Lawmaker Calls Gingrich ‘Road Kill’

Newt Gingrich is “road kill on the highway of American politics,” says a Republican lawmaker who is seeking Gingrich’s ouster as House speaker.

“I think he should be replaced as speaker because he is killing us,” Rep. Peter T. King of New York wrote in the issue of the conservative Weekly Standard that appeared Monday.

King asserted that Gingrich had “a public-approval rating a few points shy of the Ebola virus.”

It was by far the harshest comment on Gingrich yet from a member of his own party as the speaker struggles to reassert his leadership after being reprimanded by his colleagues earlier this year for ethical misdeeds.

Gingrich is traveling in Asia this week. His office was forwarding the article to him, said Andrew Weinstein, a Gingrich aide.

“As road kill on the highway of American politics, Newt Gingrich cannot sell the Republican agenda,” wrote King, who represents a Long Island district.

King accused Gingrich of abandoning the conservative causes that helped Republicans sweep to power in 1994.

That takeover on Congress made Gingrich the first Republican speaker in 40 years.

He said the House speaker was “running hard toward the center,” barring Republicans from addressing affirmative action and other conservative efforts.

Echoing complaints of other disaffected Republicans, King complained that Gingrich and other House leaders had lost their political nerve and had no political agenda.

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It was the latest blow for the embattled speaker, who last week angered many conservative members of his party by suggesting that Congress put off GOP-sponsored tax-cut legislation until a balanced-budget deal could be struck with the White House.

Gingrich originally had called the proposed $500-per-child tax credit the “crown jewel” of the Republicans’ “contract with America.”

Although King in the past had called Gingrich “damaged merchandise,” he supported him in the January reelection vote for speaker.

King said his reason for opposing Gingrich is not based on the ethics case that resulted in a $300,000 penalty. King said he still opposes that penalty as “unjust.”