Congressman Peter King slams fellow Republican Newt Gingrich

Head of ‘Friends of Ireland’ lobby predicts that ‘Newt will implode’

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Leading Irish American Congressman Peter King, head of the influential Friends of Ireland group in Congress, has slammed fellow Republican Newt Gingrich in a hard hitting interview in the on-line publication CapitalNewYork.com.

While admitting that without Gingrich Republicans in 1994 would never have won the House,  he stated that Gingrich was  completely unable to stay focused.

King stated  "The problem was, over a period of time, he couldn't stay focused. He was undisciplined. Too often, he made it about himself."

"It was like Newt would read a book and we'd go off into a different topic," King said. "He'd go on 'Meet the Press' and he'd go off message. If you're the speaker and you lay out an agenda, or a particular bill, you stay on that until the bill is passed. With Newt, it was hard to get that type of discipline. He'd say something else or come up with a different argument.

"He also has this incredible sense of exaggeration. Like, I don't know how many times he'll say, 'This is the most corrupt act in the history of Western Civilization,' or 'the most despicable.' You can only say that so many times. So to me, I just didn't see him having the sense of discipline or the sense of direction that's really needed."

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"I thought he was condescending," King said. "I used to see him on the floor, even with his staff, it was like a presidential entourage having to follow him. And 'I want this done, and I want this done.' That type of thing.

"I thought he was somewhat dismissive. I was never on his staff, never part of his circle, but in my dealing with him it was very professorial—not even professorial—very pedantic. He would come in with like four books under his arm and telling us to read these during the break, and all that. I just found him to be too much putting himself at the center of whatever he was trying to do."

"Part of it was, and this is parochial on my part I guess, but the fact that he would never miss a chance to take a shot at New York. And this was even after we had elected Giuliani as mayor, Pataki as governor. That was like part of his routine, to attack New York. Big-city bosses. New York corruption, that type of thing.  I just got tired of that.

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