Quotations from Speaker Newt Gingrich: on Principles & Values
Bill Clinton:
OpEd: core activity combines counterculture and McGovern
[Bill Clinton] is a very smart, very clever tactician whose core system of activity is a combination of counterculture and McGovern. He was McGovern's Texas director, he and his wife were counterculture at Yale, and why wouldn't you accept that they
really are who they are? Their problem is, that is a contradiction with the vast majority of Americans. So you have this constant internal stress and what the American people were saying is "Enough."
--The New York Times, November 10, 1994
Source: Quotations from Speaker Newt, by A.&P. Bernstein, p. 52
Jan 1, 1995
Newt Gingrich:
As an army brat, I know how exciting military life can be
Having been an army brat, I know how exciting military life can be. -"News from Congressman Newt Gingrich", Oct. 2, 1982There is a part of me that has been lonely for large parts of my life.
You'd move every 18 months and so would your best friend, so you would have that churning.--Commenting on life as an army brat, The Washington Post, June 12, 1989.
I read part of the book [the Great Santini, a Pat Conroy novel about a son's attempts to please his military father] and I couldn't finish it.
It was too frightening. -- The Washington Post, June 12, 1989.
Source: Quotations from Speaker Newt, by A.&P. Bernstein, p. 5-6
Jan 1, 1995
Newt Gingrich:
Grew up on military bases during Vietnam War
Contemporary American leaders--among them Bill Clinton, just three years Gingrich's junior--found their faith in America's goodness undermined by the civil rights struggle and the Vietnam war.
Not Gingrich. The stepson of an army sergeant, he grew up on military bases, the most American of environments overseas as well as at home.
He was largely insulated from the civil rights struggle--the military was and is the integrated part of American society. When the Vietnam war was raging,
Gingrich, as the married father of two children, was eligible for a deferment from the draft. Unlike Clinton, he never had to worry about facing a draft board.
Source: Quotations from Speaker Newt, by A.&P. Bernstein, p. vi
Jan 1, 1995
Newt Gingrich:
Mother married to biological father for only 3 days
1943- Born June 17 to Newton Leroy Robert McPherson and Kathleen Daugherty McPherson in Harrisburg, Pa. According to his mother's account, the marriage lasted three days: "We were married on a Saturday and
I left him on a Tuesday. I got Newtie in those three days."1946- Kathleen marries army Lt. Col. Robert Bruce Gingrich, who adopts Newt.
("Newtie is a talker; Bob is not," Kathleen said recently, recalling the relationship between her son and his stepfather.)
Newt attends army base schools in Kansas and, during his father's tours of duty abroad, in Orleans, France, and Stuttgart, West Germany.
Source: Quotations from Speaker Newt, by A.&P. Bernstein, p. xv
Jan 1, 1995
Newt Gingrich:
Great Republican tradition of progressivism from 1856-1912
For the last 50 years the Republican Party has been hypnotized by Franklin Roosevelt and its entire vision has been to stop what he began.
--As quoted in "Changing of the Guard," by David Broder. Simon & Schuster, New York City 1980
Source: Quotations from Speaker Newt, by A.&P. Bernstein, p. 39-40
Jan 1, 1995
Newt Gingrich:
Judeo-Christian traditions and rules work
We have six thousand years of written historical experience in the Judeo-Christian tradition. We know that rules work. We know that learning, studying, working, saving and commitment are vital.
That is why Republicans would replace welfare with work, that is why Republicans would cut taxes to favor families and to encourage work, saving and job creation.
As President Reagan said, we are more concerned with your destination that your origin. But the Democrats want to force individuals into groups, establish quotas and limit our future based on your genetic past.
--Speech to the Republican National Convention. August 19, 1992
Source: Quotations from Speaker Newt, by A.&P. Bernstein, p.116
Jan 1, 1995
Pat Buchanan:
OpEd: Reagan says with humor what Buchanan says with anger
Reagan says with humor that [Pat] Buchanan says with anger. I think Buchanan is almost by definition a polarizer. Reagan accepts sadly the polarization you force on him, but he does not accept it.
And "evil empire" he knew would be a polarizing phrase. And Reagan was quite clever in the Napoleonic sense of a strategic offense and a tactical defense.
He would lunge out here somewhere and then be unbelievably pleasant while people screamed at him. Buchanan's technique is to wade into the middle of a barroom brawl.
--Unpublished interview with Newt Gingrich in U.S. News & World Report at Republican Convention in Houston. August 19, 1992
Source: Quotations from Speaker Newt, by A.&P. Bernstein, p. 87
Jan 1, 1995
Page last updated: Feb 24, 2019