Gingrich Offers A Wide-Ranging Mea Culpa
He takes the blame for a lot in his new book
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, March 30) -- As a Republican backbencher, Newt Gingrich waged war against liberals and the news media. But in his new book, the House speaker discovers who is most responsible for his problems by looking in the mirror.
In "Lessons Learned the Hard Way, A Personal History," Gingrich blames himself for many of the low points on Capitol Hill since the Republicans' triumph of 1994.
He says he minimized the problems he would face as speaker, underestimated President Bill Clinton during the budget showdowns of 1995 and failed to pay close enough attention when renegade GOP lawmakers plotted to topple him.
"I am astonished at how badly I underestimated the size and intensity of the problems that would confront me as speaker," Gingrich writes.
In his new HarperCollins book, due out Thursday, Gingrich avoids few of his missteps, from the ethics charges he faced in 1996 to the embarrassing public snit he threw when he was forced to leave Air Force One from the back door on one government trip.
More important, Gingrich admits to botching a 1997 disaster relief bill, by allowing aid to be linked to government shutdowns and the 2000 census. Republicans wound up looking insensitive for blocking flood relief funds for the waterlogged Midwest.
"We began once more to do what we had shown ourselves so adept at, namely, whipping ourselves into a do-or-die commitment," Gingrich writes.
That legislative defeat, Gingrich writes, was partly responsible for the unsuccessful coup attempt. Gingrich said he "had failed to do what any leader is supposed to do, namely, pay attention to what people are saying."
The speaker manages a happy ending, though. He says he has learned his lessons and boasts of GOP successes in balancing the budget and lowering taxes.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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