Dennis Hastert was to Newt as Bush 41 was to Reagan

Newt was Speaker of the House from January 1995 until December 1998. Simple enough, right?

Apparently not.

One of the most bizarre criticisms of Newt I encounter online is when people are either too lazy to check the dates or are trying to deceive people by blaming Newt for things that happened when he was out of Congress.

The most common is that Newt did not live up to his promise to shrink government. They seemingly conflate Newt and his successor as Speaker, Dennis Hastert.

Fact: Federal spending under Newt's Speakership fell to its' lowest annual increase since Calvin Coolidge in the 1920s.

To confuse Gingrich and Hastert is as wrong as confusing Ronald Reagan and his successor, George H.W. Bush. Imagine someone criticizing Reagan, not Bush, for breaking his no new taxes pledge. That is the same thing people are doing by blaming Newt for excessive spending under Hastert.

If people look at Newt's four years as Speaker -- and only those four years -- they will see four of the most conservative governing years of the 20th Century. Reforming entitlements, cutting taxes, building up the military, balancing the budget, and several other policy shifts to the right.

With a Democrat President no less.

Don't blame Newt for hijacking the Gingrich Revolution of 1994 anymore than you would blame Ronald Reagan for hijacking the Reagan Revolution of 1980.

The men who succeeded them are the real culprits in interrupting the forward march of conservatism.