First, there is that which people see. Newt is a regular contributor on FOX News and has become one of the most watched commentators on television today. In cable news, there are ’surf starters’ (people whose appearance prompt viewers to start channel surfing) and ’surf stoppers’ (people who viewers will stop to hear what the person has to say).

Cable news folks love ’surf stoppers.’ Newt is one of the most reliable surf stoppers on television. Part of this stems from the fact that no one knows what Newt Gingrich will say on any given day or on any given topic.

And, Newt is a successful author. Since he left the Congress, he has authored and/or coauthored a dozen books with total sales of millions of books. These include eight best sellers, both fiction and nonfiction, and also ‘wonk’ books, such as Saving Lives Saving Money, one of the most authoritative books on healthcare available today.

Newt wrote Real Change before President Obama rode ‘change’ all the way to the White House. He tackled climate change before it was fashionable with a book co-authored with former Atlanta Zoo Director Terry Maple. He wrote Rediscovering God in America, tracing in true Reaganesque style the importance of God in the founding and growth of America.

And, Newt is an accomplished speaker. Every year, he delivers seventy to eighty speeches in virtually every state in the country as well as many countries around the world (which, in turn, give rise to a variety of popular YouTube videos). Those who watch him are entertained. Much more importantly, they learn. Newt’s professorial delivery filled with facts, figures, and history have become legendary.

Yet, while his celebrity status has continued at levels commensurate with his time as one of the creators of the Contract With America; the leader of the Republican Revolution of 1994; Time Man of the Year in 1995, and the Speaker of the United States Congress from 1995 until 1999; his untold successes include the growth and expansion of various business enterprises. The Gingrich companies (six now) have expanded their operations around the country, employing almost fifty people, generating millions of dollars per year in revenue, and reaching some of the largest operations in the country in healthcare, communications, productions, and solutions.

The operations now also include movie production with his wife Callista, generating a very successful DVD building off of one of his books - Rediscovering God in America. More recently, they released a DVD entitled Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous With Destiny which has become an instant success. Many more are to come.

In 1999, few would have given Newt Gingrich any real chance of accomplishing anything. (It would have been about the same chance they gave him of capturing Republican control of the Congress before 1994.) Yet, while his ability to reemerge financially, politically, and publicly has befuddled many and frustrated others, it has not been his greatest success in the past ten years.

In the words of Linda Evans, Newt (now 65) has aged incredibly well. Along life’s journey, he found something that transformed him in ways that few who knew him in the 1990s would have ever expected. Candidly, he found love. (Hopefully, he is in a different city or better yet a different country when he reads this column.) He found love in three places: God, a wife, and grandchildren (two of them); and it changed him. Anyone who knew him then and knows him today can confirm it.

The brilliance is still there. The vision is as clear as ever. The clarity on complex national and international issues has never been better. But, the fire that burns inside is different. The anchor inside moved, and it moved him.

No one can say whether he will someday lead again in public office (and it is not what dictates him now). Certainly, he has the credentials of which most Presidential wannabes could only dream. After all, he has actually led a revolution, eliminated a deficit, balanced a budget, and reformed welfare, all in just four years as Speaker.

Talking of Presidential politics and the name Newt Gingrich ten years ago would have been downright laughable. Last year, it was plausible, but improbable. But, things change over time for people including Newt Gingrich. He has a new life and no one knows what tomorrow may hold for him.

J. Randolph Evans, Esq.
McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP
Suite 5300
303 Peachtree Street
Atlanta, GA 30308