His "Contract Out On America" did wonders.  Yeah, wonders the country didn't go entirely down the tubes.  It's great that he led the rabid posse out to get Bill Clinton over his sex life while he was checking into the Motel Six himself, four-hour rate, with a staffer young enough to be his daughter, the ol' whoremaster and philaderer that he is.  But, American voters put jerkoffs like this, and the Bushes and Cheney and Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz and the rest of those braindead, greedy, reckless Republican cowboys in positions of power, and see what the end result has been?  People who have voted Republican over the past 30 years have been a major contributing factor to the myriad problems facing this country, because the sh*theads they supported made the decisions that led to the mess we're in.  And, it's astounding that there's still close to 60 million voters who will vote GOP in November to continue the disasterous trend we've been on.  This is a frightening notion.  Obviously, stupidity is permanent.

He was campaigning up here  in New Hampshire a few years back.  One of his campaign trucks backed into my pickup.  One of my ex-wives took the blame so I always like Newt after that.

Sure, about a decade ago.

A bad person who is smart. His knowledge of history is awesome. As a Democrat, I hope he runs in 2008. I think he is setting his sights on the presidency. I hope he is nominated.

Used to be about as polarizing as his arch-nemesis Bill Clinton, which certainly says a lot. Today he no longer really affects public opinion that much. He was discredited after a series of personal scandals came out that revealed a turbulent personal life. Ironic that this was the same man who decided to make Monica Lewinsky the issue of the 1998 only to have it completely backfire on him. Gives a lot of meaning to judge not lest ye be judged. He used to be one of the leading lights of the conservative movement. Gingrich had a brash personal style that simply didn't fit in the leadership of the Congress where getting along is the name of the game. What killed his political fortunes was the 1998 elections when he ended up losing seats against the Democrats, who had a President under impeachment. The issue totally backfired on Republicans. Never totally popular with anyone in the Republicans. Never really popular as leader, Gingrich was forced to step down after the loss and the subsequent sex scandal that came out on him. Since then, he hasn't been all too relevant. However, I do have respect for his intellect, which is broad and wide ranging.

I love Newt Gingrich but I would have to agree that his political style was combative and confrontational to his own detriment. By closing down the government he lost all the political capital he had seized and shifted the balance of power back to the White House during he Clinton administration. He made numerous gaffs like the Susan Smith comment that even though I agree with, should not be uttered by politicians of his rank. In the end the hard core political style that help him bring down Jim Wright took him down as well. And though being one of the most brilliant politicians of our time he also ended up hindering he conservative cause.

Boy, did that career end fast.

Newt was polarizing- 10 years ago.

The Contract with America polarized the country, but when all is said & done, it was fairly successful. The republicans have done their best to fumble the majority back to the democrats, but haven't yet, try as they might. Newt is still a lightning rod to people on the left but only in the past tense. TBone is correct, of course, Newt is unimportant now.