Known as a politician with an abrasive personality, he became the first Republican speaker in more than a generation after the 1994 landslide victory swept his party into control of both houses of congress - the first time in 40 years.

His pursuit of power began in the Democratic stronghold of Georgia where he took three attempts, first running as a moderate environmentalist, before finally capturing his seat in 1978 as a born again conservative.

Fiery speaker

In office he developed a reputation as a firebrand speaker and once admitted that he often spoke out on issues before thinking about what he was going to say

Leading a "revolution"

A frequent attacker of what he said was the corruption of the Democrat majority, in 1987 he brought ethics charges against Democratic House Speaker Jim Wright that eventually led to his resignation.

Ten years later Mr Gingrich would himself be charged with ethical misconduct and fined $300,000 by the House.

Nonetheless in 1994, buoyed by his meteoric rise, Speaker Gingrich began to implement his self-styled "Contract with America" - an ambitious political manifesto that he said represented the will of the American people.

A year later his face was on the cover of Time as the magazine's Man of the Year.

Confrontation and conflict

The conservative reforms he backed led to dramatic confrontation with the Clinton presidency.

Man of the Year... in 1995

In 1995 he shut down the federal government to try to force the president to sign a revised budget deal.

But voters blamed the Speaker's hard-nosed intransigence for the chaos.

A balanced budget deal was finally agreed in 1997, yet it was the president who managed to take the credit for a buoyant economy and the first US budget surplus in decades.

His plans to slash Medicare health insurance for the elderly and disabled and his long-standing opposition to what he called the liberal welfare state enabled Democrats to demonise him as a heartless elitist.

In 1998 as the full extent of the Monica Lewinksy scandal began to emerge, Mr Gingrich orchestrated the push towards impeaching President Clinton.

Party split

Meanwhile a growing number of Republicans accused him of losing sight of the conservative tax-cutting agenda, which spearheaded the republican revolution of 1994.

Deep divisions emerged within the party between those who wanted to preserve the conservative, ideological edge and others who favoured a move to a more pragmatic centre ground.

Last week's lacklustre Republican performance in the midterm elections brought his leadership to an abrupt halt.

Side by side, but never close

His pre-occupation with pursuing the president over the Monica Lewinksy scandal sparked a backlash from voters tired of political mud slinging.

After indications that his position was under challenge he announced that he would not seek re-election as Speaker.

The republican revolutionary had apparently run out of steam and could not deliver leadership where it mattered.

His decision to quit leaves Republican conservatives without an ideological standard-bearer.

Perhaps more significantly though it gives the Clinton presidency an unexpected breathing space as Republicans go through the turmoil of rediscovering their political direction.