Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, The Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party

 I don't remember Newt Gingrich being particularly involved in the downfall of Jim Wright, his predecessor as Speaker of the House. In the first half of 1989, I was more concerned with passing P-Chem II (which I managed to do) than with politics. I came home for the summer, and the news was full of reports of a book deal and maybe something to do with the Speaker's wife's job??? I generally don't enjoy current political books, but more than 30 years have passed since this scandal and 20 since Gingrich has been in power, having lost in no-principles partisan game he brought to Washington.

Gingrich originally ran as a reformer, and once elected skillfully used the post-Watergate reforms to attack Democratic politicians. With an already established reputation for personal nastiness and multiple sexual affairs, he somehow managed to claim the "right" side and joined with Republican political operatives like Lee Atwater and Ed Rollins to weaponize the slightest misstep from opponents, even when he was doing the same thing. In an echo of 1998, Gingrich's attack on Wright was based on a contract for a book written in part by his staff which the latter had signed, despite the fact that Gingrich had himself put his name on a book partially written by his staff (and was later reprimanded for it). While claiming to act on principle but amping up the intensity of the political theater, Gingrich changed Congress from a place where progress occurred through compromise to a body more cynical and less productive than he claimed it was. Wright comes across as a flawed man who probably wasn't well suited to the Speaker's job, but Gingrich is the one who did real harm to the body.