Newt!, by Dick Williams: on Principles & Values
Ben Nighthorse Campbell:
Converted from Democrat to GOP in tide of 1994
In political terms, the Republican tide of 1994 did not ebb the following year. Two senators, Richard Shelby (AL) and Ben Nighthorse Campbell (CO), and one representative, Nathan Deal (GA), made it 78 local, state, and federal official who have become
Republicans since Bill Clinton was elected president. The political map looks like a reversal of the map from New Deal days. The 104th Congress is the first since Reconstruction with a Republican majority of the 125 seats in the once-Solid South.
Source: Newt!, by Dick Williams, p.212
Jun 1, 1995
Daniel Coats:
Founding member of Conservative Opportunity Society
Some trace the idea for the Conservative Opportunity Society to a meeting Gingrich had in 1982 with former President Nixon about the need for a more idea-oriented party. Nixon said, "You can't change the House yourself. You have to go back and form a
group."The idea had been germinating well before Nixon offered his advice. Gingrich had spent four years seeing his fellow Republicans in the House react instead of act. Newt reached out first to Rep. Vin Weber of Minnesota. Together they recruited
Robert Walker of Pennsylvania, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Dan Coats of Indiana, Connie Mack of Florida, Joe Barton of Texas, and Dan Lundgren and Duncan Hunter of California. The group met weekly and planned.
"Trent Lott was the godfather,"
Gingrich recalls. "He hosted a weekly luncheon. Dick Cheney came. I thought Cheney or Lott would be the Republican leader and I'd be the senior planner."
Source: Newt!, by Dick Williams, p. 98-100
Jun 1, 1995
Dick Cheney:
Senior member of Conservative Opportunity Society
Some trace the idea for the Conservative Opportunity Society to a meeting Gingrich had in 1982 with former President Nixon about the need for a more idea-oriented party. Nixon said, "You can't change the House yourself. You have to go back and form a
group."The idea had been germinating well before Nixon offered his advice. Gingrich had spent four years seeing his fellow Republicans in the House react instead of act. Newt reached out first to Rep. Vin Weber of Minnesota. Together they recruited
Robert Walker of PA, Judd Gregg of NH, Dan Coats of IN, Connie Mack of FL, Joe Barton of TX, and Dan Lundgren and Duncan Hunter of CA. The group met weekly and planned.
"Trent Lott was the godfather," Gingrich recalls. "He hosted a weekly luncheon. Dic
Cheney came. I was the senior planner. I didn't have any thoughts about being in the leadership. I thought it would be 5 or 6 years before that would happen and, when it did, Cheney or Lott would be the Republican leader and I'd be the senior planner."
Source: Newt!, by Dick Williams, p. 98-100
Jun 1, 1995
Duncan Hunter:
Founding member of Conservative Opportunity Society
Some trace the idea for the Conservative Opportunity Society to a meeting Gingrich had in 1982 with former President Nixon about the need for a more idea-oriented party. Nixon said, "You can't change the House yourself. You have to go back and form a
group."The idea had been germinating well before Nixon offered his advice. Gingrich had spent four years seeing his fellow Republicans in the House react instead of act. Newt reached out first to Rep. Vin Weber of Minnesota. Together they recruited
Robert Walker of Pennsylvania, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Dan Coats of Indiana, Connie Mack of Florida, Joe Barton of Texas, and Dan Lundgren and Duncan Hunter of California. The group met weekly and planned.
"Trent Lott was the godfather,"
Gingrich recalls. "He hosted a weekly luncheon. Dick Cheney came. I thought Cheney or Lott would be the Republican leader and I'd be the senior planner."
Source: Newt!, by Dick Williams, p. 98-100
Jun 1, 1995
George Bush Sr.:
OpEd: Governed with views of Congressional Democrats first
While George Bush was serving his eight years as vice president to Ronald Reagan and awaiting his big chance, the GOP changed. The Conservative Opportunity Society and emboldened moderates had turned to
Gingrich for strategy and tactics, if not always for leadership. It isn't clear that Bush ever understood the trend. As president, he governed with the views of congressional Democrats first on his priority list. To pass legislation,
Bush had to get Democrats on board. Too often, House Republican sensibilities became an afterthought.Most of those House Republicans were Reaganites, another group the Bush White House took great pains to exclude from policy making.
The younger Conservative Opportunity Society members were known derisively around the White House as "bumper-sticker conservatives."
Source: Newt!, by Dick Williams, p.123
Jun 1, 1995
Jimmy Carter:
New South: led party away from race-based conservatism
Twenty years ago, the notion of a New South embraced liberal and moderate Democrats who led their party away from the race-based conservatism of a century's practice. They seemed progressive to the national press, while presiding over courthouse
business as usual at home. Jimmy Carter was a prime example. Today's New South is different, and the Gingrich Republicans are its political standard-bearers. Some are transplants from the North who bring Republican politics with them. Most are former
Democrats from the South's small towns who went away to college and then moved to the metropolitan hubs for opportunity. They are more apt to be white-collar than not, more likely to have chosen to vote Republican than to have inherited party loyalty.
Many are onetime Democrats for whom the party moved too far to the left. The Christian Coalition has mined those voters effectively for more than a decade.
Source: Newt!, by Dick Williams, p.137
Jun 1, 1995
Joe Linus Barton:
Founding member of Conservative Opportunity Society
Some trace the idea for the Conservative Opportunity Society to a meeting Gingrich had in 1982 with former President Nixon about the need for a more idea-oriented party. Nixon said, "You can't change the House yourself. You have to go back and form a
group."The idea had been germinating well before Nixon offered his advice. Gingrich had spent four years seeing his fellow Republicans in the House react instead of act. Newt reached out first to Rep. Vin Weber of Minnesota. Together they recruited
Robert Walker of Pennsylvania, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Dan Coats of Indiana, Connie Mack of Florida, Joe Barton of Texas, and Dan Lundgren and Duncan Hunter of California. The group met weekly and planned.
"Trent Lott was the godfather,"
Gingrich recalls. "He hosted a weekly luncheon. Dick Cheney came. I thought Cheney or Lott would be the Republican leader and I'd be the senior planner."
Source: Newt!, by Dick Williams, p. 98-100
Jun 1, 1995
Judd Gregg:
Founding member of Conservative Opportunity Society
Some trace the idea for the Conservative Opportunity Society to a meeting Gingrich had in 1982 with former President Nixon about the need for a more idea-oriented party. Nixon said, "You can't change the House yourself. You have to go back and form a
group."The idea had been germinating well before Nixon offered his advice. Gingrich had spent four years seeing his fellow Republicans in the House react instead of act. Newt reached out first to Rep. Vin Weber of Minnesota. Together they recruited
Robert Walker of Pennsylvania, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Dan Coats of Indiana, Connie Mack of Florida, Joe Barton of Texas, and Dan Lundgren and Duncan Hunter of California. The group met weekly and planned.
"Trent Lott was the godfather,"
Gingrich recalls. "He hosted a weekly luncheon. Dick Cheney came. I thought Cheney or Lott would be the Republican leader and I'd be the senior planner."
Source: Newt!, by Dick Williams, p. 98-100
Jun 1, 1995
Nathan Deal:
Converted from Democrat to GOP in tide of 1994
In political terms, the Republican tide of 1994 did not ebb the following year. Two senators, Richard Shelby (AL) and Ben Nighthorse Campbell (CO), and one representative, Nathan Deal (GA), made it 78 local, state, and federal official who have become
Republicans since Bill Clinton was elected president. The political map looks like a reversal of the map from New Deal days. The 104th Congress is the first since Reconstruction with a Republican majority of the 125 seats in the once-Solid South.
Source: Newt!, by Dick Williams, p.212
Jun 1, 1995
Newt Gingrich:
Search for progress in successful lessons of the past
Gingrich has an underlying philosophy that drives him to search for progress in the successful lessons of the past. He reinforces this philosophy with the discipline required of an academic. To him, words have meaning and education is forever.
The historian in him demands voluminous reading. He preaches with enthusiasm about the need to consult biography if one is to learn how to do something.
I was surprised to hear Gingrich entreat me to read Gore Vidal's Lincoln, a book congressman believes is indispensable in describing perseverance in defeat and successful management of recalcitrant underlings.
Few, indeed, are the conversations with him in which a book or two isn't recommended.
Source: Newt!, by Dick Williams, p. 10
Jun 1, 1995
Newt Gingrich:
1972: State chair for CREEP, committee to re-elect Nixon
His first political notice came with his support in 1968 of Gov. Nelson Rockefeller over the more plebian Nixon. Gingrich then was in graduate school and maneuvered to make himself Louisiana chairman for Rockefeller. The NY governor's views on race
relations and the environment played a large part in Gingrich's choice.But the pragmatic graduate student, in 1972, went from opposition to Nixon to being state chairman for the CREEP, the committee to reelect Nixon.
Source: Newt!, by Dick Williams, p. 24
Jun 1, 1995
Newt Gingrich:
Parents married only a few months; named after stepfather
Kathleen Gingrich [Newt's mother] described her brief marriage in words that could have been lifted straight from a Tammy Wynette song. "We were married on a Saturday and I left him on a Tuesday. I got Newtie in those three days."
The baby born June 17, 1943, was named Newton Leroy McPherson. His mother was just 17. His father, Newton McPherson, was away in the Navy, soon to be sued for divorce by Kathleen.
Newton and Kit, as she was known, had been married when she was just 16
year that her father was killed in a car accident. Newton was 19 and a mechanic. Kit Gingrich likes the story of how she left Newton three days after her wedding, but in fact, it was several months. Newton came home after a night of carousing. He and
Kit quarreled, Newton struck her, and Kit fled to her mother's house, which would be Newt's boyhood home.
When Newt was three years old, Kit married a young Army veteran, Bob Gingrich. Newt's sister was Candace Gingrich, 23 years Newt's junior.
Source: Newt!, by Dick Williams, p. 66-67
Jun 1, 1995
Newt Gingrich:
1960: first political activism: student volunteer for Nixon
In high school, Gingrich fit that modern play on words, radical geek. A classmate remembers him as being the smartest around, but popular and fun. Gingrich's high school days were notable for three things:
politics, the closest friendship of his life, and a very well kept secret.His political activism began in March, 1960, his junior year at Baker High, when he volunteered in the presidential campaign of Richard Nixon.
Gingrich and his classmate and closest friend, Jim Tilton, dreamed of creating a Republican majority. The classmate remembers that Newt's goal was to be the first Republican governor in Georgia since
Reconstruction and then to use that prominence to vault him into presidential politics.
He volunteered for the Nixon campaign and had his first taste of political defeat. Newt was shaken after Nixon's loss. He took it hard.
Source: Newt!, by Dick Williams, p. 74-75
Jun 1, 1995
Newt Gingrich:
Dated his geometry teacher in high-school; married her later
Throughout that senior year, Newt was keeping a major secret, going off alone to make hushed phone calls that were the subject of speculation among his friends. He was dating Jackie Battley, his 24-year-old geometry teacher.
The couple was married in a bittersweet ceremony after his freshman year. Bob Gingrich refused to attend, believing the boy too young and the 7-year age difference too great.
Kit Gingrich, who carried the memory of her short first marriage, agreed with her husband. The Gingrich sisters stayed at home as well."If you live your life hostage to everybody else's decisions," he told the
Washington Post years later, "you either have to live a very narrow life or you have to spend a lot of time in pain. I hoped my mother would come..I never held it against her. I never held it against him."
Source: Newt!, by Dick Williams, p. 75-76
Jun 1, 1995
Newt Gingrich:
Authored Conservative Opportunity Society manifesto
Some trace the idea for the Conservative Opportunity Society to a meeting Gingrich had in 1982 with former President Nixon about the need for a more idea-oriented party."Marianne and I went to see Dick Nixon late in 1982," Gingrich told me. "He
said, 'You can't change the House yourself. You have to go back and form a group.' You could say that the idea for the COS came from Nixon. He was responsible for a great deal of political change in this country."
The idea had been germinating well
before Nixon offered his advice. Gingrich had spent four years seeing his fellow Republicans in the House react instead of act. The group met weekly and planned.
Those who argue that Gingrich in inconsistent or a slave to pollsters and public opinion
would note the 1983 Conservative Opportunity Society manifesto. As outlined in a conference in Baltimore to signal the arrival of the COS, it is remarkable for its consistency with 1995's Renewing American Civilization lectures.
Source: Newt!, by Dick Williams, p. 98-100
Jun 1, 1995
Newt Gingrich:
Cooperate on Contract, but no compromise
After the Contract with America election, Gingrich said], "I want to draw a distinction between two worlds, because we're going to get into a lot of confusion at the vision level about these two words. I am very prepared to cooperate with the Clinton
administration. I am not prepared to compromise. The two words are very different."At the end of the opening day, we will introduce the 10 bills we described in the Contract. We will read the Contract as the opening item of business every day for the
first 100 days, and at the end, the American people will be able to say they saw a group of people who actually said what they were going to do and kept their word.
"We have an enormous amount of work to do. All I can promise you in the side of the
House of Republicans is that we're going to be open to working with everyone, that we will cooperate with anyone, and we will compromise with no one, and that 's the base of where we're going and that what we believe this election is all about."
Source: Newt!, by Dick Williams, p.118-121
Jun 1, 1995
Newt Gingrich:
Many newspaper editorial boards contain socialists
The Speaker roiled the waters when he told a group of business leaders that many newspaper editorial boards contain socialists. But isn't it possible--even likely--that the Washington Post's editorial board includes a person who endorses a guaranteed
annual income, or share-the-wealth schemes, or nationalizing some industries?To call someone socialist is not necessarily to questions that person's patriotism. In the press reaction to the socialist tag was the suggestion that somehow
Gingrich was reviving McCarthyism. It is a case of the offended protesting too much. Socialism has a lengthy American tradition, even if it is now on the wane. After all, President Clinton's Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, proudly called himself a
democratic socialist in the days after his Rhodes scholarship. As Gingrich said, "I'd be glad to get you a collection of editorials that only make senses if people believe that government's good and the free market is bad."
Source: Newt!, by Dick Williams, p.158-159
Jun 1, 1995
Newt Gingrich:
Four House Ethics complaints against "Newt Inc." GOPAC
Gingrich has raised $35 million through GOPAC. "Newt Inc." is what more than one publication has called his organizations. The ethics complaints are four:- Gingrich's college course constituted a political activity disguised as an academic endeavor
and was improperly financed
- He abused his office by allowing an auction for a book won by a publisher with business before Congress
- He accepted free time on cable TV for his lectures
- He plugged the toll-free phone number through which to order
his Renewing American Civilization lecture tapes while he was speaking on the House floor.
Even people close to the Democrats' well-planned assault on Gingrich know that thereof the four complaints before the Ethics Committee have little merit.
Gingrich looked a bit crass in plugging his lecture tapes on the House floor, but they are distributed by a nonprofit educational foundation. Gingrich receives no money from the course. Writing books was exempted from House limits on outside income.
Source: Newt!, by Dick Williams, p.188-190
Jun 1, 1995
Richard Nixon:
Inspired formation of Conservative Opportunity Society
Following the 1982 congressional elections, the New York Times began an editorial by saying, "The stench of failure hangs over the Reagan presidency." A recession was underway. The Republican minority in the House was hit hard, losing 26 seats and moving
in reverse, even as Reagan was rebounding. Some trace the idea for the Conservative Opportunity Society to a meeting Gingrich had in 1982 with former President Nixon about the need for a more idea-oriented party.
"Marianne and I went to see Dick
Nixon late in 1982," Gingrich told me. "He said, 'You can't change the House yourself. You have to go back and form a group.' You could say that the idea for the COS came from Nixon. He was responsible for a great deal of political change in this
country."
The idea had been germinating well before Nixon offered his advice. Gingrich had spent four years seeing his fellow Republicans in the House react instead of act. The group met weekly and planned.
Source: Newt!, by Dick Williams, p. 98-100
Jun 1, 1995
Richard Shelby:
Converted from Democrat to GOP in tide of 1994
In political terms, the Republican tide of 1994 did not ebb the following year. Two senators, Richard Shelby (AL) and Ben Nighthorse Campbell (CO), and one representative, Nathan Deal (GA), made it 78 local, state, and federal official who have become
Republicans since Bill Clinton was elected president. The political map looks like a reversal of the map from New Deal days. The 104th Congress is the first since Reconstruction with a Republican majority of the 125 seats in the once-Solid South.
Source: Newt!, by Dick Williams, p.212
Jun 1, 1995
Robert Reich:
Post-college, proudly called himself a democratic socialist
The Speaker roiled the waters when he told a group of business leaders that many newspaper editorial boards contain socialists. But isn't it possible--even likely--that the Washington Post's editorial board includes a person who endorses a guaranteed
annual income, or share-the-wealth schemes, or nationalizing some industries?To call someone socialist is not necessarily to questions that person's patriotism. In the press reaction to the socialist tag was the suggestion that somehow
Gingrich was reviving McCarthyism. It is a case of the offended protesting too much. Socialism has a lengthy American tradition, even if it is now on the wane. After all, President Clinton's Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, proudly called himself a
democratic socialist in the days after his Rhodes scholarship. As Gingrich said, "I'd be glad to get you a collection of editorials that only make senses if people believe that government's good and the free market is bad."
Source: Newt!, by Dick Williams, p.158-159
Jun 1, 1995
Robert Walker:
Founding member of Conservative Opportunity Society
Some trace the idea for the Conservative Opportunity Society to a meeting Gingrich had in 1982 with former President Nixon about the need for a more idea-oriented party. Nixon said, "You can't change the House yourself. You have to go back and form a
group."The idea had been germinating well before Nixon offered his advice. Gingrich had spent four years seeing his fellow Republicans in the House react instead of act. Newt reached out first to Rep. Vin Weber of Minnesota. Together they recruited
Robert Walker of Pennsylvania, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Dan Coats of Indiana, Connie Mack of Florida, Joe Barton of Texas, and Dan Lundgren and Duncan Hunter of California. The group met weekly and planned.
"Trent Lott was the godfather,"
Gingrich recalls. "He hosted a weekly luncheon. Dick Cheney came. I thought Cheney or Lott would be the Republican leader and I'd be the senior planner."
Source: Newt!, by Dick Williams, p. 98-100
Jun 1, 1995
Rush Limbaugh:
1994 Freshman GOP called themselves "The Ditto-Head Caucus"
As the media expand to include more alternatives, the opinion of him in the nation's largest newsrooms means a good deal less than it once did. The Second American Revolution was opposed by the so-called mainstream media--the national newspapers
and networks--but roundly supported by the alternative media. Gingrich knows, for instance, that radio broadcaster Rush Limbaugh was a nuclear-sized megaphone against Clinton and for the more populist House Republicans. (Freshman
Republicans call themselves the Ditto-Head Caucus after the name Limbaugh's loyal listeners have given themselves.)At Gingrich's swearing in, talk radio hosts (liberal and conservative) were given broadcast space in the
Capitol for the first time. After all, exit polls of voters in 1994 showed that talk radio listeners were far more likely to vote Republican.
Source: Newt!, by Dick Williams, p.169
Jun 1, 1995
Trent Lott:
Godfather of Conservative Opportunity Society
Some trace the idea for the Conservative Opportunity Society to a meeting Gingrich had in 1982 with former President Nixon about the need for a more idea-oriented party. Nixon said, "You can't change the House yourself. You have to go back and form a
group."The idea had been germinating well before Nixon offered his advice. Gingrich had spent four years seeing his fellow Republicans in the House react instead of act. Newt reached out first to Rep. Vin Weber of Minnesota. Together they recruited
Robert Walker of PA, Judd Gregg of NH, Dan Coats of IN, Connie Mack of FL, Joe Barton of TX, and Dan Lundgren and Duncan Hunter of CA. The group met weekly and planned.
"Trent Lott was the godfather," Gingrich recalls. "He hosted a weekly luncheon. Dic
Cheney came. I was the senior planner. I didn't have any thoughts about being in the leadership. I thought it would be 5 or 6 years before that would happen and, when it did, Cheney or Lott would be the Republican leader and I'd be the senior planner."
Source: Newt!, by Dick Williams, p. 98-100
Jun 1, 1995
Newt Gingrich:
If you're afraid or broke or uneducated, you're not free
This morning's closing hymn at the prayer service was the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." The key phrase is, "As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free." It's not just political freedom.
If you can't afford to leave the public housing project, you're not free. If you don't know how to finds a job and don't know how to create a job, you're not free. If you can't find a place that will educate you, you're not free.
If you're afraid to walk to the store because you could get killed, you're not free.
And so as all of us in the coming months sing that song, "As
He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free," I want us to dedicate ourselves to reach out in a genuinely nonpartisan way.
Source: Inaugural Speaker speech, in Newt!, by D.Williams, p. 226-7
Jan 4, 1995
Page last updated: Feb 19, 2019