He may have decided to drop a possible Republican presidential campaign, but former House Speaker Newt Gingrich isn’t done trying to shape the political world. Much to my dismay, some powerful Democrats have decided to take him seriously.
Roll Call reports today that Gingrich was on Capitol Hill last week, pitching the results of a poll his latest advocacy group — American Solutions for Winning the Future — recently conducted. Apparently, in 2004, the former Speaker presented a laundry list of ideas and polling data to Republican leaders, but Gingrich wasn’t satisfied that his party took his materials seriously enough.
So, last week, he was a little more bi-partisan about it.
Gingrich held separate meetings last Wednesday with House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.) and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Charles Schumer (N.Y.). […]
The same polling information — which Gingrich formally unveiled Tuesday at the National Press Club — also has been circulated to Republican leaders on the Hill, although no formal meetings have been set to discuss it.
A Gingrich spokesman said the former Speaker had commissioned a similar polling report during the 2004 presidential election and distributed it only to Republicans. But he said the GOP by-and-large ignored the data then and that was the reason Gingrich is seeking to provide both parties with the information now.
“Newt is in the process of presenting this polling data to both Republicans and Democrats,” Gingrich spokesman Rick Tyler said. “His premise is that a red-versus-blue America is inherently destructive to any party’s ability to get anything done.”
That’s absurd to the point of comedy. Gingrich was instrumental in creating the modern red-versus-blue dynamic. He went out of his way to make sure it was as “inherently destructive” as possible.
And yet, here’s the new-and-improved bipartisan Newt. Worse, leading Dems are taking this guy seriously.
Schumer said he was pleased to get the briefing.
“Newt Gingrich is a great thinker who is trying to find a way to bridge the gap between Democrats and Republicans, and that’s a good thing,” he said.
A spokeswoman for Emanuel declined to comment.
“It was great fun. They were both very receptive,” Tyler said. “These are two very smart politicians. When someone walks in and says this is what America thinks, they’re going to look at it.”
I don’t doubt that Schumer and Emanuel find it helpful to look at polling data from as many sources as possible. Apparently, Gingrich’s latest report cost $428,000 to compile, and consisted of six surveys addressing a total of 180 separate issues.
But for the DSCC chairman to praise Gingrich as “a great thinker” and someone who’s trying “bridge the gap” is just misguided. Worse, it plays into the hype machine that Gingrich has created for himself, which is premised on the notion that he’s some kind of visionary.
It’s disconcerting to think how short the political world’s memory really is. In the late ’90s, Gingrich developed a well-deserved reputation as something of a nut. He shut down the government (twice) and he pursued presidential impeachment over an adulterous affair (while carrying on an affair of his own). He suggested that the homeless should get laptops, touted the benefits of an old-school model of orphanages, and criticized the notion of women serving in combat roles because “males are biologically driven to go out and hunt giraffes.”
When was it, exactly, that even leading Dems started to think that Gingrich deserves respect?
And why do you suppose it is Schumer and Emanuel made time for a formal Gingrich briefing last week — but congressional Republicans didn’t?