto him to print his latest screed.

For over 20 years, this shitstain has been spewing his bile and the corporate media gladly accepts it as "being Gnewt" just as much as they give a pass to the hate rhetoric of a Rushbo or the others. It fans the flames the cables love to put out there...and Gnewt plays them like the fools they are.

...who will ensure he is always welcome in front of their cameras.