At some point, it’s not entirely clear when, the DC establishment decided that Newt Gingrich is an intellectual. He gained a reputation as a “big thinker.” He’s someone whose ideas are “outside the box.”
All of this is rather silly. The former Speaker can bloviate with the best of them, and he has opinions on everything under the sun, but the notion that Newt Gingrich is some kind of admirable scholar is misguided.
Regrettably, David Broder buys into the conventional wisdom that he helped create.
In the years since I first met him in 1974, I have learned that it’s wise to take Newt Gingrich seriously. He has many character flaws, and his language is often exaggerated and imprudent. But if there is any politician of the current generation who has earned the label “visionary,” it is probably the Georgia Republican and former speaker of the House.
Really? Because he suggested that the homeless should get laptops? Because he admires an old-school model of orphanages? Because, in describing the role of women in combat roles, said, “Males are biologically driven to go out and hunt giraffes”?
Broder seems genuinely disappointed that Gingrich is now leaning against a presidential run. I think he’s the only one.
[I]t is regrettable that Gingrich has virtually decided to pass on the 2008 presidential race. He told me and other reporters last week, “The odds are very high that I won’t run.” He probably would not win, but his presence in the field would raise the bar for everyone else, improve the content of the debates and change the dynamic of the race. […]
So he is opting for American Solutions for Winning the Future, a policy and advocacy group for the Internet age that will be launched at the end of this month from the west front of the Capitol, where Gingrich staged his “Contract With America” signing at the start of the 1994 campaign.
This effort, which is nominally nonpartisan, is aimed at developing fresh solutions to the public policy problems that challenge the nation, from health care to immigration to inner-city education.
“Nominally nonpartisan”? Does anyone think Gingrich is open to progressive ideas on social policy.
What’s more, Attaturk noted Broder’s previous three columns — one that praised John McCain for backing the surge, then one that praised Mitt Romney for being a great manager, then another that praised Lindsey Graham for being a maverick.
I know Broder’s having a rough year, but when readers start cringing when they see his byline, you know it’s time to make way for someone new.