Newt Gingrich Quotes
I was not a presider; I was a leader.
Newt Gingrich, U.S. Congressman (Republican, GA), Speaker of the House, Interview with Brian Lamb, C-SPAN, September 2, 1999
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The speaker had negotiated a wonderful budget with President Barak Obama, but he had many extreme Republican Tea Party Conservatives who would not support the compromise. The speaker could have passed the bill anyway with the votes of the Democrats and the more rational and centrist Republicans, but he chose not do do so and renegged on his fairly public agreement with the President rather than have a large part of his caucus repudiate him. Talk show host Jay Leno had asked him why de did that. This was his profound answer. Ironically, the dissidents turned on him anyway, and he lost many of his followers. So he resigned as the speaker and also from the House itself
Newton Leroy Gingrich is an American politician and author who served as the 50th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party, he was the U.S. Representative for Georgia's 6th congressional district serving north Atlanta and nearby areas from 1979 until his resignation in 1999. In 2012, Gingrich unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination for President of the United States.
