Newt Gingrich — Still Running — Outlines New Contract With America

Newt Gingrich seized the Speaker’s gavel of the House in 1995 after touting a “Contract with America” across the country in 1994. Running for president this year, he saw his campaign implode over the summer when most of his advisors and consultants jumped ship — many went to Rick Perry’s nascent campaign. But despite those setbacks (as well as serious financial problems), Gingrich is plodding on. The plus-side? He remains a quirky right-wing policy wonk:

The new contract, said Gingrich, will be based on four “pillars”: New legislation similar to what was proposed in 1994, 50 to 200 executive orders to be signed within hours of the 2013 presidential inauguration, a new system of training presidential appointees, and modernization of government. Gingrich aspires to reach out to “activist leaders” to help implement and design the program.

The new legislation and executive orders would focus primarily on creating jobs, balancing the budget and judicial reform to stop “the continued elitist assault on American culture,” Gingrich said.

Explaining the evolution of his ideas, Gingrich remarked, “I’ve gone from being critical of the judges to advocating a Jeffersonian response, which in some cases would actually abolish the judgeships.”

Gingrich also talked about the bumpy start to his presidential campaign, which at one point saw the majority of his political consultants resign en masse.

“It is my fault, not theirs,” he said. “It had never occurred to me that what I wanted to do was so fundamentally different from everything they were used to. And that is a core problem.”