Were you around at that time? Your use of the article leads me to believe you weren’t.
He was unpopular because of his CONSERVATIVE stands of which his own party, the establishment, wouldn’t stand behind him on. Clinton was working his magic & had the public in his back pocket for the better part. “It’s the economy stupid”, & the economy was good, life was good for most & they didn’t want the boat rocked. Gingrich was rocking the boat.
Gingrich had dozens & dozens of ethics complaints filed against him, a favorite lib tactic (see Sarah Palin) but not one of them stuck (see Sarah Palin). He settled on the last to save a long drawn out process of which his own party didn’t have the conviction to stand w/ him on.
The Republican party at the time was a bunch of weenies afraid of losing power. Newt was the sacrificial lamb & it took years for the Republicans to get their conservative chops back after that despicable showing.
Do yourself a favor, go look at the last charge that he paid the fine on & tell me what it looks like to you, especially in light of what I just laid out & what congress has been getting away w/ ever since.
Sounds like what is happening to HERMAN CAIN.
Newt backed away from those stands himself.
He got a taste of power and at some point he decided staying in power and reaping the benefits was more important than making changes.
From his early Rockefeller Republican days to his Nancy Pelosi global warming ad he's always been an ambivalent figure -- sometimes a model for conservatives, sometimes anything but.