The hits are now coming faster for Newt Gingrich than with guests on The Jerry Springer Show. According to The Huffington Post, he has touted an honorific professorship in an inaccurate way:
Not many Republicans play up their academic credentials. Count former House Speaker and struggling presidential candidate Newt Gingrich as one of the few who do. But has Gingrich emphasized his scholarly cred a little too much?
As of yesterday morning, Gingrich’s biography on his campaign’s website included this curious resume stuffer:
“He is also the longest-serving teacher of the Joint War Fighting course for Major Generals and taught officers from all five services as a Distinguished Visiting Scholar and Professor at the National Defense University.”
Before Gingrich entered politics, he taught at West Georgia College. He has also long promoted his academic or pseudo-academic hobbies through his vast network of nonprofits and his production company which churns out a seemingly endless supply of remainder-ready tomes and glossy DVDs that appear to have all the production and education value of commemorative plates.
The Huffington Post called up National Defense University hoping to scoop up his curriculum, reading lists, and whatever else he produced as a “professor.”
It turns out, according to NDU spokesperson David Thomas, Gingrich has never been a professor at the university. He taught no courses, kept no office hours, graded no papers. Thomas explained that Gingrich has simply guest lectured at the university for years. The school’s president some time ago honored this volunteer work and issued Gingrich with the honorary title of “Distinguished Visiting Professor” and presented him with a certificate.
I predict that for many years Gingrich will be pointed to as the example of how not to run a campaign — and of someone who should never have run. Anthony Weiner elicited laughs. Gingrich elicits head shaking.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.