FORMER SPEAKER GINGRICH VINDICATED--BUT NO ONE KNOWS IT!!

[carol ann parisi]

[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 5] [House] [Page 6304] [From the U.S. Government Printing Office, www.gpo.gov]

        FORMER SPEAKER GINGRICH VINDICATED--BUT NO ONE KNOWS IT
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Everett). Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham) is recognized for 5 minutes.   Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, I come to correct the record, for a politically motivated injustice. It is titled ``Newt Gingrich Vindicated, But No One Knows It,'' by Brent Bozell. I would like to read and summarize this article for the Record on an issue of basic justice.   ``The judgement is in. After 3\1/2\ years of investigation, the Internal Revenue Service has cleared Newt Gingrich and his allied nonprofit groups of any violation of tax laws in the controversy over his television history course, `Renewing American Civilization.'   ``So after having run countless news reports highlighting the accusations that ultimately forced Newt Gingrich to pay $300,000 in fines,'' did the media correct the record?   I would like to let my colleagues, maybe for the first time, understand and know what Newt Gingrich was about. In our Republican Conference, the then Speaker, Newt Gingrich, and his lawyers met with the entire conference. They said that he would be exonerated 100 percent in this. There was no chance of him being found guilty. But it would take one or more years of court trials and dragging the Republican Party through this event. The Speaker stood up and said, ``I am not going to do this, because we are focusing on a balanced budget, on saving Medicare, on having welfare reform, and having tax relief. And if I go through this court case and don't give the Democrats their pound of flesh by paying this fine, then we will not have a balanced budget or save Medicare or have welfare reform.'' And he agreed to pay that fine. That is the kind of a gentleman Newt Gingrich was.   Do you think that the news media after this was announced did anything or said one word? Let me quote from the article again.   ``ABC, CBS and NBC devoted exactly zero seconds to Newt Gingrich's vindication. Only CNN's Brooks Jackson filed a TV report, on the early- evening show `Inside Politics.'   ``He then showed old footage of Democrats David Bonior of Michigan, in which he said, `Mr. Gingrich engaged in a pattern of tax fraud,' and John Lewis of Georgia, `We now have a Speaker under investigation for lying to the outside counsel investigating his involvement in a massive tax fraud.'   ``Jackson quoted from the IRS decision: `The (Gingrich ``Renewing American Civilization'') course taught principles from American civilization that could be used by each American in everyday life, whether the person is a welfare recipient, the head of a large corporation or a politician. The course was not biased toward particular politicians or a particular party. The facts show the class was much more than a political platform.' Of course, that was clear to anyone who watched the course.''   And I quote from Mr. Gingrich: I urge my colleagues, the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Gephardt), the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bonior), ``I urge my colleagues to go back and read their statements and watch how they said them with no facts, based on nothing more than a desire, and I quote, to politically destroy a colleague.''   The article continues. ``But the damage wasn't done simply by devious politicians. It was done by the media itself. National Public Radio reporter Mara Liasson justified the event by saying that he only did what Newt Gingrich did to Jim Wright. `Bonior learned his lesson from him,' she said.   ``To appreciate the media's antagonism--then, now and probably forever--toward Newt Gingrich, compare their treatment of him with their coverage of a real crook, Webster Hubbell. They roasted Newt when he was charged and then ignored him when he was cleared. Hubbell was celebrated when he was cleared of tax evasion charges filed by Ken Starr, but when a Federal court reinstated the charges on appeal, the networks aired no coverage.   ``Let's get this straight. Webster Hubbell embezzled half a million dollars from his law firm partners in Arkansas. After he resigned from the Justice Department in disgrace, the President's friends paid him almost another million dollars for, quote, supposed jobs that asked for no work, money he pays next to zero taxes on.''   I would ask my colleagues to take a look at what they said in this well, and I would ask them to apologize publicly and in writing to the Speaker.