Gingrich Acted Quickly To Turn Request For Aid Into Teaching Job Correspondence Sheds Light On Complaint Now Before House Ethics Committee

It started as a constituent’s request for government help. But it didn’t take long for Newt Gingrich to turn a 1992 contact with a Georgia college dean into a teaching job.

Correspondence obtained by The Associated Press sheds light on the origins of Gingrich’s nationally televised college course, which is now the focus of a complaint before the House Ethics Committee.

The letters show Gingrich received the offer to teach at Kennesaw State College less than three months after he got a federal agency to agree to meet with the school’s business dean, who was pursuing federal contracts for his private business.

Dean Timothy Mescon never got the contracts he began seeking in fall 1992.

But by the following March, Gingrich and Mescon had arranged to co-teach the course, “Renewing American Civilization,” at Kennesaw. Mescon is dean of the college’s business school, where Gingrich taught. The course is carried on cable television.

Members of Congress assist constituents all the time. And with certain restrictions, they’re free to pursue a wide variety of private interests while in office.

Ethics watchdogs, however, question Gingrich’s judgment in doing both simultaneously with a single individual.

“There’s a very real appearance of a conflict of interest because you have two things that may or may not be unrelated going on at the same time,” said Josh Goldstein, project director for the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics.

Allan Lipsett, a spokesman for the new House speaker, defended the contacts.

“Mescon is a constituent … and (Gingrich) asked the same kind of question he would ask for any constituent,” Lipsett said. “There was no quid pro quo about a course.”

Mescon did not return six telephone calls placed to his office last week.

A Feb. 2, 1993, letter from Mescon to Gingrich’s legislative assistant, J. Krister Holladay, demonstrates the two hats Gingrich wore before the course became reality.

In it, Mescon thanks Holladay for meeting with members of his private business. He then discusses prospects for Gingrich’s college course.

“I did have the opportunity to visit with Newt following the Cobb Chamber breakfast and will submit a proposal soon regarding his teaching on campus in the fall quarter,” Mescon wrote.

The dean then returned to the issue of his private business.

“We had some terrific visits on Friday and would appreciate any assistance you might be able to provide in assisting with our attempt to expand our many activities both in Ghana and domestically,” the letter states.

The correspondence shows Gingrich initially was to be paid $5,000, but he gave up the money. The Georgia Board of Regents prohibits elected officials from being paid by state colleges.

The correspondence, obtained from a Democratic congressional source and under the Freedom of Information Act, shows Mescon first approached Gingrich in September 1992. His business, The Mescon Group, sought contracts at the Agency for International Development, an independent agency that works closely with the State Department.

The group specialized in helping developing businesses operate more efficiently.

Mescon wrote Gingrich that he “would be grateful for a letter of introduction” to a federal agency.

Gingrich obliged on Oct. 1, 1992, writing Ronald Roskens, then-head of AID, that Mescon and his associates were “pioneers who have worked so diligently in promoting private enterprise in West Africa.”

At the bottom of the letter, Gingrich scribbled, “Tim Mescon is very competent and well worth a meeting.”

The word “very” was underlined.

Two weeks later, Gingrich wrote Mescon that he had contacted the State Department on his behalf.

At the bottom, Gingrich penned: “I am very interested in working with you after the election. We should blank out an hour or two and you should brief me on the school and your activities.”

Again, the word “very” was underlined.

Mescon wrote back on Nov. 5, 1992. Soon after, Gingrich talked to a congressional staffer about the ethics of teaching a college course. The staffer’s answer, with appropriate pages from the House Ethics Manual, is dated Nov. 30.

Lipsett acknowledged Gingrich had never met Mescon before the 1992 contacts. And he said “the course may just have been a small glimmer in the back of Newt’s mind” at the time of the first letter.