Newt Gingrich, zombie politician

The former House speaker resigned under a cloud of dishonor and disgrace, but now the dead man talking walks among us again.

By Marc Cooper
LA Times
June 14, 2009

At this point in the recession, you've probably become familiar with the term "zombie bank," a financial institution that can continue operating, thanks to government support, even though its debts outweigh its assets. Now it's time to add a related descriptor to our public discourse: "zombie politician." The term describes a political figure whose electoral worth is less than zero and whose ideas are totally bankrupt, but who can continue to offer up political guidance because he's kept on life-support by media-generated oxygen.

Or if you prefer a shorter definition of a zombie pol, try this one: Newt Gingrich.

Gingrich's political career flat-lined a decade ago when he resigned as speaker of the House under a cloud of dishonor, disgrace and corruption. Yet the dead man again walks among us. Flip on a cable news show, a Sunday talkfest or C-SPAN, or crack open the national section of a major newspaper, and Gingrich is seemingly everywhere, positioned as no less than the leading opposition figure to President Obama.

Strange, because the Republican Party certainly didn't elect him to this position. Indeed, some of today's top GOP leaders -- among them Sen. Lindsey Graham and House Minority Leader John Boehner -- were among the Republicans whose disillusionment with Gingrich's speakership in the fall of 1998 left him little choice but to resign his post.

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