Newt As Ronnie's Heir

Newt Gingrich is running for President of the United States.

Many people have long been sickened by the fact that a divorced and remarried man who talks up a game of family values, a man known for speaking optimistically of America one minute and taking cheap shots against political opponents the next, and making incendiary comments based on gross distortions of history, would seek America's highest office.

But Ronald Reagan was elected President anyway.

Surprise! No, I wasn't talking about Gingrich just now, but what has been said about him can easily be applied to our fortieth President. We all know that Reagan, a family values apostle who once complained that we can't talk to God in our schools anymore, divorced actress Jane Wyman. Some of us many even know that Nancy Reagan was already several weeks pregnant with her daughter Patti when she and Ronnie got married. But does anyone remember Reagan's nasty disparaging of the counterculture movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s when he was governor of California? He once spoke of seeing a hippie who "spoke like Tarzan, had long hair like Jane, and smelled like Cheetah." Seeing a group of demonstrators holding signs saying "Make Love, Not War," he turned to someone and said, "Those kids don't look capable of doing either."

Newt Gingrich likes to throw the word "fascist" around a lot. Well, it was the Reagan administration that once said that the New Deal and its proponents "espoused fascism." Newt likes to call opponents nasty names. Anyone remember what Reagan said about Michael Dukakis, when it looked like the son of Greek immigrants would succeed him in the White House, concerning a story that Dukakis had once seen a psychiatrist? "Look, I'm not going to pick on an invalid."

Witty. Witty.

So, there's actually a precedent for cynical nastiness - or nasty cynicism - in the Oval Office, even if Chris Matthews doesn't want to admit it.

And so, the notion of "President Gingrich" doesn't seem so preposterous.