To Save America: Stopping Obama's Secular-Socialist Machine (38 page)

Brady Cassis is my research assistant at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and was vital to the successful completion of
To Save America
. Brady is a young, talented, former College Jeopardy contestant from Yale University who rapidly produced research backgrounders on numerous issues and helped to fact check the final manuscript. I have been working with Brady for less than a year, but have already come to rely on his speed, thoroughness, and professionalism. He led a team of mature and capable interns at AEI including Jay Lucas, Joe Leanza, Francis Baker, and Dave Rodriguez, who assisted him greatly.

Of course, it goes without saying the book would have been incomplete without the efforts of my co-authors on several of the policy chapters in
To Save America.
Over my years in public life I have become known as an “ideas man.” I deliberately chose to highlight many co-authors in this book to illustrate that I have gained this reputation largely because I have made it a point to work with very smart people who are developing the policies and proposals that will one day help save America. The work of Peter Ferrara, Dan Varroney, Nancy Desmond, Jim Frogue, David Merritt, Terry Maple, Steve Everley, Fred Asbell, Lisa Graham Keegan, and Nancy Sinnott Dwight certainly fall into that category.

Rick Tyler was not only my co-author on the religious liberty chapter; he is my long time spokesperson and founder of our new organization, Renewing American Leadership (ReAL). Rick’s dedication to helping save America and to preserving freedom
through faith as central to American liberty is inspirational to all who know him.

As always, I have relied on the advice of my dear friend Steve Hanser, who has been my mentor since my days at West Georgia College before I ran for Congress. He has always pushed me to think carefully and write clearly. He remains one of the most thoughtful and knowledgeable people I have been privileged to work with.

Vince Haley has shown a remarkable range of intellectual capabilities in working with me first at the Center for Health Transformation, then at AEI, and now as policy director at American Solutions. While he was helping with
To Save America
, he was also helping write and develop our new movie,
Nine Days that Changed the World
, about Pope John Paul II’s 1979 visit to Poland. He was also preparing the American Solutions Academy described in this book. He is a true polymath of amazing range and dedication. He was very helpful during the editing process in keeping the book’s intellectual coherence.

At AEI, the generosity of Ken and Yvonne Hannan have enabled me to build a capable research team that quickly respond to a wide variety of requests for information at all hours of the night. This includes the aforementioned Brady Cassis as well as Emily Renwick, a bright, young researcher with a gift for economics, and Commander John Barrett, a Navy Fellow who works with me on national security issues and whose service to his country in Afghanistan showed amazing skill as a surface naval warrior.

AEI is led by Arthur Brooks, a remarkable man who will release a new book in June called
The Battle: How the Fight Between Free Enterprise and Big Government Will Shape America’s Future
. I recommend it highly as a companion piece for
To Save America
. AEI also employs a number of other experts who have been invaluable in the development of the ideas in this book, including Chris
Demuth, David Gerson, Michael Novak, Steve Hayward, Mark McClellan, Kevin Hassett, Danielle Pletka, John Bolton, Salley Satel, Alex Pollock, Peter Wallison, Charles Murray, James Q. Wilson, Karlyn Bowman, and Michael Barone.

Beyond AEI, a number of other scholars and experts were helpful in developing the ideas in this book. These include Herman Pirchner, Walter Isaacson, John Goodman, Cliff May, Grover Norquist, Ed Feulner (the remarkable leader of the Heritage Foundation), Dave Bossie of Citizens United, Craig Shirley (the eminent biographer of Ronald Reagan), Marc Rotterman, Brett Schaefer, David Barton, Attorney General Ed Meese, Andrew McCarthy, and Anne Bayefsky.

Terry Balderson is our general advisor on research. Every day he sends me between 80 and 200 articles from around the world. His hard work has enabled me to remain briefed and up to date on a wide variety of topics. He is simply invaluable.

Kathy Lubbers, my daughter, did a great job representing us in book negotiations. She leads a small but dedicated team at Gingrich Communications, including Matt Scofield and Robbie Gross, our web gurus behind
Newt.org
; Sylvia Garcia, who runs The Americano, a bilingual news and opinion site for Hispanics; and Michelle Selesky, our media booker and talk radio expert. Gingrich Communications interns Jaime Oliva, Stephen Cord, and Shannon Beattie also assisted in research for
To Save America
.

Jackie Cushman, my younger daughter, has become quite a columnist in her own right, and I am proud to borrow some of her better phrases and to use her insights into how America is evolving.

Marji Ross, president of Regnery Publishing, was a strong believer in this book from the very beginning and was enormously helpful in determining its optimum organization. Jack Langer, our editor, did an extraordinary job under a very tight deadline making the prose as clear and concise as possible. Jeff Carneal, the
president of Eagle Publishing, has been a steadfast partner since we first published a book together in 2005, both in the growth and development of my newsletter, the “Newt Gingrich Letter,” and for
To Save America
.

As always, Randy Evans and Stefan Passantino brought their considerable legal talents to bear. Randy is the general advisor and strategist for all my activities and his advice is invaluable across a wide range of topics and activities. Stefan is a leading expert on election law and has been counsel to our companies.

Joe Gaylord was my partner in designing the 1994 Contract with America campaign. We worked together for twelve years (1982—1994) to help elect the first House Republican majority in forty years. As the head of American Solutions, Joe brings enormous strategic insight into what we must do to save America and was invaluable in thinking through the ideas in this book.

Dan Varroney and Becky Burkett are doing a great job leading American Solutions on a day to day basis and they helped clarify the ideas around which we must build a new positive majority for solving America’s challenges.

Nancy Desmond’s leadership of the Center for Health Transformation has been decisive in creating a true collaboration of leaders dedicated to creating a twenty-first century personalized intelligent health system. She is an insightful and thoughtful leader on health and on every other issue we have worked on together. The Center continues to work to get us beyond the current mess in healthcare and to move toward a true transformation with better outcomes at lower costs.

Writing a book while doing everything else we do would be impossible were it not for the leadership of Sonya Harrison and her scheduling team including Bess Kelly and Heather Favors. Without their hard work and Sonya’s leadership we would never be able to systematically focus on the many projects we undertake.

Alicia Melvin has become a special assistant of enormous capability helping Callista and me achieve more than we ever could on our own.

Finally, none of this would be possible without my wife, Callista. Her ongoing support and encouragement have been invaluable. With her own responsibilities at Gingrich Productions as a movie producer, co-host, narrator, writer, and photographer, she also spends hours each week as a singer, French hornist, and pianist. In addition, she continually helps me accomplish the key things that make projects like this possible. She has made my life a real joy.

1
Walt Bogdanich, “A Disability Epidemic Among a Railroads Retirees,”
New York Times
, September 20, 2008; available at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/nyregion/21lirr.html?_r=1
.

2
Mark Perry, “Cost of Jobs Banks to Big 3 2005-2008: $4,200,000,000,” Carpe Diem blog, December 4, 2008; available at:
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2008/12/cost-of-jobs-bank-2005-2008-4200000000.html
.

3
Mark Perry, “Post Office Version of the Big Three ‘Jobs Bank,’” Carpe Diem blog, October 2, 2009; available at: http://mjperry.
blogspot.com/2009/10/post-office-version-of-big-three-jobs.html
.

4
Karen Matthews, “New York Teachers Paid To Do Nothing: 700 of Them,”
Huffington Post
, June 22, 2009; available at:
http://www.huffingtonpost
.
com/2009/06/22/new-york-teachers-paid-to_n_ 219336.html.

5
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Letter on the Resolution of Federation of Federal Employees Against Strikes in Federal Service, August 16, 1937; available at:
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=15445
.

6
See e.g., Duncan Hewitt, “The Shrinking of China,”
Newsweek
, October 24, 2009; available at:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/219416
.

7
“Only 21% Say U.S. Government Has Consent of the Governed,” Rasmussen, February 18, 2010; available at:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/february_2010/only_21_say_u_s_government_has_consent_of_the_governed
.

8
“Affidavit: $90,000 found in congressman’s freezer,” CNN, May 22, 2006; available at:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/05/21/jefferson.search/index.html
.

9
“Voters Favor Tort Reform by Two-to-One Margin,” Rasmussen Reports, December 2, 2009; available at:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/november_2009/voters_favor_tort_reform_by_two_to_one_margi
.

10
Copyright _ A.A. World Services, Inc.

1
“It is impossible to miss the discrimination against . . . believers,”
Salon
; available at:
http://mobile.salon.com/news/primary_sources/2007/05/21/gingrich_liberty/index2.html
.

2
“Colorado Student Files Lawsuit Over Commencement Speech That Mentioned Jesus,” FOX News, August 31, 2007; available at:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,295432,00.html
.

3
“Ninth Circuit sends San Diego Boy Scout case to Cal Supreme Court with ‘unprecedented’ standing ruling,” Boy Scouts of America National Council, December 31, 2008; available at:
http://www.bsalegal.org/
.

4
See e.g., Patrick B. Craine, “Supreme Court Takes Up Case of War Memorial Cross in Mojave Desert,”
Life Site News
, October 9, 2009; available at:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/oct/09100906.html
.

5
“Ten Commandments dispute fouls trial,”
St. Petersburg Times
archives, April 16, 1992; available at:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=888&dat=19920416&id=byEMAAAAIBAJ&sjid=11wDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5881,134756
.

6
Terence Chea, “‘Under God’ in Pledge of Allegiance Upheld By Court,”
Huffington Post
, March 11, 2010; available at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/12/under-god-in-pledge-of-allegiance_n_496255.html
.

7
David Horowitz,
Barack Obama’s Rules for Revolution: The Alinsky Model
(Horowitz Freedom Center, 2009); available at:
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/Articles/Rules%20for%20Revolution%20(2).pdf
.

8
Saul Alinsky,
Rules for Radicals
(NY: Random House, 1971).

9
David Horowitz,
Barack Obama’s Rules for Revolution: The Alinsky Model
, 45-46.

10
L. David Alinsky, “Son sees father’s handiwork in convention,”
Boston Globe
, August 31, 2008; available at:
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/letters/articles/2008/08/31/son_sees_fathers_handiwork_in_convention/
.

11
George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language,” in
Collected Essays, Journalism, and Letters of George Orwell
, Vol. 4
In Front of Your Nose
1945-1950 (Boston, MA: David R. Godine, 2000).

12
George Orwell, “Why I Write,” in
Collected Essays, Journalism, and Letters of George Orwell
.

1
Transcript of Obama’s Victory Speech,
New York Times
, November 5, 2008; available at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/04/us/politics/04text-obama.html?sq=barack%20obama%20victory%20speech&st=cse&scp=4&pagewanted=all
.

2
Senator Charles Grassley, letter available at:
http://www.c-spanarchives.org/congress/?q=node/77531&appid=595236418
.

3
Tim Carney,
Obamanomics
(Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2009), 50-51.

1
John Fund,
Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Elections
(New York: Encounter Books, 2004).

2
Data available at:
http://www.judicialwatch.org/news/2010/mar/obama-justice-department-shut-down-federal-acorn-investigation-according-documents-obt
.

3
Data available at:
http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/03/11/copy/acorn-is-out-of-ohios-elections.html?adsec=politics&sid=101
.

1
Reed Abelson, “Study Raises Questions of Witnesses,”
New York Times
, August 4, 2004; available at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/04/business/04lung.html?pagewanted=1
.

2
Madison Park, “Medical journal retracts study linking autism to vaccine,” CNN, February 2, 2010; available at:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/02/lancet.retraction.autism/index.html
.

3
See e.g., Carla K. Johnson, “1 in 4 parents buys unproven vaccine-autism link,”
wtop.com
, March 1, 2010; available at:
http://wtop.com/?nid=106&sid=1900143
.