The Warrior and the Wonk: A Tale of Two House Speakers

[rangerrebew]

June 27, 2016
The Warrior and the Wonk: A Tale of Two House Speakers
By Paul Nehlen

Hearken back, dear reader, to 1994.

Republicans in the House of Representatives were suffering the indignities of their 40th straight year in the political wilderness as the minority party.  Then emerged a visionary: a then-unknown GOP congressman from Georgia named Newt Gingrich.

For over a dozen years, Gingrich and a handful of conservative insurgents laid the foundation for a Republican takeover of the House.  At the core of the effort was an ingenious plan to nationalize 1994's congressional elections.  Thus was born the now infamous "Contract with America."

Every Republican House candidate signed the Contract, which promised the American people that if they gave the GOP the majority, the GOP House would vote on ten widely popular, poll-tested bills in the first 100 days.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/06/the_warrior_and_the_wonk_a_tale_of_two_house_speakers.html#ixzz4CmscuemR
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[r9etb]

Republicans in the House of Representatives were suffering the indignities of their 40th straight year in the political wilderness as the minority party.  Then emerged a visionary: a then-unknown GOP congressman from Georgia named Newt Gingrich....

... whose speakership was characterized by wretchedly bad political decisions, and the footprints Bill Clinton left on his back. 

Gingrich greatly overestimated his own political acumen -- he apparently did not understand the difference between proposing a grand scheme as an outsider; and the more nuanced skills that a political leader must use to make it work in practice, especially against a president who had the media firmly on his side. 

The government shutdown debacle pretty much guaranteed Clinton's re-election (as well the tender ministrations of one Miss Lewinski...).