Newt Gingrich Cannot Escape His Past

The answer, of course, is that he does it with words. In terms of sheer ability to produce and manipulate political rhetoric, Gingrich is one of the best this country has ever produced. And also: he has no shame about anything he has ever done, and therefore never fights with one hand tied behind his back, the way that Richard Nixon did. As a result, Newt Gingrich is, as one of our most contemporary politicians once said about a powerful rival, “an unusually good liar.” He will pull out all the stops, go on the offensive when he ought to be pulling back in a defensive crouch, shade the truth without feeling guilty about it, turn disgusting sentiments into homespun pieties that sound just like common sense, and say audacious things in a professorial tone that suggests that you shouldn’t worry too much if you don’t understand; just do your homework and your reading and it’ll all be clear by next week.

As a matter of fact, the rhetorical innovations that he introduced to American politics in the 1980s and 1990s continue to dominate the American political scene. If conservatives think that Democrats are “bizarre,” “hypocritical,” “anti-family,” “radical,” or “permissive,” it is due in no small part to the fact that Gingrich noticed how effective these particular words are, and published a memo in 1996 showing his fellow Republicans how to use these words systematically to defeat Democrats.

As we have all seen in these endless Republican debates, Gingrich can hold his own on the debate stage. To be sure, he didn’t do all that well in the debate that was held last night — but that’s merely a function of the can’t-win-them-all feature of politics. Gingrich is a good debater and a great manipulator of political language.

logo items of AL 8:30AM February 02, 2012