Gingrich Fires House Historian Over Nazi Flap

House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) Monday night fired newly appointed House historian Christina Jeffrey, after it was revealed that she had critiqued a 1986 Department of Education teaching program on the Holocaust, saying that it failed to present the views, “however unpopular,” of the Nazis or the Ku Klux Klan.

Monday’s controversy erupted just a day after Gingrich’s choice for the prestigious historian’s job became widely known on Capitol Hill. Until she moved here to take the post, Jeffrey, 47, was an assistant professor of political science at Kennesaw State University in Marietta, Ga., where Gingrich taught for several years before entering politics.

Jeffrey was identified as a volunteer Department of Education evaluator who had recommended that funding be denied for a proposed junior high school curriculum on the Holocaust titled “Facing History and Ourselves.”

Writing under her maiden name, Christina F. Price, Jeffrey had recommended in 1986 against the Education Department’s support for the program, saying that the proposal “gives no evidence of balance or objectivity.”

“The Nazi point of view, however unpopular, is still a point of view and it is not presented,” wrote Jeffrey. “Nor is that of the Ku Klux Klan.”

The Education Department’s decision to deny funding so outraged lawmakers that in October, 1988, then-Rep. Ted Weiss (D-N.Y.) called a hearing to investigate. Citing Jeffrey’s “unthinkable conclusion,” Weiss said that the department’s refusal to fund the program “suggests an institutional bias against teaching American children about the Holocaust.”

“This shows very poor judgment,” said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), an outspoken critic of Gingrich. “Maybe it’s arrogance. I don’t know. These (comments) are something he should have known about. When you occupy a leadership position at this level, it seems to me something is wrong when errors in judgment like this are made. We don’t know who this man is but we’re certainly finding out.”

In response to inquiries from Gingrich’s office Monday night, Jeffrey confirmed that she had authored the program assessment as a volunteer evaluator, according to Gingrich spokesman Tony Blankley. She defended her comments as “ambiguous.”

Gingrich, who had asked Jeffrey in December to take the historian’s job, rejected her defense and swiftly asked for her resignation.

“This is the historian for the House of the whole United States of America,” said Blankley. “Even if it was ambiguous, this is a matter of great sensitivity and many Americans would be offended.”

Blankley said that Gingrich was unaware of Jeffrey’s evaluation of the Holocaust program when he asked her to take the House job. Blankley added that, while Gingrich had sought Jeffrey’s immediate resignation, he had not talked to her by late Monday.

Jeffrey had confirmed earlier not only that she would accept the $85,000-a-year job, in which she would maintain historical files containing House operations, but that her husband, Robert Jeffrey, a political scientist at Dalton College in Georgia, would serve without salary as Gingrich’s personal “chronicler.”

Jeffrey had described herself as an avid supporter of Gingrich and who had played host to those interested in hearing Gingrich’s lectures while he was a controversial professor at Kennesaw State. She holds a doctorate in political science from the University of Alabama.

Raymond W. Smock, a former University of Maryland professor, had served as House historian since the job was created in 1983. Gingrich dismissed Smock and his staff of four last month.

Blankley said Gingrich’s office may review the system it has used to clear appointees. But he defended the Speaker, who told reporters recently that he would make mistakes but said that he would seek to address them quickly.

It was “three hours from the time we found out to the time her resignation was asked for,” Blankley said. “It’s about as fast as you can act.”

Since the GOP’s November election victory, Gingrich has been no stranger to controversy.

Late last month, he altered a $4.5-million book publishing deal after Democrats as well as Republicans took him to task for appearing to cash in on his new leadership position.