Molly Ivins November 10

AUSTIN, Texas — When I think of Newt Gingrich, the words that come to mind are sick, pathetic, traitor, ideological, cheat, steal, insecure, bizarre and radical.

The reason those particular words come to mind is because they are the ones that Gingrich himself recommended to his fellow Republicans. In a 1990 advisory put out by GOPAC, Gingrich's political action committee, Republican candidates were advised to use these words to describe their Democratic opponents — no matter who the Democrats were or what their records. The memo further advised that many aspired to the effectiveness of Gingrich's rhetoric and that these were the favorite words that he always used against his opponents.

That's really quite special, when you think about it.

Gingrich's political signature was a teeth-rattling meanness that he could never overcome. Time and again, he would vow to behave like a statesman, and within days — sometimes within minutes — out would flash such an ugly meanness of spirit that it could make you gasp. It was like the black-gloved hand in "Dr. Strangelove."

Hyperbole is a fine rhetorical device, but one always wondered what Gingrich would say if he ever encountered something actually evil. In the fall of '94, he told a group of lobbyists (whom he was, to put it bluntly, shaking down at the time) that his election strategy was to portray Clinton Democrats as "the enemy of normal Americans" and as proponents of "Stalinist measures." You may win elections by polarizing people with that kind of extreme rhetoric, but as Gingrich's party has learned to its cost, you can't govern that way, and you can't build a party. The politics of division does not work as well as the politics of inclusion.

The most interesting thing to me about watching Gingrich was the way he always accused other people of doing what he had done himself. The shrinks call that "projection," and it is truly striking in Gingrich's case how often he would level some accusation at President Clinton that turned out to be a clinically accurate description of his own behavior. I suppose this goes back at least as far as his attacks on Speaker Jim Wright for what Gingrich claimed were dubious methods of selling a book; of course, it later turned out that it was a dubious book deal with Rupert Murdoch that got Gingrich in trouble right after he became speaker.

He seemed never to grasp that pointing the finger at someone else might cause people to examine his own behavior. When he attacked Speaker Tom Foley about the House banking setup, saying it was the worst example of corruption in history, Gingrich himself had kited 22 checks through the system, compared with Foley's two.

You must admit that he never let his own failings stop him from setting himself up as a moral arbiter about everyone else.

Gingrich not only posed as champion of "family values" — he moved his whole party into carrying on about "the family" as though it were a sacred institution. (This observation is not original with me, but like many people who seem to think that "the family" means a '50s "Father Knows Best" arrangement, Gingrich himself was the child of divorce. Reports indicate his stepfather emotionally abused the young Gingrich.)

Yet in the most famous act of cruelty in his life, Gingrich was pushing for a divorce from his first wife while she was in the hospital for cancer treatment, according to a 1984 article in Mother Jones magazine. The Associated Press reported that for a time she was reduced to depending on her church to support herself and their children and later sued him for failing to pay his alimony on time. Gingrich is not close to his daughters. But again, he never seemed to think that any of this made him ineligible to judge others or even be, as he once described himself, "the definer of civilization."

In what I think was the most memorably awful moment of his speakership, Gingrich used his power against crippled poor children. At stake was the Supplemental Security Income that goes to poor children with conditions such as spina bifida so their families can care for them at home instead of dumping them into public institutions, which are far more expensive. This program had been expanded to cover emotionally damaged children, and word spread on the right wing that some of these kids were not really sick but just had learning disabilities.

Gingrich took this untrue report and, in a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce recounted by Newsday's Lars-Erik Nelson, went on to claim that not only were poor people coaching their children on how to fake craziness, but they were beating them if they did not succeed. "They're being punished for not getting what they call crazy money or stupid money," said the speaker. "We are literally having children suffering child abuse so they can get a check for their parents."

There was never any evidence of this extreme claim. This SSI program was abolished under "welfare reform." The consequences were so dreadful that it has since been partially reinstated, with a new review process for the handicapped children who were cut off.

Oddly enough, I was just getting warmed up on "the worst things Gingrich ever did." I haven't even mentioned his blaming a hideous crime on Democrats, turning politics into spin, standing reality on its head in case after case, falsely claiming to have "balanced the budget" and ... oh, well. He's gone now. Sick, pathetic, traitor, welfare, crime, ideological, cheat, steal, insecure, bizarre, radical.

Molly Ivins is a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. To find out more about Molly Ivins and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

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