Ethics Case Against Gingrich

I believe that Newt Gingrich is a liar! This House speaker should step down. We constantly stress honesty in life; unfortunately this man believed his own agenda was more important than the image of the office. How can we expect our children, whom Newt purports to care about, to be honest with their government or even themselves when a government leader is a liar and most likely a tax cheat.

To make matters worse, major Republican allies are whitewashing the entire episode. Are these leaders implying that lying while in a leadership position is OK? Are these leaders showing by example how to avoid meeting the obligations of a position, and spin a tale so that the truth is not a necessary element?

Newt Gingrich, step down; provide an example to our children. Show them honesty still has value in the Christian world.

WILLIAM J. KOZERSKY

Anaheim

* I am unable to understand why Republicans in Congress, a group apparently appalled at a “lack of integrity” in others, are so determined to have an admitted liar and tax manipulator as their standardbearer (Dec. 31). Unless, of course, those are their standards.

ALLAN MANINGS

Malibu

* There is something about Gingrich that causes liberals to lose perspective. The Times (“The Ghost of Standards Past,” editorial, Dec. 24) and Robert Scheer (“By His Own Rules, Newt Earns the Boot,” Column Left, Dec. 24) compare Gingrich to former Democratic Speaker Jim Wright, who resigned his speakership and House seat in disgrace.

The House Ethics Committee special counsel Richard Phelan submitted a report on Feb. 21, 1989, that concluded in savings and loan matters alone Wright had violated House rules when he: 1) removed the S&L; recap bill from consideration by the House in order to pressure the FHLB to change its ruling on the seizure of an S&L; in which a Wright contributor had a significant interest--an act silently borne witness to by the entire House, including many members who now profess outrage at Gingrich; 2) sought a change in the bank board’s decision to oust an executive from another S&L; 3) attempted to destroy the career of a bank examiner by threatening to reveal that the examiner was a homosexual; 4) tried to get Danny Wall to fire a San Francisco-based bank examiner. Wright’s actions cost taxpayers many millions of dollars. In addition to being violations of House rules, the above acts are violations of federal laws. Wright resigned to avoid prosecution.

If it is true, as Scheer contends, that Wright “never lied outright to Congress,” it is only because Wright either took the 5th or the Wright-appointed Democrats on the Ethics Committee didn’t ask him about the above.

STUART A. MAKAGON

Whittier

* If Gingrich had spent as much time with his attorneys discussing the tax implications of financing his college course as he appears to have spent with his attorneys in preparing his well-crafted, long-overdue admission of guilt in his statement to the House Ethics Committee, he could have avoided all this.

RICHARD E. ANGELOS

La Crescenta