Newt Gingrich: Two Decades of Arrogance

Dec 2, 2011 2 Comments ›› Dustin

As I watched John King USA last night, I saw the Pundits talk about how “cocky” Newt Gingrich had become since he gained the lead. In fact, Drudge even linked to a story that showed his arrogance:

“I’m going to be the nominee,” the former Speaker told ABC News. “It’s very hard not to look at the recent polls and think that the odds are very high I’m going to be the nominee.”

This statement is arrogant and shortsighted. In fact, I’ve heard Bachmann, Perry, and Cain make exactly the same statements only to be shot down in the polls. There are still a few weeks until Iowa – he has plenty of time to slip and fall.

It isn’t that one phrase though, he also took some credit for taking down Communism:

“I helped Ronald Reagan and Jack Kemp develop supply side economics. I helped lead the effort to defeat communism in the Congress.”

Unfortunately for Newt, supply-side economics is much older than even him.

However, Newt’s arrogance is nothing new. One only needs to look back to the 1994 Government Shutdown. Newt Gingrich shut down the government because the President made him sit at the back of Air Force One:

During the crisis, Gingrich’s public image suffered from the perception that the Republicans’ hardline budget stance owed partly to a snub by Clinton during the flight to and from Yitzhak Rabin’s funeral in Israel. That perception developed after the trip when Gingrich told reporters he was dissatisfied that Clinton had not invited him to discuss the budget during the flight. He complained of being instructed to use the plane’s rear exit to deplane, saying the snub was “part of why you ended up with us sending down a tougher continuing resolution”.

Gingrich was lampooned for implying that the government shutdown was a result of his personal grievances, including a widely-shared editorial cartoon depicting him as having thrown a temper tantrum. Democratic leaders, including Chuck Schumer, took the opportunity to attack Gingrich’s motives for the budget standoff.Gingrich later realized his comments were his “single most avoidable mistake” as Speaker.

This led to a famous political cartoon:

You may also remembered that he acknowledges that he cheated on his two wives, which was pretty arrogant himself. He took it a step up and said he did it for his country.

How much arrogance does it take to have 84 ethics complaints or to resign the day after you were reelected? A lot.