Al Hunt (of all people) had an excellent column yesterday deconstructing Newt Gingrich’s claimed ties to Ronald Reagan. But it’s the last paragraph of his column that might be of particular interest to Virginia political junkies because it reveals who Newt’s formative role models were early in his political career:
On his website, the insurgent candidate says he’s been a “Reagan man” since 1974. That was the year I first met Gingrich, over a leisurely lunch in Washington. He was then an exciting new congressional candidate. He was dazzling, exuberant and talkative. He said his two Republican role models were Linwood Holton, the progressive Republican governor of Virginia, and Nelson Rockefeller, the former governor of New York and vice president to Gerald Ford.
There was no mention of Reagan.
Yes, that Linwood Holton – the guy who was the first Republican ever to be elected Governor of Virginia – and, if he’d had his way since then, would have been the last.
And yes, that Nelson Rockefeller, for whom Gingrich was a state chairman against Barry Goldwater:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJQsLFhuyOY]
Newt is basing his campaign on his claim that he has been a stalwart Goldwater-Reagan conservative for his entire half-century career in politics. Well, obviously not.
And it’s not like he can argue that he has changed and become more conservative over time because, well, Newt has based his entire campaign on the idea that such a transformation is either not possible, or if it is, it cannot be trusted. After all, if such a transformation is possible and can be trusted, then there’s another guy in the race who meets that description and is far more electable than Newt.
As John Adams famously said, “Facts are stubborn things.” As a historian, Newt can surely savor the irony.
