Lost Opportunity Society

LATE on the opening day of the 104th Congress, a packed ballroom of Republican revelers at a Washington hotel strained to see Newt Gingrich onstage through the glare of floodlights and over the heads of fellow partygoers. It was as close to the feeling of a mosh pit as you will experience at a Beltway event, charged with the elation of partisan victory and sheer adulation for this man, Speaker Newt—the Moses, the Solon, the Tony Robbins of House Republicans.

The crowd probably would have charged off a cliff like the Gadarene swine for Gingrich. But soon enough he had them bored. He was holding up into the lights a tiny lapel pin. He was talking—at great length—of the “Earning through Learning” program, a scheme to pay poor children for reading books. In front of an audience so fawningly sympathetic, Gingrich had managed to hit a long, idiosyncratic false note.

About the Author

Rich Lowry

Rich Lowry is the editor in chief of National Review.

Featured Tags

House of Representatives

LATE on the opening day of the 104th Congress, a packed ballroom of Republican revelers at a Washington hotel strained to see Newt Gingrich onstage through the glare of floodlights and over the heads of fellow partygoers. It was as close to the feeling of a mosh pit as you will experience at a Beltway event, charged with the elation of partisan victory and sheer adulation for this man, Speaker Newt—the Moses, the Solon, the Tony Robbins of House Republicans.

The crowd probably would have charged off a cliff like the Gadarene swine for Gingrich. But soon enough he had them bored. He was holding up into the lights a tiny lapel pin. He was talking—at great length—of the “Earning through Learning” program, a scheme to pay poor children for reading books. In front of an audience so fawningly sympathetic, Gingrich had managed to hit a long, idiosyncratic false note.