Newt Skywalker

Man of science. After he left office, of course.

"What an irony that Newt Gingrich, a man with more ideas about science policy than any public figure since George Brown, created so many of the partisan problems that continue to plague us – problems that make this an excruciatingly boring and unproductive time for the practice of science policy in government."

Via Prometheus.

If I may say it a bit more directly than Bob Palmer might have felt comfortable with: when it comes to the big-ticket science issues of our post cold-war time, such as stem cell research and global warming, it is with a few exceptions the conservative side of the aisle that will tend to support ideology over science and technology discussion.