The Long March of Newt Gingrich

Newt seizes control of GOPAC, the Republican political action committee, and makes it an instrument for his conservative political vision. Piercing political language is his greatest weapon and GOPAC relentless promotes "Newtspeak." Newt records training tapes for candidates and teaches a history course based on his belief that the Great Society imperiled the very survival of American culture.

In his first congressional campaign Newt runs as a liberal Republican reformer, endorsed by environmentalists. Negative ads by his opponent pierce Newt's thin skin, but by his third campaign he sheds his old politics and unveils a new strategy: "Raise hell. Raise hell all the time." He wins a seat that had been a Democratic stronghold for 25 years.

With his Contract With America, the center of domestic political power shifts to Newt's agenda. His House of Representatives passes nine of the contract's 10 commandments in its first 100 days. But the harsh glare of the spotlight shines on some of Newt's excesses, including a $4.5 million book advance, and disorder in his personal life.

In high school, Newt learns to play politics as an outsider. A Republican in overwhelmingly Democratic Georgia, he casts himself as Richard Nixon in a class play. He proposes an article predicting a coming Republican majority to "Harper's" Magazine. And he begins a furtive romance with his high school geometry teacher.

Newt arrives in Congress with two dreams: becoming speaker of the House and building a Republican majority. He learns controversy is a way to attract attention and he seizes on new media, like C-Span, to attack the enemy and recruit his own political army. To defeat the Democrats, he believes Republicans must destroy their mindset as a complacent minority, willing to compromise.

A lonely, precocious Army brat, "Newtie," as his mother called him, loved animals and the movies. At age 10, he presented a plan to build a zoo to the local mayor. But at age 15, his life is changed by a visit to the battle site of Verdun, where nearly 1 million died in World War I. At Verdun, Newt saw that it was politics that truly shaped the world.

In this investigative biography of the outspoken and controversial speaker, which first aired in 1996, correspondent Peter J. Boyer takes an inside look at how Gingrich led the GOP to become the majority party and examines the childhood, people and events that shaped his personality and political career.