The other side of Newt

Garrison Keillor once sang a wonderfully insulting song about the Newt (Gingrich, that is), and a few days ago I posted a negative news story about him. I once watched him teach an American history class, and wasn't impressed - and teaching history is one thing I know something about. But he has also been consistently an imaginative thinker, and one who I think still sees politics as a noble calling, a service rendered to the country rather than merely a career track to power and fame. We're speaking in relative terms here.

So I think I will link to a positive column about the Newt by Cal Thomas. Thomas is another conservative I sometimes have trouble with, but who I admire in my heart of hearts for being consistent and honest, at least by his own lights.

With a political creature like Gingrich you always have to wonder how sincere he is, but I do admire Gingrich's call for a new politics. Certainly his analysis that something is seriously broken is spot on. And it is in keeping with my "Spirit of Ball's Bluff" campaign that I am going to have to revive sooner than I'd hoped.


Mirabile dictu! Spell check informs me that there are NO mispellings in this post!