Newt’s got a point …

Heartfelt thanks to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) for
making it official, sort of, because the lack of a GOP nominating
contest was getting pretty dull. By this time in the last cycle 17
candidates from both parties had announced their intention to run for
president, but as of today the Newt-ster stands alone.
 
He will be joined by others, no doubt, but with the spotlight
to himself, Gingrich is unveiling a carefully prepared reintroduction of
a man made world-famous during the 1990s. And the timing is fascinating
— as the possiblity of another government shutdown consumes the news,
the new Newt has kicked off his candidacy this week with an attempt
to rebrand the much-maligned government shutdown of 1995.

In an op-ed in The Washington Post, Gingrich makes clear this bad memory was some overblown creation of the liberal media that the standoff and subsequent shutdown was the fault of House Republicans. He said it was worth the short-term pain to set the stage for the 1996 balanced-budget deal that “led to the largest drop in discretionary spending since 1969.” Gingrich is urging current House Republicans not to back down, even if it means a shutdown. “Becoming one more promise-breaking, Washington-dominated, sellout group is a much worse fate — politically and ethically — than having the government shut down for a few days. “
 
Another aspect of the Gingrich makeover is his new focus on faith and his concern about the diminished role of faith in public life. Inspired by his wife, Gingrich converted to Catholicism two years ago and recently made a film (with his wife) about Pope John Paul II and the fall of communism in Poland. When introducing the film to an audience recently, Gingrich said, “In America, religious belief is challenged by a cultural elite trying to create a secularized America, in which God is driven out of public life.”
 
The New York Times had a piece over the weekend describing this new chapter of Gingrich’s life, the one that followed two divorces, the last one of which followed an affair he had with a congressional staffer (his current wife) while working hard as House Speaker to impeach President Clinton.
 
Gingrich will have much to answer for with social conservatives, and of this he is aware. A recent story in The Hill detailed how hard he has worked to engage with evangelical leaders in the party in preparation for a run. It also includes something Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist and Liberty Commission, told Newsweek about Gingrich, that “two ex-wives is one ex-wife too many for most evangelicals.”
 
But Gingrich is hoping his resume and experience will make the best case for his leadership and help to overcome his shortcomings. I will say this about Gingrich, he talks a great game. Walk away from a Gingrich speech and you will feel energized, convinced that there are realistic solutions to many of our most vexing problems. You gotta love his new prop — an index card that reads “2 + 2 = 4.” It speaks perfectly to our inability to live beyond our means and depend on China to finance our debt.
 
The Gingrich appeal is indeed the professor — not the divorces, the infidelity or the explanations of his mistakes and the penchant for undignified, unbecoming, obnoxious remarks about other people. Even his grandiosity and exaggeration are slightly appealing, because he always entertains. Who else can get away with saying, “The American people today are demoralized, dispirited, worried and concerned because their elites have betrayed them, their system has crippled them and their government has failed them”?
 
And I admire his ability to identify problems and to present ideas, multitudes of them. Gingrich may not be electable, but since he began a revolution as a reformer he should run for president as one. In The New York Times he was quoted as saying the GOP should replace “rejectionist conservatism” with “replacement conservatism.”
 
“Does it want to be a party prepared to replace the failed institutions and move to a very bold new approach? Or does it want to muddle through accepting the framework of the systems that are failing?” he asked.
 
He has a great point. He almost always does.

WHAT’S NEXT IN THE BUDGET BATTLE? Ask A.B. returns Tuesday, March 8. Please join my weekly video Q&A by sending your questions and comments to askab@digital-staging.thehill.com. Thank you.