People can decide for themselves whether it matters or not, but for the record, Newt Gingrich was (based on his own words in 1988) a Rockefeller Republican. I point that out only because these days Gingrich likes to present himself as a “Goldwater Republican.” Ronald Reagan was a Goldwater Republican; Newt Gingrich was not.
The difference between Rockefeller and Goldwater is substantial. For the unaware, a Rockefeller Republican in the early 1960s is roughly what a Massachusetts Moderate would be five decades later.
If Gingrich has changed his mind, that’s fine and good. His achievements in the conservative movement are impressive enough; he really doesn’t need to pretend he was something he wasn’t.
It is plausible for Gingrich to have supported Rockefeller in the 1964 primaries, then to have supported Goldwater in the general election against LBJ. Whether or not that is actually what happened, I have no idea. But based on Gingrich's own words that have surfaced in the media, it apparently could have happened.
I dunno. Think of Newt as a Don Rickles Republican: "Is that Gov. Romney's friendly face in the audience or just the moon rising over the Cayman Islands?" Of course, after a few drinks, Don wouldn't wax poetic about repatriating undocumented workers to Mars where they could do the work Martians refuse to do but Don didn't have that vision thing. (hat tip to Mark Steyn)
Rockefeller supported Civil Rights legislation, Goldwater opposed it. n nFor a Southerner, this is not such a bad history to have.