If Mona Charen's recent attack on Newt Gingrich in a National Review piece, headlined "Who's the most conservative of them all?" reveals anything, it's that her own foundation as a conservative is a bit flawed.
Since when are Mr. Gingrich's specialty - new ideas and plans for moving this country forward - the exclusive domain of the Democratic Party? What was Teddy Roosevelt if not a brilliant thinker, brilliant orator and fiery progressive?
The most telling crack in Ms. Charen's logic is when she points out that Mr. Gingrich was "forced out" as speaker. She is right that it was not a cabal of liberals who did this. Rather, it was a cabal of old-line GOP establishment parking-cone types. They couldn't control Mr. Gingrich, and they feared the erosion of their own power and influence, so they moved against the speaker in a great display of Republican disunity - to the delight of their liberal opponents.
The old-line crew is the problem, not the solution. I'm convinced that Teddy Roosevelt would enthusiastically endorse Newt Gingrich for the presidency, if only to see him break a few GOP rice bowls and shake up the establishment that can't seem to win an election on its own merit.
J.B. HITTLE
Yankton, S.D.
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By John Solomon
How the government's punishing of the exposure of official wrongdoing can linger for years
