10 Things You Didn't Know About Newt Gingrich
1. Gingrich was born on June 17, 1943, in Harrisburg, Pa., to Newton McPherson and Kathleen, his teenage mother. His parents were married only a very short time.
2. His mother remarried a strict but quiet noncommissioned Army infantryman. Gingrich spent much of his youth attending schools on military bases in the United States and Europe. A military career was not his chosen path, and during the Vietnam War he took student and family draft deferments.
3. Gingrich had a crush on his high school geometry teacher, Jackie Battley, and vowed to his high school friends that he would marry her. He made good on his intentions. He was a teenage student at Emory University in Atlanta, where Battley had taken a college teaching position, when he married her. They had two daughters, Linda Kathleen and Jacqueline Sue.
4. As a child, Gingrich dreamed of becoming a paleontologist. He even kept a cast of a Tyrannosaurus rex skull in his office on Capitol Hill. He borrowed the skull from the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum.
5. He received his master's degree from Tulane University and a Ph.D. in modern European history. The topic of the Ph.D. dissertation was the Belgian education policy in the Congo, 1945-1960. He taught environment studies and history at West Georgia State College.
6. After two unsuccessful campaigns in 1974 and 1976, Gingrich won his 1978 election to the House of Representatives at the age of 35. In 1976, he attacked the incumbent, a member of the House ethics committee, for being lax on enforcing ethics violations by congressmen. He lost that year by a narrow margin. Years later, Gingrich was involved in ethics scandals himself.
7. The Republicans won a majority in the House and Senate in 1994. Gingrich was easily elected speaker of the House, the first Republican speaker in 40 years. His reign lasted four years, and he then resigned from his House seat.
8. A few books on his recommended reading list are Shogun by James Clavell, Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, and The Godfather by Mario Puzo.
9. In 1999, he founded a consulting firm called the Gingrich Group to help companies going through transformational change. He is also the founder of the Center for Health Transformation, sits on various boards, and occasionally does political commentary for Fox News Channel.
10. He married Callista Bisek, his third wife, in 2000. Callista has worked on Capitol Hill since she graduated from college in 1988. She's currently the chief clerk for the House Agriculture Committee. The committee overseas issues involving food safety such as mad cow disease.
Reader Comments
Newt Gingrich
The GOP is getting what they deserve. They are the greediest, most selfserving, lying, cheating bunch of criminals in the country. They tout their love of "Christian values", "Family values", "Humanitarian Values" and their love for the United States. All while lying, cheating on their spouses, evading paying their taxes, and slinging dirt and lies to make themselves look better. They use unfounded lies and rederick to scare the U.S. into submission. Newt, in particular is one of the most hypocritical of the bunch. Another of the top ten things Americans didn't know about this slimeball is that;
he was the front runner in the GOP's quest to impeach President Clinton for having an affair while he himself was cheating on his wife. I have never met a Republican that would ever go out of their way to help anybody... ever.. unless there is a personal gain for themselves. Rupublicans make me ill. I am sick to death of their bullying, scare tactics and spewing rhetoric all while lining their own pockets with cash and pointing a finger at everyone else. As for the new (Younger) Republicans who claim they are Reagan Republicans... they need to get a grip and see history for what it is.. Reagan was a crook too and the one who started our financial woes and economic decline with "Reaganomics". Just read the history book people... and anyone with half a brain knows that the great "trickle down effect" just openrd the flood gates for greed and corruption to run ramped.
seriously
your conservative attacks are emotional as well. so what if someone misspelled a word, so now we're not competent enough to make a decision on how we feel about someone and their actions?? and why is it that obama hasnt been in office a year and al conservatives act as if he should have turned this economic downturn around by now. if a conservatibve was making the EXACT same decisions you would find the postive in it. the reason why the conservative rhetoric holds no weight with me is bc there are positives and negatives to most situations and bc obama is not a conservative they look for the negative and blast it all over tv. even if he fails at least he's done something. the GOP will never recover bc they are not for the "little" men and there are many more ppl at the bottom of the barrel in amercia than the top so even w/ all of your criticism of obama there are many that will not waver in their support of him. even if the GOP has better ideas i know they'll never vote in legislation that would help someone like me and i am not a gov't leach. NEVER recived gov't funds for ANYTHING including my college education. i am completely capabel of taking care of myself but the cost of health care could bankrupt me in a week if i end up w/ a suddent illness. the costs is the problem and at least he's tryig to fix it. republicans did not even try bc that wouldve taken money out of their pockets. in my opinion all politicians are corrupt but soem are better than others and i would take obama over your choices any day.
Other wives
Why doesn't anyone report anymore about Gingrich delivering divorce papers to his first wife when she was in the hospital for chemotherapy... or cheating on his second wife with the woman who became his third wife which also contributed to his sudden resignation Never understand why these issues which speak to both character and attitude toward women are ignored within GOP so often?
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