Pelosi Not Sitting on Trove of Gingrich Secrets
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi now says she is not sitting on a trove of opposition research on former House Speaker-turned-GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.
In an interview conducted Friday and published Monday, Pelosi hinted that once the time is right she has some juicy stories to tell about her former colleague.
“One of these days we’ll have a conversation about Newt Gingrich,” Pelosi, D-Calif., told Talking Points Memo. “I know a lot about him. I served on the investigative committee that investigated him. Four of us locked in a room in an undisclosed location for a year. A thousand pages of his stuff.”
But this afternoon, Pelosi’s spokesman, Drew Hammill, suggested that her comments have been misconstrued beyond the leader’s intent.
“Leader Pelosi was clearly referring to the extensive amount of information that is in the public record, including the comprehensive committee report with which the public may not be fully aware,” Hammill wrote in a statement.
That ethics report, which can be found here, examined allegations that Gingrich violated House rules by using his congressional staff to aide him on a college course he taught called ”Renewing American Civilization.”
In New York earlier this afternoon, Gingrich reacted to Pelosi’s comments by thanking her for an “early Christmas gift” and he asserted that Pelosi would be violating House rules if she disclosed anything from the ethics investigation beyond public record.
“I want to thank Speaker Pelosi for what I regard an early Christmas gift,” Gingrich told reporters. “If she is suggesting that she is going to use material that she developed while she was on the ethics committee, then that is a fundamental violation of the rules of the House and I hope that members would immediately file charges against her the second she does it.”
Gingrich, who has recently surged in polling to become the frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination, said that Pelosi’s threat “shows you how capriciously political” the ethics committee was when Pelosi served as a member.
“I regard it as a useful education of the American people to see what a tainted unethical political operation Nancy Pelosi was engaged in,” Gingrich said. “I would hope the House would immediately condemn her if she uses any material that was gathered while she was on the ethics committee because it would be a total violation of the committee.”

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Newt= one, Pelosi= zero.
Posted by: billy bob | December 5, 2011, 5:18 pm 5:18 pm
What got Newt that scared?
Posted by: J. Richter | December 5, 2011, 5:28 pm 5:28 pm
Wrong Pelios=1, Newt=zero. Why? She got to float the idea that he is hiding ethics violations, without actually mentioning what they are. Media will now begin to look for them. Newt response was..if she says something she should get in trouble. Not that she had nothing to tell, just that she is not allowed to say what it is.
Posted by: herbissimo | December 5, 2011, 5:35 pm 5:35 pm
A lobbyist for president! Go Newt! The ‘Tea Party’ favorite!
Posted by: blind spot | December 5, 2011, 6:03 pm 6:03 pm
The only thing Pelosi is sitting on is her head since it is up her butt..
Posted by: ginny | December 5, 2011, 6:26 pm 6:26 pm
Looks like Newt is afraid of what Nancy might disclose with her Christmas gift?!?! I wonder if it’s worse than when Newt divorced his wife when she was dying of Cancer in the hospital?
Posted by: Bunny | December 5, 2011, 7:12 pm 7:12 pm
Nancy and Newt did appear to have a cozy relationship while discussing climate change during that commercial. Newt has fooled around a time or two so perhaps she has a “story” herself.
Posted by: david | December 5, 2011, 7:17 pm 7:17 pm
Dear God,
The only thing worse than 4 more years of Obama would be 4 years of any of the GOP clowns we have to pick from. Please help…
Posted by: CB | December 5, 2011, 7:29 pm 7:29 pm
CB, i read you 10/4, brother. Four more years of Obama is like committing suicidal. Division, hatred, bribery, chaos…it’s worst in the history of mankind.
Posted by: acdc2010 | December 5, 2011, 7:46 pm 7:46 pm
Really Pelosi? Have you seen what your fellow dems have done to this country? Obama, Barney Frank, Bill Clinton, So you want to “GOSSIP”. Gee girlie go ahead nothing can compare to these three dudes I mentioned. By the way,NANCY, I thought you were a practicing Catholic, how about those abortion clinics sweetie SHAME ON YOUUUUUUUU.
Posted by: Jan | December 5, 2011, 7:57 pm 7:57 pm
@ Bunny,
First, that has been debunked by his daughter. Second, usually when someone is dying then they normally aren’t around over 25 years later.
Typical robo-lib comment though.
Posted by: dantes44 | December 5, 2011, 8:52 pm 8:52 pm
@Herbi wrong foolish one she has exposed herself as the one that has classified information and if it is leaked she will be the one that will have leaked it. She opened her mouth which is never wise when you say you are going to something illegal. In other words Pelosi got smaked down and looks like the fool she is.
Posted by: Nancy | December 5, 2011, 9:13 pm 9:13 pm
“It would be unethical for Pelosi to reveal my extensive and damning record of unethical behavior.”
Is that what you’re saying, Newt? Real winner you got there. Campaign season keeps getting better and better.
Posted by: giantslor | December 5, 2011, 9:47 pm 9:47 pm
@ Herbissimo – “Media will now begin to look for them”
Where have you been, the bias leftist media was all over the case back in the day. Look into it? All they need to do is Google the nonsense they were spewing back then.
Newt on his worst unethical day, would be better than the clueless POTUS and his buffoon of a VP.
Posted by: Michael | December 5, 2011, 10:01 pm 10:01 pm
She’s old now. She should retire from Congress and follow her true calling. Being a comedian.
Posted by: BcdErick | December 5, 2011, 10:38 pm 10:38 pm
Looks like when Nancy decided to drain the swamp of all the trash she forgot about herself. Maybe ABC “News” will ask her how she snagged a sweeheart deal in the Visa IPO….. crickets….anybody else here get a piece of that action?
Posted by: Michelle Shu Jas | December 5, 2011, 11:03 pm 11:03 pm
It’s actually Nancy=1 Newt=0. Nancy knows better than to say anything. However, she knows in saying something coy about it, that people will talk. Newt stupidly fell into her plan, because now everyone knows something was up. His comment makes it quite obvious that there is something big hidden there. Booyah
Posted by: Ohplease | December 5, 2011, 11:03 pm 11:03 pm
Gee, isn’t that great? Ms. Pelosi announces that she’s going to use her insider information about Newt to smear him – what she said wasn’t “misconstrued” at all.
This is the same woman that uses her access to insider information to get rich playing the stock market.
You can’t get any slimier than this woman.
Posted by: GulfFrit | December 5, 2011, 11:38 pm 11:38 pm
that she developed while she was on the ethics committee, then that is a fundamental violation of the rules of the House and I hope that members would immediately file charges against her the second she does it.”—yes. Let’s call the cops for telling the truth about you!!!!! Talk about a man who KNOWS he’s got HUGE skeletons in his closet……..OUTSIDE the having oral sex in the parking lot by the wife of one of his workers while he was still married and cheating on two wives, leaving one while she was sick with cancer, having her sign divorce papers in the hospital while recovering from cancer surgery. being forced OUT of the house on ethics violations- and you think threatening to bring up charges for TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT YOU is a Christmas present?????????? I thought someone thought he was smart. He basically just admitted he’s got dirt up his ying yang. duh!
Posted by: GrannyNosBest | December 5, 2011, 11:51 pm 11:51 pm
“I regard it as a useful education of the American people to see what a tainted unethical political operation Nancy Pelosi was engaged in” —-HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Oh my GOD that is funny!!!! SAys the man how was getting ORAL SEX IN THE PARKING LOT WHILE he was ranting and raving and doing his witch hunt against Clinton acting all holier than thou about Clinton!!! ANd when NEWT did it, HIS KIDS WERE IN THE PARKINGLOT!!! LOOK ITUP! It’s TRUE! HIS OWN STAFF REPORTED TRYING TO KEEP HIS KIDS AWAY FROM THE CAR SO THEY WOULD NOT SEE DADDY BEING “SERVICED” by the wife of a co-worker!!!!!!! Hey, Newt, baby, Think about your oral sex habit during CLinton hearings and uhhhh, read that quote of your back at a cha, baby!!!! Wow! the man writes his own attack adds! WHOOO -hee, that was beautiful that was so funny!
Posted by: GrannyNosBest | December 5, 2011, 11:54 pm 11:54 pm
First, that has been debunked by his daughter. Second, usually when someone is dying then they normally aren’t around over 25 years later.—uuhh no. His first wife had uterne cancer. She was dying, and she had surgery and had major parts of herself removed, and while she was sick he was cheating on her, and while she was in the hospital recovering from surgery for her cancer, he served her with divorce papers. TRUE STORY. But…that’s only the begining. while he was supposed to be working, and his kids were being watched by his staff, he was out in the parking lot getting oral sex performed on his by the wife of one of his workers. HIS STAFF have reported this, and the funny thing is, this was WHILE he was going after Clinton, however, Clinton at least was behind closed door. Newts staff was trying very hard to KEEP THE KIDS AWAY FROM THE CAR while this was going on, but they passed closed enough to see it, and Newt just turned to them with a smug smile while his KIDS were RIGHT THERE< too short, so his staff member, to see what was happening to Daddy in the car!!!! HIS OWN STAFF reported this, the actual person who was with the kids and he has NEVER DENIED IT! He is a SCUM BAG of the highest degree.
Posted by: GrannyNosBest | December 5, 2011, 11:59 pm 11:59 pm
GOP _ women hater’s club. They have chosen the ultimate bottom feeder to be their leader. wow.. guys, not only are you going to lose, you’re going to lose HUGE!!! HUGE! This is going to be fun. Run with your Newt. I can’t wait to see all his wives, staff members, folks who have worked with him coming out of the woodwork telling their old stories.
Posted by: Marsha Marsha | December 6, 2011, 12:02 am 12:02 am
I would vote for a tree, a stone, a dead person, before I would vote for Newt. In fact, I will vote AGAINST Newt. Put anybody up there. Drag Carter out of the old age home, and I would vote for him rather than Newt. Gingrich is pond scum to women. I will make such a Herculean effort to vote AGAINST HIM as I have never made to get to the polls in my life! NOTHING will keep me from voting AGAINST him. This, from the person who may, maybe, could have voted for Mitt.
Posted by: Sandra D | December 6, 2011, 12:06 am 12:06 am
Hey are there any Canadian people out there? Can I come live with you guys if this pervert wins? He can make Silvio Berlusconi look like a monk. Imagine, ho auditions at the oval office.
Posted by: howdymo1 | December 6, 2011, 12:41 am 12:41 am
San Fran Nan, Really how did the Presidio end up in your RE portfolio after Clinton closed the base. Talk about Good ole Boys network. Nancy has a pair!!!!!
Posted by: Bubba | December 6, 2011, 12:44 am 12:44 am
‘Meet the new boss same as the old boss’. Vote Ron Paul. Seek out his intentions through independent media, the mainstream media is a public relations machine for the pentagon and consistently provides misinformation.
Posted by: Rolland Parnack | December 6, 2011, 12:54 am 12:54 am
Rimshot! Nice one, Newt. Looks like you learned a few tricks from your “colleagues” the last time you were in Congress.
Posted by: Dannawally | December 6, 2011, 7:58 am 7:58 am
If it’s so bad, why has she sat on it all these years?
Posted by: newcountryman | December 6, 2011, 8:13 am 8:13 am
The pubic ought to read the public records:
Jan. 22, 1997 -
The House on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to reprimand House Speaker Newt Gingrich and order him to pay an unprecedented $300,000 penalty, the first time in the House’s 208-year history it has disciplined a Speaker for ethical wrongdoing.
To quote George Wills, who could never be labeled “liberal” –
“Gingrich’s is an amazingly efficient candidacy in that it embodies everything that is disagreeable about modern Washington. He’s the classical rental politician. People think that his problem is his colorful personal life. He’ll hope that people concentrated on that rather than, for example, ethanol. Al Gore recanted ethanol. Not Newt Gingrich. Industrial policy of the sort that got us Solyndra, he’s all for it. Freddie Mac, he says, hired him as a historian. He’s not a historian.”
Posted by: Maggie O | December 6, 2011, 8:39 am 8:39 am
God, the liberals posting on this thread are absurd. Nancy pelosi absolutely humiliates herself, it is reported in this article, and they roll out the same old irrelevant tripe that has nothing to do with this particular story.
Liberals really are a hindrance to progress, sort of like hurricanes and droughts. The country will achieve whatever it achieves going forward in spite of the liberals that are in it.
Posted by: Rick H. | December 6, 2011, 8:50 am 8:50 am
“Gingrich reacted to Pelosi’s comments by thanking her for an “early Christmas gift” and he asserted that Pelosi would be violating House rules if she disclosed anything from the ethics investigation beyond public record.”
I love how he DIDN’T say ‘She has nothing’ or ‘I didn’t do anything wrong’. His first instinct was to attack her and issue a veiled threat of some sort of Congressional action against her if she released info from that year long investigation. Tells you a lot about the (lack of) character of the man…………….
Posted by: Searambler | December 6, 2011, 8:59 am 8:59 am
Pelosi should stick to her and her husbands insider trading activities and let the primary play out.
Posted by: Larry G | December 6, 2011, 9:29 am 9:29 am
No, Nancy, really. Tell us what you know. Tell us everything that you know and do it now. That is, if there is something more to tell.
What’s amazing is not that this woman acts slimey, it’s that the press lets her get away with acting slimey. Who is the ethical journalist that looks her in the eye and asks her to explain herself? Anyone?
*crickets*
Posted by: JR | December 6, 2011, 9:34 am 9:34 am
Shame on you Nancy. The American public only sees you as a being a spiteful, revengeful, devious, scorned woman. Is this what they are teaching Catholics these days? Behave yourself in public. In spite of who you are, please treat the office with the dignity it deserves. You, my dear, is what makes Americans ashamed of our leaders.
Posted by: ndag | December 6, 2011, 9:59 am 9:59 am
Bringing Axelrod in to write your headlines? Yesterday Pelosi says Four of us locked in a room in an undisclosed location for a year. A thousand pages of his stuff.” Today she spouts the absolutely ridiculous statement “Leader Pelosi was clearly referring to the extensive amount of information that is in the public record And that’s your headline? Not Speaker Pelosi further disengaged from reality or something really descriptive?
Posted by: motionview | December 6, 2011, 10:02 am 10:02 am
That’s all the Dems have is dirt. They dont have any successes to brag about. They’re lying about how bad the economy is; just last week they were bragging about lowering the unemployment rate while the actual percentage of the population employed dropped. But these Stalinists are fighters and when it comes to being vicious and nasty they have no peers. Look at the rent-a-bankrupt hoes that Axelrod drummed up to slime Herman Cain. The idea of a black conservative opponent to the hapless and unlovable Barak was unthinkable. Now they’re going to drop a stink-bomb on Newt thinking that will make us all forget the economic depression and national bankruptcy they caused while they were letting their swinish cronies loot the treasury. I dont care if they caught Newt in bed with a sheep reciting the Communist Manifesto its a matter of national urgency that we sweep this vile pack of Democrats away from the levers of power they have cranked so incompetently. If you vote for any Democrat for any office you are saying that corruption, incompetence and really ugly politics are fine with you and YOU are whats wrong with this country.
Posted by: Skep41 | December 6, 2011, 10:54 am 10:54 am
Where have we heard this type of extortion before? Julian Assange of WikiLeaks.
Posted by: Paul Lindsey | December 6, 2011, 11:03 am 11:03 am
What Nancy apparently doesn’t realize is that in a battle of wits against Gingrich, she’s like the idjit that brought the knife to a gunfight. She REALLY doesn’t want to mess with Gingrich, he’s way too smart for the likes of her!
Posted by: razmataz | December 6, 2011, 11:06 am 11:06 am
Review of the report shows a very similar pattern to the “Media Matters” organization that does the bidding of the Administration. The focus of the ethics investigation centered upon overstepping the line of a 501c(3) organization, a status that Media Matters currently shares.
Are there any questions about donations to Media Matters? Has anyone taken a tax break due to donations to Media Matters?
People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
Posted by: Medbob | December 6, 2011, 11:21 am 11:21 am
To GrannyNosbest:
Get your information straight. Newt’s first wife did not have uterine cancer, she had a non cancerous Tumor and it was she who filed for the divorce prior to entering the hospital. They were discussing the divorce terms that day.
Posted by: Terry Holcomb | December 6, 2011, 12:11 pm 12:11 pm
Well, here are two people who formerly served 3rd in line for the presidency, and both are utter fools.
Just another example of what a hopeless situation our country is in.
Posted by: lance sjogren | December 6, 2011, 1:08 pm 1:08 pm
Sorry, isn’t that perjury??
Posted by: Ilpalazzo | December 6, 2011, 2:10 pm 2:10 pm
She REALLY doesn’t want to mess with Gingrich, he’s way too smart for the likes of her!
Posted by: razmataz | December 6, 2011, 11:06 am.
LOL! Yeah, he’s so smart he got caught and smacked with 84 charges of ethics violations while Speaker of the House. Brilliant! He resigned in disgrace from the House. What a genius! He’s made tens of millions of dollars as a lobbyist, while complaining about the influence of lobbyists on Congress. What a thinker! Talking tough, and being an arrogant ass, doesn’t mean he’s smart. It just means he’s a Republican………….
Posted by: Searambler | December 6, 2011, 2:19 pm 2:19 pm
Nancy pelosi and ethics…bwahahaha… She’s so sleazy. The reason she can’t clean up the swamp is because she’s comfortable there.
Posted by: JennW | December 6, 2011, 3:05 pm 3:05 pm
Ya just gotta love the way ABC managed to slant this news by putting Newt’s statements AFTER Pelosi’s statements. In point of fact, Pelosi did not retract her initial threat until AFTER Newt’s remarks slapping her down. Pelosi backed down as a CONSEQUENCE of Newt’s rebuttal, not on her own volition as this ABC article tries to insinuate, with Newt making some kind of after-the-fact sour grapes comment.
ABC deliberately reversed the chronology of the two statements to avoid making Newt look powerful and Pelosi look weak, which was in fact what really happened.
Posted by: Asok Asus | December 6, 2011, 3:39 pm 3:39 pm
Why go after Newt? You many any of these women in his past couldn’t say “no”. (is it any wonder our youth have no scrupples!) Pelosi should be brought up on blackmail charges!
Posted by: a clear thinker | December 6, 2011, 4:49 pm 4:49 pm
we pay politicians an actual salary for sitting in a room for a year digging up dirt on people , really ????
Posted by: kevin | December 6, 2011, 6:21 pm 6:21 pm
Like most liberals, Ginny (above) is dead wrong. Newt’s wife who had cancer admitted that they had been discussing divorce for over 11 years when she was in the hospital. Furthermore, she never died – still living today. And, if Ginny has any complaints about the practice of dropping bombs on a dying wife, where is that rage over John Edwards? That reprobate cheated on his wife who was actually dying.
Posted by: Paradigm | December 6, 2011, 7:44 pm 7:44 pm
What can you say about PIgloci, Fulsom Street Fair supporter.
Posted by: moreco2 | December 6, 2011, 9:35 pm 9:35 pm
Revealing the results of an ethics investigation by the US Congress is a violation of House Rules? This statement is very telling. It appears that the People’s Business is none of our business, and is appropriate info only for a select Political Elite. It is time to shine some light into the corners of our Capitol and step on the cockroaches as they scurry away.
Posted by: mtwdo | December 6, 2011, 11:53 pm 11:53 pm
Can Obama run on his record? No.
Look for accusations, misdirection and class warfare for the next 11 months…
And Democrat idots will lap it off the floor while their own country is destroyed right before their eyes and they won’t even notice because they’re so dazzled by the smears….
Posted by: Newt | December 7, 2011, 12:15 pm 12:15 pm
Now that one of Obama Operatives is dead in the water. Who will be next. Hey Obama, Rev Wright, Van Jones. How about Bill Ayers. Any other President would be in Jail. The things Obama gets away with. 15 trillion in debt, 4 gas, and enough communist to make China and Russia Jeoulous.
Posted by: TruthPleaze | February 28, 2012, 12:18 pm 12:18 pm