Gingrich and the Clinton impeachment

No one in his right mind could mistake me for a Newt Gingrich apologist.

• If my memory serves, I was the first public figure to call for Gingrich to step down as speaker following revelations about an affair he was having while in office. This followed shortly after he graciously agreed to provide the cover endorsement to a book I co-authored with Rep. Richard Pombo, "This Land Is Our Land." I believed Gingrich could not provide the kind of moral leadership the country needed while faced with Bill Clinton lying under oath about his own reckless sexual adventures.
• I have been extremely critical of Gingrich's positions on illegal immigration and the fraud of "climate change" and the more recent revelations about being on the take from Freddie Mac – an unconstitutional government agency he should have been working to abolish.

• I suggested recently that Gingrich, along with Mitt Romney and Rick Perry, represent establishment Republican Party politics as usual. Obviously, I have no enthusiasm for any of them as presidential candidates.

Suffice it to say, I am not a Newt "fan."

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But, he is being unfairly and unjustly accused of going soft on the impeachment of Bill Clinton by Dick Armey, a man apparently still bitter about his unsuccessful coup against the speaker and now, with the ascension of Gingrich as a front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, renewing those baseless attacks.

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You can criticize Gingrich for many things. There is simply no need to make up facts, as Armey has done.

What am I talking about?

Marvin Olasky of World Magazine is, once again, dredging up the myth that Gingrich somehow short-circuited moves to impeach Clinton – relying on Armey and others who were not involved in the House impeachment process. Those who were, like House impeachment manager James Rogan, tell a completely different story.

In the best published account of that process, "Catching Our Flag: Behind the Scenes of a Presidential Impeachment," Rogan not only tells a completely contrary story – he provides the dates, the names and the quotes to back it up. Who would know better than the House impeachment manager at the very center of the process?

But there's something even more obvious to illustrate the untruth of the accusation against Gingrich: The House impeached Clinton! It was the Republicans in the U.S. Senate, led by Trent Lott, who conducted a sham trial that resulted in Clinton remaining in office. That is the bigger story Rogan tells so eloquently and with such detail.

In fact, if there is any presidential candidate running for the GOP nomination in 2011 who needs to come clean on his role in the failure to oust Clinton for high crimes and misdemeanors, it is Rick Santorum.

It was Santorum who worked side-by-side with Trent Lott to ensure no real impeachment trial, one where witnesses would be called and evidence submitted, would ever take place in the U.S. Senate. And that is exactly what came to pass.

Now, I generally like Rick Santorum. I think he is a feisty advocate for conservative principles. But on the impeachment of Bill Clinton, Santorum served as Trent Lott's toady. Those are the facts. Read the story for yourself in "Catching the Flag," without question the best historical record of the Clinton impeachment process, written by the man on point – House impeachment manager Jim Rogan.

Politics is a complicated business.

Sometimes the good guys err, and the bad guys get it right.

Everyone is entitled to his opinion. But no one is entitled to make up facts to formulate those opinions – and that is what Dick Armey and some others are doing in their effort to discredit Gingrich unfairly with regard to the impeachment of Clinton.