Running Away From Gingrich

by Stuart Shapiro

When the former Speaker began his surge, some predicted there would be a backlash from former colleagues of Newt.  Many who worked with him despised him for his concern mainly about himself.  As reported on these pages  (here and here).  Now conservative guru George Will has penned a withering critique.

Gingrich, who would have made a marvelous Marxist, believes everything is related to everything else and only he understands how. Conservatism, in contrast, is both cause and effect of modesty about understanding society’s complexities, controlling its trajectory and improving upon its spontaneous order. Conservatism inoculates against the hubristic volatility that Gingrich exemplifies and Genesis deplores: “Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel.”

I’ve always thought that Gingrich (much like Herman Cain) was running for President for publicity rather than to win.  I don’t expect him to flame out quite as badly as Cain, but I do believe his tenure atop the polls will be similarly temporary.  And the enmity of anyone who knows him is a big reason why.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.