Hangin' With Howard and Newt

October 29, 2009

By Debbie Monterrey
Original Publication: kmox.com

It was certainly a pleasure and an honor for me to be invited to a special dinner with guests of honor Newt Gingrich and Howard Dean at Southeast Missouri State University President Ken Dobbins' Wildwood residence!

Howard and Gingrich were on campus for the University's Speaker Series and were going to discuss health care reform. I had interviewed each man via phone in the weeks leading up to the event, but to be with them in person was certainly an experience.

For one, the two were perfectly charming and pleasant, joking with each other and saying kind things about each other. Not the knock-down, drag-out, cage-fight one might expect! There were only twelve of us at the dinner and both gentlemen were curious about the others at the table and told funny war stories about their days running for office.

If only politicians, while in elective office, could be as jovial and respectful of each other as these two were, I think we could accomplish so much more instead of getting bogged down in partisan bickering. When I asked them about it, Dean told me that he feels the young generation is much less partisan. That his and Newt's generation are very divided and used to confrontation, whereas the younger generation is better able to reach across that partisan divide and find commonalities instead of wedges. I hope he's right.