Newt Gingrich, a former history professor who rose to become Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, is widely regarded as one of the smartest men to have spent time in Washington in recent memory. I’ve often wondered what he reads. Now I know.
Newt was kind enough to send his current reading list, which is as follows:
Governor Reagan: His Rise to Power, by Lou Cannon. “An interesting study by
a reporter who first began covering Reagan in 1965,” Newt says.
Paul Revere’s Ride, by David Hackett Fischer. “A brilliant analysis of the role of citizenship in training and arming the Massachusetts citizens who stood up to the British Army in April 1775.”
The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, by Francis Collins. “A deeply moving account of the head of the human genome’s project’s belief in God and how he brings together faith and science — a wonderful book.”
Ataturk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey. “A solid study of the most successful modernizer in Islam.”
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Godwin. “A very solid study of how Lincoln emerged from obscurity and led his rivals in a cabinet that kept together the Union through our most bitter and painful war.”
An Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths, by Glenn Reynolds. “A very insightful look at the power of personal computing to turn each individual into a David capable of defeating the goliath of big government, has enormous implications for rethinking government.”
Ha. I read Paul Revere’s Ride before Newt Gingrich did.
Too bad Glenn Reynolds doesn’t read this blog. The paperback version of An Army of Davids should have Newt’s quote as a jacket blurb.
Speaking of conservative politicians and books, I have on my desk four Jeffrey Archer audiobooks: A Quiver Full of Arrows, A Twist in the Tale, A Matter of Honor, and Honor Among Thieves. You can have all of them if you can tell me who won the 2000 London mayoral race from which Lord Archer was forced in a perjury scandal.
Rejoice, for I have returned.
Or roll your eyes. Whatever.
While I was on vacation, my wife and I left the kids with the grandparents and managed to squeeze in two days at Myrtle Beach, S.C. If you grew up between Maryland and Mississippi, you’ve probably made some lasting memories at Myrtle Beach, whose slogan should be “Myrtle Beach: Where the South goes to embarrass itself.”
I’m partial to secluded beaches, but when you’re a teenager you want action, and Myrtle is the place. Pretty much every Southerner I know has fond memories of a week at Myrtle Beach, and many of those memories involve the Pavilion, an old amusement park at the boardwalk on the Grand Strand. Sadly, the Pavilion has been sold and this summer is its final season.
It would be impossible to calculate the number of summer romances kindled at the Pavilion. When it goes, one of the greatest manufacturers of first loves will come to an end. Officially the owners are not saying what will be put up in its place, but some staff members told us it would be hotels or condos. That’s the rumor, anyway.
My wife and I took the opportunity to ride some rides for the last time and enjoy the Pavilion chicken strips, which truly are the best I’ve ever had. If you have fond memories of the Pavilion, maybe you can get down there this summer for one last trip on the old roller coaster and stroll and spin on the magnificent carousel. I’m sure glad we did.
No Friday Book Corner today, I’m sorry to say. I’m headed for vacation, so no blogging for the next week and a half.
Washington Post blogger Dan Froomkin links VictoryNH’s interview with Karl Rove and our editorial about Rove’s comments during his Manchester visit. Naturally, he gets our name wrong. Funny how many Washington types still call us the Manchester Union Leader.
VictoryNH has an exclusive interview with Karl Rove. In summing up Republican accomplishments, he didn’t mention reducing spending. Interesting.
One of my favorite pastimes, which I don’t get to do often enough, is biking in the countryside. (I’d prefer horseback riding, but I don’t have a horse.)
Cycling on a long rural road dotted with farms removes the stress, clears the mind and is wonderfully conducive to creative thinking.
If the forecast is accurate, this weekend will be absolutely perfect for biking on some country roads in New England. If that interests you, you’re in luck. I’ve got a copy of Backroad Bicycling in Vermont to give away if you can answer this question:
Who won the very first World Cup in 1930?
(P.S., if you don’t want the biking book, I have LOTS of others.)
Sen. Judd Gregg is putting together a bill designed to institutionalize spending restraint in Congress. He’s taking a bill to give the President line-item veto power and inserting a mess of additional measures to reduce spending and the deficit. Naturally, it probably is doomed.
Update: Sen. Gregg’s efforts seem to have had an effect on his colleagues. Suddenly Senate Republicans are all for spending restraint, so they say.
Here is Sen. Gregg’s press release on the bill (pdf).
Homes are overvalued by an average of 21 percent in Manchester and Nashua and 19.6 percent in Rockingham and Strafford counties, according to this chart, which is based on a new study of home prices by National City Corp. and consulting firm Global Insight .
Home prices are definitely flattening in the Manchester and Nashua markets, and in Massachusetts. I think asking prices remain too high in and around Manchester, but at this point it doesn’t look like they’re going to plummet, though if interest rates keep going up you never know.
The Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce gets a new president and CEO at the end of this month. It’s Chris Williams, vice president of economic development and advocacy at the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce.
Chris has been highly active in Manchester and has done wonders raising the chamber’s profile and building connections among local professionals. His leaving is Manchester’s loss and Nashua’s gain.
On this day in 1777, the Continental Congress approved the design of the U.S. flag. Less well known is that on the same day, the members gave John Paul Jones command of the ship Ranger, which was built in Portsmouth.
Jones sailed the Ranger to Britain, where he attacked and captured the H.M.S. Drake, a British warship, giving the United States its first significant naval victory of the war. All the while he had to battle his own crew, who nearly mutinied because their captain made them fight enemy warships rather than plunder British merchant vessels.
Jones, while a first lieutenant aboard the Alfred, was the first sailor to raise a U.S. flag on a U.S. Navy vessel. On the same trip in which he captured the Drake, he delivered the news of America’s victory at Saratoga to the French government. The French admiral Jones met saluted the Ranger, making that the first official recognition of the U.S. flag by a foreign power, according to official Navy history.
Donald Hall of Wilmot was just named the next Poet Laureate of the United States. Who is the current Poet Laureate?
And since the only person to correctly answer the Sudoku question had already won a previous trivia prize, I’m asking it again. What was the first daily newspaper in the United States to run a Sudoku puzzle? I know there are plenty of eople in New Hampshire who know this answer.
Anyone who answers both of these questions gets double the prizes. That’s four prizes for answering two questions.
I can hardly believe the RNC had the nerve to put this out. In a Monday press release titled, The Real Dem Agenda: Political Infighting And Earmarks, the RNC attacked Democrats for comments made by Rep Jim Moran, D-Va., who said he would aggressively lard up bills with earmarks if the Democrats were to win the House.
“When I become chairman [of a House appropriations subcommittee], I’m going to earmark the s*** out of it,” Moran told an Arlington, Va., newspaper.
That’s a terrible attitude that deserves condemnation. But the RNC trying to make an issue of this is like a mob boss warning you not to do business with a rival crime family because they’re a bunch of gangsters.
The GOP has become the party of earmarks, which, if you don’t know, are home-district appropriations inserted into spending bills by representatives and senators. They are pork spending, in other words. Republicans have more than doubled pork barrel spending in the past decade. According to Citizens Against Government Waste, the total number of earmarks went from 958 in FY 1996 to 13,957 in FY 2005. (Other groups have other definitions of earmarks, and therefore somewhat different numbers.)
And the Republicans are attacking Democrats in general for one Democratic representative’s comment that he would bring home the bacon for his district? They really do think we’re stupid.
