History according to Newt - Newt Gingrich as a history teacher

Washington Monthly, May, 1995 by Allan J. Lichtman

A course on renewing American civilization would not be complete without offering the means to renew it. Gingrich, of course, has the answers. We already took the first step toward a new civilization, he says, in the election that made him Speaker. All that remains is to implement the GOP platform: eliminate welfare, cut taxes, cut government, reduce regulation.

But in offering ideas recycled from the Reagan era, Newt contradicts his own best advice: Judge things by what works. Do any of his students recall, just to name one example, that the federal debt climbed from $914 billion in 1980 to $3.27 trillion in 1990?

Gingrich may be a hypocrite, but at least he is an entertaining one. Perhaps the best part of the course is Newt's performance.

"What works is what works," he declares with Forrest Gumpian earnestness. "This goes back to--remember pragmatism? How can you tell what works? Because it's working."

Couldn't have said it better myself.