Newt Gingrich

I had lunch the other day with Senate Majority Leader Gretchen Whitmer, who in a few weeks will be out of office for the first time in fourteen years. The last four years have had to be frustrating for her.She led a caucus so small a dozen members that you could pack them all into a minibus. They didnt even control one third of the seats, and were even powerless to prevent bills they didnt like from taking immediate effect.Nobody realistically thought the Dems could take control of the...

There are many reasons to lament the slow disappearance of newspapers. But heres one you may not have considered: the loss of cartoons and comic strips.You might be startled that an old political and news analyst would say that. But in fact, comics, both overtly political and not so, have always been great political and social barometers. Back in the late 19th century, Boss Tweed, the corrupt New York City political boss, was largely done in by Thomas Nasts cartoons.Before he was carted...

Audie Cornish talks to Kirk Curnutt, vice president of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society, about the often misused and misquoted line, "there are no second acts in American lives." A whole generation of American politicians has fallen from grace, only to rise again and disprove the line — Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, Eliot Spitzer and now South Carolina governor turned congressman, Mark Sanford.