The homecoming for a wounded Newt Gingrich
Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, holds one of his presents as wife Callista, left, granddaughter Maggie Cushman, 11, right, and Clara Hunter look on during his 68th birthday party in Atlanta. AP/John Amis
Home is the place where, when you knock on the door, they have to take you in.
If your world has fallen apart, they do not pester you to name the cause. At least not right away. If you tell them it was somebody else’s fault, they will maintain eye contact and nod their heads. And wish you better luck in the months ahead.
A wounded Newt Gingrich came home on Wednesday. Officially, it was a birthday party to mark the “68” that rolled up on the former U.S. House speaker’s odometer last week.
This was Gingrich’s first visit to a Buckhead office that, under another game plan, was to be the national headquarters for his presidential run. “He asked and asked, but [his old staff] never would put it on his schedule,” said R.C. Hammond, Gingrich’s new spokesman.
The former Georgia congressman was wrapped in the arms a hundred or so old friends – many of them from the days when he was at the height of his power. Some were staffers who had moved on to other careers. Some were fervent supporters who wanted to see with their own eyes how their man had stood up to his bruising, four-week debut as a presidential candidate.
Mel Steely brought his grandson. “We’ve been supporters of Newt since the ‘70s,” said Steely, a retired history professor at West Georgia College and a Gingrich biographer.
Asked for an assessment, a careful Steely said of Gingrich: “He’s in the shape of – how do I phrase this – hanging on and beginning anew.”
Steely wouldn’t permit any suggestion that the collapse of Gingrich’s campaign – more than a dozen staffers quit two weeks ago, and his finance team left Tuesday – was a reflection of the former House speaker’s organizational ability.
“What would lead you to say that? That’s not totally true. He organized the House from nowhere. This guy had no support, no background, nothing. And he came in, a little guy from Georgia getting elected, and he put together a revolution,” Steely said.
This is the kind of loyalty that home is for.
Red, white and blue bunting was scattered here and there. Conservative artist Steve Penley had brought a few of his large patriotic paintings to brighten up the place – they will be gone by Friday — and had produced a new one of Gingrich himself.
On the other side of the room, a smaller portrait of Gingrich as House speaker, flanked by an American flag and a clutch of balloons, hung over a table of coffee and bottled water. Wakes and birthday parties have much in common.
“We want the press to see as many happy and smiling faces as we can,” Gingrich told the crowd after the cake-cutting.
What was missing from the room was political heft. Gov. Nathan Deal was invited, but busy. The governor remains loyal, but the intensity of his support for Gingrich is open to legitimate doubt.
Later in the day, Tricia Pridemore, who had been the governor’s unsuccessful but handpicked choice for chairman of the state GOP, would be named as the chief Georgia fund-raiser for Tim Pawlenty’s presidential campaign.
The only state lawmaker spotted in the mix was Paulette Rakestraw-Braddock, R-Hiram, a rookie member of the House. “A few months ago, I read his book, ‘To Save America,’” she said.
Gingrich arrived after a morning speech at the Atlanta Press Club, where he refused to answer journalists’ questions about his personal life and campaign. A report that the latter was more than $1 million in debt. News of a second credit line at Tiffany’s – this one somewhere between $500,000 and $1 million.
Instead, Gingrich ripped into Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve – stealing a page, he later acknowledged, from fellow GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul.
Gingrich, unusually, read from a prepared text – the sign of a man determined to stay on message. A month ago, he’d given a 45-minute off-the-cuff speech at the state GOP convention in Macon.
“The news media has spent a month trying to knock me out of the race,” he later told the crowd at his birthday party.
Gingrich and his new aides say it will take three to four months to turn his campaign around. His strategy appears to be twofold: First, connect with the tea party.
Julianne Thompson, a leader of Tea Party Patriots, hung at the edges of Gingrich’s birthday party. The former U.S. House speaker had asked Thompson and other tea party adherents to meet with him later in the day.
Gingrich told the crowd that he then intends to bludgeon his way back into the presidential contest with his voice. He can run a low-cost campaign, making news along the way on the strength of his opinions, Gingrich said.
“Gradually the sheer seriousness of the ideas will begin to wear out the triviality,” he said.
Gingrich spoke of his collapsed campaign only once, when the defection of former Gov. Sonny Perdue, a co-chairman of his national campaign, was raised. Did that sting?
“Of course, it did,” he told reporters in a brief session after the party.
What do you think Perdue’s departure said?
“I think it told you about Sonny Perdue,” Gingrich said. “I was mystified. No phone call? Go ask Sonny Perdue. I thought it was very strange. The two things that were strangest to me were his not calling me, and so-called professional consultants who [after leaving] have deliberately and maliciously kept feeding things to the press to create stories.”
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
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51 comments Add your comment
BehindEnemyLines
June 22nd, 2011
6:39 pm
Here’s a hint for free (so as not to strain the campaign budget): It isn’t the media that’s knocked you out of the race. They just keep reporting your own missteps that have done so, no need to expend any effort to help since you’ve done plenty enough on your own. They’ll save that for candidates with a chance.
jconservative
June 22nd, 2011
6:47 pm
Glad to see he is trying to stay on message. For the last 17 years he has been unable to do so.
Politics is real simple – find a message that works with the voters and stay on message. Gingrich has been unable to do that.
Obama is in the White House because for 22 months he stayed on message.
Gingrich is no longer Speaker because he cannot stay on message two speeches in a row.
SWATS VOTER
June 22nd, 2011
6:48 pm
hahah ooohhhhhhhhhhnohedihent^^^^^
Clinton "Skink" Tyree
June 22nd, 2011
6:49 pm
Brother Steely is a great friend of the Newt and I respect his loyalty, but I question some of his conclusions. Newt is not a victim of the “lamestream media” or the desertion of his staff and fundraisers — he brought it on himself by his need to be provocative.
Now with little money or staff, he’s going to kick this machine into high gear and be a provocateur of maximum capacity and when he does this he misspeaks, shoots himself in the foot and looks like an idiot which he is not.
The reality is that time has passed The Newt by. It’s time for him and his lovely wife to cruise into the sunset. His tattered legacy will be totally devastated if he continues.
Give it up Newt.
Teach history at the Community College and write you books.
Jack
June 22nd, 2011
7:33 pm
The grin on Callista’s kisser in this pic kinda reminds me of The Joker.
Cutty
June 22nd, 2011
7:44 pm
Jack- That gold herringbone she has on is tight. Run DMC and LL Cool J would be proud!
Last Man Standing
June 22nd, 2011
7:49 pm
Newt was on his way out anyway, but he received an awful lot of help from the press. Take a bow, AJC! It’s fun to kick a man when he is down, isn’t it?
Just Nasty & Mean
June 22nd, 2011
8:17 pm
Today was classic Newt—gracious and deliberate–attempting to put the half bushel of hit-pieces from the mainstream media into their proper prospective. The press just can’t find more ways to attempt to take out Newt, who they know would disembowel a feckless, teleprompter-less Obama in a debate and–like Netanyahu–would make him look like a shallow nincompoop.
Newt has more presidential material, US history, knowledge of the constitution, international affairs, common sense, experience, and patriotism in his bushy head than dumbo-eared Obama and his socialist army of Czars could ever muster.
Newt may be damaged, for now. But don’t dare count him out.
double
June 22nd, 2011
8:23 pm
LMS hope you did not forget to watch presidents speech.
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
June 22nd, 2011
8:24 pm
“What would lead you to say that? That’s not totally true. He organized the House from nowhere. This guy had no support, no background, nothing. And he came in, a little guy from Georgia getting elected, and he put together a revolution,” Steely said.
—
Utter hogwash.
Gingrich came to power with Pierre DuPont’s money and connections behind him, an operative for fascist plutocracy able to fool people into thinking a sociopathic false patriot who knocked up his math teacher in order to dodge Vietnam was a Georgian, a man, and a man of the people…which he isn’t, and never was.
cat fight
June 22nd, 2011
8:46 pm
Callista looks almost as old as Newt. She has pretty jewelry though.
Centrist
June 22nd, 2011
8:52 pm
Was this the third Galloway blog on Gingrich today? This is going to be the longest goodbye ever.
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
June 22nd, 2011
8:52 pm
barren trash
deegee
June 22nd, 2011
8:55 pm
Callista Deville is just frightening.
MD
June 22nd, 2011
9:16 pm
since every one is leaving the libral state of California maybe it would be a good time for all the georgia libral loons to move there and show the rest of us how liberalismn really works.
MD
June 22nd, 2011
9:17 pm
liberal.
double
June 22nd, 2011
9:38 pm
AJC provides non partial news, and opinions which is information,and entertaining.Lets you express your opinions as you wish,as long as you do so in a decent manner.All this at no cost to you.Then you accuse them of kicking a downed man.
Cutty
June 22nd, 2011
9:49 pm
Spell it right first, MD.
hsgrad
June 22nd, 2011
10:08 pm
From the looks of the photograph, appears someone has stolen Newt and Callista from Madame Toussauds Wax Museum.
Regents = UGA Conspirators
June 22nd, 2011
10:13 pm
TO: UGA Faculty, Staff and Students
FROM: Rebecca Macon, Registrar
Under the newly approved University Council bylaws section on matters of particular urgency, which was passed at the April 21, 2011 University Council meeting, the Executive Committee is allowed to approve items in place of the full University Council when the matter is deemed urgent. In such cases, the full council has the chance to confirm or rescind the action at its next meeting.
The Board of Regents has approved new Bachelor of Science degrees in Engineering for the University of Georgia. However, in attempting to hire new faculty for these programs, there has been some difficulty in that the best faculty wish to serve at institutions with Ph.D. programs. UGA planned to add Ph.D.’s in these new engineering fields soon, so the process has been requested to be expedited. Because the Board of Regents requires proposals for new degree programs to be received by July 1, 2011 in order to be on the agenda for their October meeting, President Adams and Provost Morehead asked for a vote on the new Ph.D. degree, as well as a new Masters degree, using the Executive Committee’s function to approve items deemed matters of particular urgency. The Executive Committee agreed to this request. As a side note, no new resources will be needed to add these programs, as the faculty are already being hired for the B.S. programs. The new degree programs were also passed by the University Curriculum Committee via an email vote on June 9, 2011.
Regarding this Matter of Particular Urgency vote on the two proposed degrees, a proposal to offer a new major in Engineering (M.S) and a new major in Engineering (Ph.D.), the vote passed in an email vote by the Executive Committee 14-0. The results of the voting will be placed on the agenda for the first Executive Committee meeting of the new term as an information item. It will then be placed on the agenda of the first University Council meeting of the new term as a confirmation item, where the full council has the opportunity to confirm or rescind the vote taken by Executive Committee, which is in accordance with the bylaws.
The minutes of this action can be found at the link below:
https://apps.reg.uga.edu/UniversityCouncil/publicC ommitteeMeeting/showMinutes/94
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you,
Rebecca Macon, Registrar
Secretary to University Council
RDG
June 22nd, 2011
10:14 pm
I am one of the liberal loons who cut out of there to California 5 years ago. Happy to be there and away from Georgia and politicans like Newt.
Andy
June 22nd, 2011
10:25 pm
Sorry, but Newt Gingrich is not presidential material — I wouldn’t vote for him as dogcatcher. If he wants to latch onto the Republican party for the 2012 election, he would be wise to withdraw and lend his support to Romney or Pawlenty or even Bachman. Maybe he can get a Cabinet post out of it (look at Hilary, she’s the Secretary of State now).
Clinton "Skink" Tyree
June 22nd, 2011
10:38 pm
Newt’s wounds are largely self-inflected. And, his main problem is he’s UNDISCIPLINED — in every area of his life. PERIOD.
Bootnewt
June 22nd, 2011
10:49 pm
Callista’s expression says, “Newt, did you just break wind?”
Alabama Communist
June 22nd, 2011
11:04 pm
No doubt We are looking at the first Republican Presidential Candiate who is conducting his own funeral……….It appears that Newt book to “save America” has turn into Save Newt at all costs…….
Gee
June 22nd, 2011
11:11 pm
Hmmm… Campaign is $1 million in debt. Credit line at Tiffany’s is $1 million, but all paid up. Look out Tiffany’s- Calsita’s baubles are coming back for cash credit!
Are State Universities the GOP's Piggy Bank?
June 23rd, 2011
12:12 am
Maybe Newt can follow the Young America Foundation and charge $32,000 in speaker’s fees to Georgia State. What’s up with that!? $32,000 would buy two graduate assistants to teach unprepared HOPE scholars and free up even more tenured faculty to do the research the grad students are supposed to be doing. Watch the fee-crammed tuition bills, which are going up as we speak for fall semester!!!!! Do a little analysis on open.georgia.gov, willya?
the teacha
June 23rd, 2011
1:16 am
and he has the nerve to obama names. he has more ex wives than obama has kids
Jai
June 23rd, 2011
5:44 am
The first sign of a poor leader is to blame others for your mistakes. The first hint to voters that a candidate is not qualified to lead is his/her inability to manage their campaign. Bow out gracefully Newt. You have too much baggage. Your pride is keeping you in this race and you are only deceiving yourself. Your wife and campaign don’t even believe you have a chance to win the nomination. You have been so mean to others Newt and now you are experiencing a very public payback. You have treated two wives like crap and now the one you have is costing you millions to hold on to. Obama ran an organized campaign staffed by people who believed in him. He raised record amounts of money and won the election because he ran an excellent campaign. He was admired for his family values (married to the same woman for over fifteen years) and he stayed on the same message for two years. Newt: Call President Obama and get his advice or go home and stay there.
BitterEXdemocrackkk
June 23rd, 2011
7:11 am
I cannot believe that Newt suddently spewed the ‘AUDIT the FED’ mission. Why wasnt he on that back in the 1990s? AUDIT and ABOLISH the FED *SHOULD HAVE* been in his Contract for America
in 1994. See, Ron Paul’s logic is waking people up, even Newt!
Willis
June 23rd, 2011
7:25 am
Newt should heed a lesson from Gen. Douglas McArthur – “old soldiers never die, they just fade away.” Fade away, Newt.
Ah ha!
June 23rd, 2011
7:59 am
She’s pretty.
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
June 23rd, 2011
8:08 am
Pretty? Without a soul?
Jerome Horwitz
June 23rd, 2011
10:10 am
hsgrad – wax museum is good. Was thinking manequin. Makes Joan Rivers look good.
newt style
June 23rd, 2011
10:14 am
does newt’s wife ever take off that fake smile? she looks like a barbie doll.
Disgusted Republican
June 23rd, 2011
10:31 am
“Wounded Newt Gingrich?” Newt opened his mouth before he engaged his brain and verbally shot himself in the foot! And he blames the media? While I agree most of them are a bunch of sharks just waiting for some dummy to make a gaffe so they can pouce on it Newt’s political demise was his own doing! When I first met him at a Republican convention, in Savannah, I firgured him for an egotist and he hasn’t disappointed me. So it is “goodbye Newt” and on with the Republican Primary race. Sure hope a good candidate pops up so I can vote instead of all the mental lightweights in at present. God knows our country needs a real statesman if we are to find a way out of this mess fawning dummies in both parties put us in to please their special interest campaign contributors but so far just more of the same old same old. Where are the folks who are willing to put our country first when we need them so badly?
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June 23rd, 2011
10:32 am
Enter your comments here
Sam Houston
June 23rd, 2011
10:34 am
I am looking at the polls.
Sam Houston
June 23rd, 2011
10:38 am
I don’t think Newt Gingrich has the slightest chance of winning the nomination. It seem like Ron Paul will win the presidential nomination for the republican party. Ron is up in poll at Digitally Undivided, digitalundivide. Just click on the Products Review & Polls tab and select Republican’s 2012 Presidential Candidates Opinion Poll
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
June 23rd, 2011
11:09 am
Anyone considering Ron Paul as their “man” need only watch “Borat” to decide if he’s a “man” at all.
Doug
June 23rd, 2011
11:10 am
Her look says to me that she wants to be the First Lady so bad that she can taste it!
bling time
June 23rd, 2011
11:25 am
newt’s wife is stressed from all this hard campaigning–she’s heading to tiffanys for another day of bling shopping. Her current stuff is out of date.
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
June 23rd, 2011
11:27 am
Perhaps she should have found a lower profile adulterer with whom to fornicate?
Jeff Glover
June 23rd, 2011
12:28 pm
Only one that thinks like him and acts like him would support something like him. He is TRASH!!!!!!
catlady
June 23rd, 2011
1:22 pm
Too much bleach, too much starch.
No fool like an old fool.
I hope he continues, just for the comic relief.
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
June 23rd, 2011
4:17 pm
bleach and starch…quite funny, quite true.
mehlman rings twice
June 24th, 2011
8:20 am
Look on the bright side – he still had Zell Miller!
Bling Star
June 24th, 2011
12:48 pm
newt’s wife is wearing so much expensive bling, it takes her an hour just to get it on and off.
TheCapn
June 24th, 2011
4:25 pm
Maybe Newt will get his steam back when he starts piteously whining about the Defense Of Marriage Act again. Republicans love uber-hypocrisy.
Or, maybe, he’ll jump on the “Family Values” platform again. Big risk, given his complete lack of understanding of the concept, though.
Another Contract With America(n Lobbyists)? No?
Maybe his old partner (in crime!) Tom Delay has some money laying conveniently around that would help re-kick start this thing.
Yeah, good old Newt. Just what this country needs…..NOT!
TheCapn
June 24th, 2011
4:26 pm
And BTW, Callista looks like she has “pudding-face” with that fake, cheesy, plastic smile.