evidence: Romney: I think it’s about leadership, and the Speaker was given an opportunity to be the leader of our party in 1994. And at the end of four years, he had to resign in disgrace. Now, in the 1970s, he came to Washington. I went to work in my first job in the 1970s. It was at the bottom level of a consulting firm. In the 1990s, he had to resign in disgrace from his job as speaker. [...] Romney: The Speaker was given an opportunity to be the leader of our party in 1994. And at the end of four years, he had to resign in disgrace. Romney later clarified that "88 percent of Republicans voted to reprimand the speaker, and he did resign in disgrace after that." Romney is referring to a reprimand by a Republican-controlled House in 1997 for submitting misleading statements to House investigators, who were looking into his alleged misuse of tax-exempt charities to advance his political agenda. The House voted 395 to 28 in favor of the punishment. Gingrich had to pay $300,000 to resolve the charges against him. He still denies that it was a "fine," and technically he’s correct: The Ethics Committee report (page 94) didn’t call it a fine, but rather a "payment reimbursing the House for some of the costs of the investigation."