Newt Gingrich sent out a press release the other day announcing the formation of a new "platform from which Newt Gingrich can communicate his vision for America." According to the release, this "solution-oriented institution," called the Committee for New American Leadership, will be "profoundly different from traditional political organizations." How so? For starters, announced Gingrich, "We believe that the American people ought to influence the politicians in Washington, not the other way around." (In contrast, presumably, to the many other political organizations whose stated goal is to manipulate the masses from above.)
Yet another anti-Beltway K Street lobby group run by people who've lived in Washington for 25 years? So far, so banal. Why would Gingrich, who is busy ducking questions about his longtime affair with a Hill staffer and cashing in on lucrative speaking gigs, bother to start something like this? For one thing, it's hard to maintain a cult of personality without an official headquarters. The Committee for New American Leadership gives Gingrich a place to hang his resume. And, boy, does he. NAL's website devotes paragraph after paragraph to describing the former speaker's internationally acclaimed attributes and accomplishments. During his years in Congress, Gingrich's bio exclaims, Gingrich became a "world-renowned strategist," the one man capable of "re-establishing the House of Representatives as 'The People's House.'" So far-reaching was his impact that the Washington Times called him "the indispensable leader."
And that was just in politics. In the field of health, "his contributions have been so great that the American Diabetes Association awarded him their highest non-medical award and the March of Dimes named him their 1995 Georgia Citizen of the Year."
Georgia Citizen of the Year!
Wait, there's more. Gingrich, writes Gingrich, is not only a best-selling author, not just "widely recognized for his commitment to the environment," but is also -- and one suspects this gets to the heart of how Gingrich conceives of himself -- "recognized worldwide as an expert on world history, military issues and international affairs."
Of course Gingrich is recognized for other things, too. Like his towering ego and relentless solipsism. And, most of all, as the man who unintentionally sabotaged the very "revolution" he boasts of starting.
Which leads to the second obvious purpose of the Committee for New American Leadership -- rewriting history. As Gingrich puts it in the press release: "I don't think that currently the leaders in either party understand these ideas [which he describes as "big ideas," "profound conclusions," "new solutions and new visions"] or how to communicate them." And that, Gingrich says, "is precisely why I left office, and precisely why I founded the Committee for New American Leadership."
Some of us remember that Gingrich left office because Republicans, under his leadership, becamse the first party in eons to lose seats in an off-year election in which they didn't control the White House.