June 16, 2004
SECRET?:
The Secret Life of Newt Gingrich: Former speaker of the House by day, Amazon.com super reviewer by night. (Katherine Mangu-Ward, 06/16/2004, Weekly Standard)
NEWT GINGRICH has been leading a secret life. Night after night for years he's been slipping out of the headquarters of the vast right-wing conspiracy, wolfing down spy novels and then reviewing them for Amazon.com. So prolific and proficient has he been at this pursuit that he has attained the coveted title Amazon Top 500 Reviewer. Newt is number 488.To earn this honor, Gingrich wrote 137 reviews, which were deemed "helpful" by 2,002 people. "Newt Gingrich," we learn from his extensive About Me page, "is an avid reader. He does not review all of the books he reads. You will not find any bad reviews here, just the books he thinks you might enjoy." From the same page, we learn that in addition to being called an "exceptional leader" by Time magazine (which made him its Man of the Year in 1995), Newt Gingrich is "credited with the idea of a Homeland Security agency," "widely recognized for his commitment to a better system of health," and that he was the March of Dimes 1995 Georgia Citizen of the Year.
Certainly no one could fault Gingrich for less-than-full disclosure about himself. But you can also tell a lot about a man by the company he keeps.
Gingrich shares the rank of Amazon reviewer #488 with "boudica" who describes herself as "Witch and Editor of the ZodiacBistro.com and a free lance reviewer." She's also a "Craft teacher with the CroneSpeak.com group" who has "recently published article in Bid Now! the Llewellyn Wicca Almanac."
Gingrich is slightly outranked by "Comrade Radmila", who doesn't "claim to be an expert on literature, films, or music" and notes in his About Me section that he's ticked off that "someone wrote to tell me I hurt their feelings because I did not like Mystic Pizza or something like that."
Is it just me, or is there something snide about her tone. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 16, 2004 4:25 PM
Weren;t you embroiled in a controversy among the nutbars who frequent the amazon.com reviewer message board? Something about you actually being a whole fraternity or something. I tried following it for awhile, but those people seemed like the most bitter, pedantic, anal, pathetic wretches who ever darkened the Internet. Like a 24 hour-a-day small town library committee meeting. Whatever happened with that?
Posted by: Governor Breck at June 16, 2004 6:05 PM"But you can also tell a lot about a man by the company he keeps."
Okay -- so exactly what do we learn about Newt from boudica and comrade radmila? Seems like a gigantic non sequitur to me.
Posted by: jd watson at June 16, 2004 6:28 PMGov:
Amazon actually contacted me to see if we were a Dartmouth fraternity and to note that my pseudonym was infuriating people. The Amazon community seems heavy on whackos.
Posted by: oj at June 16, 2004 8:49 PMAny Amazon customer or lurker can write a review. I've reviewed a couple of South Park tapes and the best new Fantasy novel you've never heard of (Paul Kidd's A Whisper of Wings, plug, plug), among others.
And as with any public forum, you get the rich & famous (Newt Gingrich) rubbing virtual shoulders with the just plain weird (boudica and Comrade Radmilla).
Posted by: Ken at June 18, 2004 3:05 PM