Old Video May Haunt Gingrich

I wrote yesterday about how Newt Gingrich is about to face a ferocious round of media scrutiny now that he has broken into the top tier of Republican presidential candidates. Today, it's become clear that the dissection of Gingrich's vast record will go back very far indeed—at least two decades.

Politico, the online news site, has unearthed an interesting video from Gingrich's 1992 re-election campaign in which he barely held onto his House seat in suburban Atlanta. Herman Clark, his opponent, ran an anti-Gingrich TV ad to the tune of "Old MacDonald." It zinged Gingrich for voting to raise his pay, for bouncing checks, and other lapses. It's hilarious, simple and effective.

More broadly, the episode shows the extent to which video, even very old video, never dies. And it demonstrates that large swaths of Gingrich's record will be easy for his opponents to caricature.

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