The American Spectator

Good money has it that Newt Gingrich, the former House Speaker chased out of Congress in 1999 by Democrats smelling blood in the waters of the unethical tidal currents always swirling in and around the halls of power in Washington, D.C., is on his way back. Recently, the online version of The American Specator included musings by a regular contributor about Gingrich’s political future. There is no question that Gingrich is laying the groundwork for a major assault on the Democrats in 2008. He is working hard on a revised Contract With America and promoting his vision, which is always sharp and crisp, at every opportunity.

If I were to continue the metaphor, I might bet that Gingrich is predicting and assuming that the Republicans are going to take it on the chin in the mid-term Congressional elections this fall (I wouldn’t go so far as to say he is hoping for this), creating a void into which he will then step and lead his party’s vision makers with more of what made him successful and famous the first go-‘round. Whether this leads to a run for president or more likely a cabinet-level post if the Republicans hold on to the White House is anyone’s guess. My best guess is that he does not have the stomach or the thickness of skin to withstand the withering assaults on his personal failings that will surely play front and center in any serious election campaign.

p>Leaving aside the constant issue of Gingrich’s personal baggage, which is hardly irrelevant in the matter of leadership and loyalty, there is something about Gingrich’s new message that suggests something less than a revolution in the making. Even the motivation for the message rings more like partisan politics than political statesmanship. Just yesterday, Gingrich published a call to arms, in line with recent speeches and clearly signaling to those willing to listen among the disenchanted and nervous Republicans. Entitled ” Our Majority Is in Jeopardy ,” Gingrich tells the story of his dare to challenge a long-held “minority-psychology” and to provide, along with others, the inspirational leadership that led to the great victory of 1994. Alas, something has changed: br> /p>

But today, 12 years later, conservatives are grasping for a reinvigorated movement that will return our party to its roots of smaller government, innovative ideas and common sense solutions. The situation is serious. We are in jeopardy of losing the majority we won in 1994. Now is the time to act.

br> When Gingrich and Dick Armey put together the original and inspirationally straightforward Contract with America in 1994, which most commentators on the left and right credited with bringing the Republicans back into the majority in the 104th Congress, it rang true because it spoke directly to the issues of the day. Welfare reform, tort reform, tax reform, accountability in Congress — these were on point and on message.

Today, there is something pallid about the new manifesto. Something is missing. In setting out the main points of the new challenges to overcome, Gingrich speaks in a voice groomed and manicured with the clippers and combs of a political campaign already tested in the inner chambers of the political strategists. Thus, he begins by warning that America’s future, like all great dynasties, is not assured: “The future cannot be left to chance. The future must be won.”

In this warning and charge, Gingrich speaks of battles or games, we’re not sure which, to overcome a future that might otherwise be anything other than blessed. The threat of “chance” already sets off alarms. Did we not learn from Ronald Reagan, this country’s greatest leader since Abraham Lincoln, who also taught us the same lesson, that ours is a destiny blessed from on high if only we don’t turn our back on it? Is there not something palpably different in the cognizance of “chance” and the “winning” of a future not granted from the destiny of a people so great and so blessed that all we need do is defeat our enemies and get the incompetence of big government out of the way of the most talented people on the planet?

p>Gingrich continues: br>