Nancy Pelosi Threatens to Reveal Newt Gingrich's Baggage

She helped investigate alleged ethical lapses during his days as Speaker of the House

She helped investigate alleged ethical lapses during his days as Speaker of the House

In an interview with TPM, Nancy Pelosi expressed delight at the possibility of Newt Gingrich winning the Republican nomination:

"I like Barney Frank's quote the best, where he said 'I never thought I'd live such a good life that I would see Newt Gingrich be the nominee of the Republican party,'" Pelosi said in an exclusive interview Friday. "That quote I think spoke for a lot of us."

Pelosi didn't go into detail about Gingrich's past transgressions, but she tipped her hand. "One of these days we'll have a conversation about Newt Gingrich," Pelosi said. "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."

This is news in the GOP nominating contest. It's also an amusing example of the Washington, D.C., tick of using the phrase "undisclosed location" to lend drama to the most banal of activities. She makes it sound as though she disappeared for a year to a vault beneath Mount Rushmore.

Anyway, Gingrich has already fired back. "I want to thank Speaker Pelosi for what I regard as an early Christmas gift," he told Politico, adding, "That is a fundamental violation of the rules of the House." Having spent the last week or so delving into Gingrich's past from various undisclosed locations completely unknown to the former House Speaker and his allies, I'm confident that if Gingrich gets the nomination his baggage will need its own airport-style carousel.

Image credit: Reuters