Newt Gingrich defended his $300,000 fine for ethics violations while Speaker of the House in 1997, telling the Republican Jewish Coalition on Wednesday that the investigation was partisan. But the vote to condemn his behavior was anything but partisan at the time.
Gingrich took a question from an audience member on whether his ethics problem would be a campaign issue for Democrats.
“Well, I think Nancy Pelosi in the last two days has done a lot to answer it,” he said, a reference to comments made by the the Minority Leader to TPM’s Brian Beutler in which she suggested she was prepared to raise the issue if Gingrich won the nomination.
“The Democrats filed 84 charges against me, 83 were dismissed,” Gingrich said. “The only one which survived is the fact that my lawyers had written a letter inaccurately and I signed it. The Democrats refused to compromise on that. [Nancy Pelosi] was one of the three Democrats in the process of refusing to compromise or there may have been five, I can’t remember the exact — but I’ll let you decide. If she was in the middle of it, how non-partisan and just do you think the process was?”
Petty non-partisan, actually. The House voted 395 to 28 in January 1997 to rebuke Gingrich and fine him $300,000 for misleading investigators looking into whether he used tax-exempt political donations inappropriately. And the ethics committee Pelosi sat on voted 7 to 1 in favor of the reprimand.
Here’s the Washington Post’s writeup from the time, with some choice quotes from several of the Republican lawmakers who voted against him:
“Newt has done some things that have embarrassed House Republicans and embarrassed the House,” said Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.). “If [the voters] see more of that, they will question our judgment.”
….
We have proved to the American people that no matter how rough the process is, we can police ourselves, we do know right from wrong,” said Rep. Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.), who headed the investigative subcommittee that charged Gingrich.
….
“If our action today fails to chasten this body and bring a halt to the crippling partisanship and animosity that has surrounded us, then we will have lost an opportunity,” said Rep. Nancy L. Johnson (R-Conn.), ethics committee chairman.
According to Gingrich, the ethics vote nonetheless crippled his Speakership.
“I gradually lost the ability to lead, because, you know, I was ultimately so battered by the process,” he said.
Gingrich added — correctly — on Wednesday that the IRS dismissed a charge that an organization inappropriately funded a college course he taught. As for the issue that led to his ethics charge, giving false information to House investigators, Gingrich blamed it on a slip up by his lawyer.
