John Richardson expands on the Esquire article I linked to day before yesterday. Quoting former US Representative Mickey Edwards (R-OK) again:
He [Gingrich] was the one who really more than anybody got Republicans to start thinking of themselves not in terms of their constitutional obligations, but thinking of themselves first as Republicans. The classic example of when this came back to haunt us is when George Bush became president and started doing these things that were unconstitutional, like his signing statements. Republicans rallied to support him. My whole life has been in the conservative movement, and if Lyndon Johnson did those things we would have had a mass protest. But they went along with it because he was their leader. That's the fruit of what Newt brought.And that mindset has been institutionalized in Republicans. If you've never seen this chart about the use of the filibuster in the Senate, take a good look; it's frustrating, discouraging, and enraging.