Magazine Names Newt Man Of Year Balanced Budget Push Cited, But Also Danger Of Abrasiveness

House Speaker Newt Gingrich, whose energy and political talent drove Republicans’ efforts to remake the federal government, was named Time’s 1995 Man of the Year.

“Not so long ago, the idea of a balanced budget was a marginal, we’ll-get-to-it-someday priority,” the magazine says in its year-end issue on newsstands this week. “Today, because of Newt Gingrich, the question is not whether a balanced-budget plan will come to pass, but when.”

Yet, less than a year after he orchestrated Republicans’ first takeover of Congress in 40 years, Gingrich also “has become the greatest liability to the revolution he launched,” the magazine said.

Under an ethics cloud for the dealings of a political action committee he once headed, Gingrich is viewed as too abrasive and uncaring by many Americans, the magazine said.

His approval ratings have sunk steadily over the past few months, and members of his own party often have moaned at his remarks.

In a Time interview, Gingrich said he had failed to adjust quickly to his new role as speaker. “I keep forgetting that all the ground rules have changed,” Gingrich said. “I have consistently, all year, said things that made no sense for the speaker of the House.”

In a statement released late Sunday, Gingrich thanked his colleagues. “Time should have honored the ‘Team of the Year’ - the Republican governors, the Republicans in the House and Senate and Republicans across the country who have made this revolution possible,” he said.

Time’s latest poll, in today’s issue, indicates 72 percent of Americans believe Gingrich is intelligent and 47 percent think he has vision for the future.

But 63 percent say he is too extreme in his views, 56 percent say they personally don’t like him and an overwhelming 80 percent say they do not want a “President Gingrich.”

Even some of Gingrich’s Marietta, Ga., constituents weren’t all happy about his selection as Time’s man of the year.

“He is socially insensitive,” said Harry Crawford, who described himself as a conservative Republican. “He is a very intelligent man. But you don’t have to attack people to get your point across.”

“I’d like to tell Newt Gingrich to climb on his own ego and jump off,” added Crawford’s wife, Cathy.

But Frances Clower said Gingrich was a good choice for Time magazine because “he stirs things up” and forces people to make choices.