An ethically challenged Newt Gingrich won reelection as Speaker of the House on Tuesday, making him the first Republican in 68 years to be elected to a second term - despite vocal opposition from within his own party and a voting public that ranks him even less trustworthy than it does President Clinton.
The 216 GOP votes (out of 227) were just three more than Gingrich needed. Gingrich, who rode the Republican Revolution to victory in 1994, was noticeably absent from much of the 1996 GOP campaign and received only tepid applause at the party's convention. In a recent Nightline poll, 62 percent of those interviewed thought Gingrich should be replaced as Speaker; 65 percent said he is not "honest and trustworthy" (53 percent thought the same of Clinton).
Recently, the Georgian admitted that he unintentially mislead officials about financial improprieties related to a college course he taught and to his political action committee. A House ethics subcommittee found that Gingrich skirted tax laws prohibiting the use of tax-exempt contributions for partisan purposes. The ethics panel hasn't yet recommended punishment, and Republicans voted to reelect Gingrich without knowing what the panel will recommend.
On technology, Gingrich, a member of the promising Internet Caucus and proponent of free speech on the Internet, has been a tiny steak with great sizzle. While he has called the Communications Decency Act passed by the 104th Congress "a violation of rights of adults to communicate with each other," he has done relatively little to advance his mentor Alvin Toffler's "third-wave information-based society."
Despite much fanfare around the electronic legislative database Thomas, the electronic legislative database Gingrich championed, the service is difficult to navigate and often outdated. And who can forget Gingrich's famous proposals to give laptops to poor kids and replace lawyers and doctors with computers.
"Computer time has been getting less and less expensive. By the year 2000, computer time may be as inexpensive as using the telephone is today," Gingrich predicted in 1971.
