Dear Editor,

Newton Leroy “Newt” Gingerich, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia’s 6th Congressional District from 1979-99 including tenure as Speaker of the House from 1995-99, is, without question, the architect of the current extremely divisive atmosphere in government and politics on the national level.

He continues to exert his influence on the Republican Party, as he remains a very sought after guest on various conservative media outlets, in particular the propaganda-laden Fox News channel, where he appears quite often in the capacity of Fox News contributor.

The Republican Party/conservative movement had long taken a very respectful philosophical approach to their Democratic adversaries, most recently espoused by conservative icon President Ronald Reagan, but since has adopted a much more combative and adversarial approach in the political process, that has, unfortunately, led to many years of government stalemate and dysfunction.

This has benefited, sadly, only the outspoken egotistical proponents of such partisan demagoguery, and has been antithetical to what is best for our great nation.

Mr. Gingrich was pressured to resign as a result of a bipartisan effort from his position of leadership as well as his congressional seat, as a result of a myriad of his rather troubling and self-serving activities that were viewed as tragically inappropriate decorum for a public official.

The abject hypocrisy of Mr. Gingrich over the years has been shocking, and virtually unparalleled.

Mr. Gingrich throughout his political career was strongly aligned with the Christian conservative movement.

However, Mr. Gingrich has thus far been married three times, with his first wife being his former high school geometry teacher.

He informed her of his plans to divorce while she was in the hospital following surgery for uterine cancer.

Also, Mr. Gingrich’s current wife is 23 years his junior and had an affair with him while she was serving as a House of Representatives staff member.

He was still married to his second wife when this affair occurred.

And then-Congressman Gingrich was leading, and strongly advocating for, impeachment proceedings against then-President Bill Clinton, who had a similar extramarital affair.

Apparently, the aforementioned is only inappropriate when such acts are committed by a political adversary.

But in his mind, for him (Gingrich) such behavior was somehow acceptable.

Mr. Gingrich’s penchant for self-promotion and aggrandizement– and his philosophy to indulge himself endlessly in the politics of the personal destruction of his political opponents — led to the 2016 election of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States, who shamelessly employed, and further perfected, such tactics during his campaigns for elective office and throughout the four-year term of his presidency.

We, as a nation, and the Republican Party must simply be better than this.

Richard Hord

Martins Ferry