Newt Gingrich's entire career has been one of slander, hyperbole, lies, spin, and above all, obeisance to rank and rigid ideology.

Why legitimize the views of such a rank liar?  Newt Gingrich is without a conscience; his public record alone demonstrates as much, and who knows how much worse his private life would reveal itself to be.  We know that he was sleeping with another woman while pretending to be faithful to his dying wife, and then he presented the dying wife with divorce papers while she was in her last days of living.  His previous writings have been droning versions of his soundbite public politician's utterings.

With all the time and space available to exposing your readers to quality discussion in the form of other books, why choose this one?

Although there may be more informative, relevant books out there that deserve a review, it's also critical for grist's writers to inform us of the falsities of those that are masquerading as the "answer to global warming". We may not all be as versed in the shortcomings of Newt's environmental actions over the years, much less his apparent infidelity, as others. I enjoyed this review which calls to light that, although Newt may pose with polar bears and put a concerned face on for the environment, if the environment becomes unpopular anytime soon, he could be posing instead with a not-so-cuddly, dangerous animal again: Bush and the GOP (or maybe he still is).

Hey guys, let's step back for a moment.  Yes, Gingrich is a divisive hard-core politician.  Yes, the book is superficial and breezy.  That's because it's not written for the choir at Grist to whom you're preaching.  Instead, it aims at a much more important purpose, which is to reach the average American, or even the average Republican -- many of whom still don't believe in global warming, some of whom still think (to paraphrase the late Jerry Falwell) that environmentalism is Satan's way of distracting us from society's "real" problems, presumably gay marriage and abortion.  And probably none of whom read Grist.

This book is not intended to be a detailed tome on how to fix the environment for a simple reason.  Few people, least of all that critical conservative demographic whose minds need changing on environmental issues, would read it.  On the other hand, they might well read this one and come away with the sense that a hard-core conservative (former) leader believes that global warming is real, that environmental degradation is a major problem, and that doing something about it should be a core American value.

If the book succeeds in converting even a relatively small fraction of that audience to a more sympathetic view toward environmentalism (or perhaps I should use the preferred conservative term "stewardship"), it will have done a lot more than hundreds of essays in a liberal echo chamber have. And, as a committed, life-long liberal, I would consider that real progress.