Countywide : 2,000 Fans Chanting ‘Newt, Newt’ Line Up for Autographs

The first Newt sighting at 2:25 p.m. Monday brought a burst of cheers from the crowd packed into the main lobby of the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace.

Later, the cheers became chants of “Newt, Newt, Newt” and hearty applause when a beaming House Speaker Newt Gingrich was introduced by John Taylor, the director of the Nixon library.

Taylor compared Gingrich, the Republican from Georgia, to Orange County native Nixon, describing both of them as “course changers” and the kind of men “who took principled decisions not because they were popular but because they were right.”

Gingrich looked out at the crowd of more than 2,000 people, including some who had been standing in line for six hours, and shook his head.

“I am very honored to be here and frankly a little overwhelmed by the crowd inside and outside,” Gingrich told the audience in the library, one of 21 stops on a 21-day tour to promote his book, “To Renew America.”

Later, with writers’ cramp after setting a new Nixon library record by signing 1,800 books (breaking the previous mark of 1,200 set by Oliver North in 1993), an obviously worn-out Gingrich reiterated his surprise at the turnout.

“I must confess I had no idea we would have this many people,” he said.

Perhaps Gingrich underestimated the support that his conservative message wins in Orange County, an area that has no Democrats in any elected office higher than a city council. A group of union protesters outside chanted “Neuter Newt,” but drew little attention from his admirers.

Those who walked out of the library clutching a copy of the book with a bold “Newt 1995” inscribed inside seemed thrilled, although they had paid the full $24 list price.

Harry Elder of Garden Grove and his wife, Donalda, bought five of them.

“I thanked him for all the hard work he has been doing to try to save our country,” said Harry Elder, 70, who added he would not want to see Gingrich run for President. “We told him we want him to stay right where he is.”

Housewife Deborah Cuccias of Los Gatos drove 30 miles to the library from Newport Beach, where she is vacationing with her husband and two children.

“Newt is the coolest,” Cuccias said. “He is a futurist. He has a plan for this country and that’s where I want to go.”

Jim and Lorie Moreci brought 2-week-old T.J. along with them from their Lake Forest home to get a glimpse of Gingrich. The fact she was still recuperating from a difficult birth would not stop her, Lorie Moreci said.

“I wanted to be here,” she said. “Newt just seems so logical.”

“He’s a get-something-done kind of guy,” Jim Moreci said. “It’s the first time I can remember that [a politician] said he would get something done and then he did it.”