Show Gingrich bows out for 2008 Michael D D. D Shear The Washington Post Former Fonner US U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich on Saturday decided against running for president in 2008 less than a day after the Republican indicated publicly that he would spend the next month exploring the viability of a White WhiteHouse WhiteHouse WhiteHouse House bid Gingrich said the last- last minute change of heart which came as aides readied the Web site and prepared to file campaign papers was the result of legal advice that running for president would require stepping down as chairman of his nonprofit organization American Solutions That group is the latest vehicle for Gingrich's musings about politics and policy and opened its first-annual first ideas summit Saturday rat at a Georgia college an hour west of Atlanta and with on the Internet American Solutions Solution Solutionis is in the early stages I think of becoming a genuine national citizens movement Gingrich told reporters To walk out of it just as its it's getting launched struck me as absolutely irresponsible Gingrich has spent the better part of a year teasing the media and his supporters with the idea that he might run for president He has condemned the political process that requires candidates to start campaigning years ahead of ofu i 5 the u election and ana 4 th the to raise tens of millions of-millions of d dollars At times his criticism i of the the American electoral process made it sound unlikely that he would run But more recently he said he would run if he received 30 million in pledges toward a presidential campaign Aides had scheduled a news conference for Monday morning in which Gingrich was set to announce the formation of an exploratory committee Randy Evans Gingrich's lawyer said they had prepared the papers opened a bank account and severed Gingrich's ties as a consultant for Fox News Evans said that since word leaked out a week ago Gingrich had received pledges in the millions Ill I'll make no bones about it But at about 11 am a.m. Saturday Gingrich said Evans told the former fonner lawmaker that the McCain- McCain Feingold campaign finance laws would make offense for Gingrich to form the presidential exploratory committee while continuing to run the American Solutions organization The McCain-Feingold McCain act is a very middle anti-middle- class act Gingrich said There are such severe penalties I would have to have stepped down and resigned oo That That basically ended the conversation Gingrich has been a fiery figure since he burst onto the national stage in 1994 with the Contract With America a list of 10 pledges that helped Republicans seize control of the House and launched Gingrich into the speakers speaker's office From that perch he became a than larger-than- life figure espousing conservative principles and battling with then-President then Bill Clinton Gingrich helped lead the campaign to impeach Clinton but resigned himself in 1998 after midterm elections that disappointed the GOP In recent years however Gingrich has tried to rehabilitate his reputation He has become a conservative gadfly writing novels and policy prescriptions sometimes to Republicans' Republicans chagrin He has said the American Solutions organization is- is intended to be a bipartisan effort aimed at finding real solutions to to the nations nation's problems The summit featured sessions from conservatives such as fonner former representative Dick Armey Anney Texas R-Texas and former fonner Colorado Democratic governor Roy Romer A video played at the beginning of the summit said Red Country Blue Country Americans are tired of Red vs Blue We Ve need a Red White and Blue country |