Candidate News Thread - Newt Gingrich

[Geee]

I believe we are now in a struggle over whether or not we are going to save America.

 

 

A college professor, historian, and author, Gingrich twice ran unsuccessfully for the House before winning a seat in the election of November 1978. He was re-elected ten times, and his activism as a member of the House's Republican minority eventually enabled him to succeed Dick Cheney as House Minority Whip in 1989. As a co-author of the 1994 Contract with America, Gingrich was in the forefront of the Republican Party's dramatic success in that year's Congressional elections and subsequently was elected Speaker of the House. During Gingrich's term as Speaker, Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed the 1996 reform of welfare, a capital gains tax cut and the first balanced budget since 1969.

 

His term also saw the monthly unemployment rate fall from 5.6% in 1995 to 4.2% in 1999, the creation of as many as 8.4 million new jobs and the lowest rate of growth in government spending (2.9%) in several decades. The 1996 budget deal represented the largest drop in discretionary spending since 1969.

 

Following Republican losses in the 1998 mid-term elections, Gingrich resigned both his Speakership and his congressional seat. Since resigning his seat, Gingrich has maintained a career as a political analyst and consultant. He continues to write works related to government and other subjects, such as historical fiction, and is the author of twenty-three books. He is the founder and/or chair of several organizations and companies, including American Solutions for Winning the Future, Center for Health Transformation, Gingrich Productions and Renewing American Leadership.

Wikipedia

 

 

Newt Gingrich

Presidential 2012

Website

 

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Ron Paul: Candidate

[Geee]

Newt Gingrich now defending Paul Ryan

 

 

 

Newt Gingrich is resurfacing in the battle over Medicare, but this time on Rep. Paul Ryan’s side.

 

The former House speaker sent a letter to members of Congress Wednesday morning claiming that “Democrats and their allies in the elite media are determined to divide us and lie about of efforts to save both Medicare and America from fiscal collapse.”

 

 

“Paul Ryan and the House Republicans are trying to save Medicare in a period of enormous economic and fiscal difficulties,” Gingrich wrote to lawmakers after the GOP suffered a loss in a special election in upstate New York Tuesday night. “THE ROAD AHEAD: CHEERFULLY KEEP TELLING THE TRUTH.”

 

The letter is signed, “your friend, Newt.”

 

Of course, last week Gingrich was hardly House Republicans’ friends. He called Ryan’s plan “right-wing social engineering,” earning scorn from his former colleagues on Capitol Hill, eventually having to walk the plan back. Ryan this morning on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” said that “perhaps” Gingrich’s comments were not helpful in the race in upstate New York.

 

His letter Wednesday morning shows him siding the congressional Republicans, and firmly against Democrats. He calls the attacks of Ryan’s plans “‘Mediscare 3,’ a sequel to two bad failures” — he’s referring to Jimmy Carter’s 1980 Medicare attacks on Ronald Reagan, and in 1995, when Democrats used it against Gingrich and his House Republicans.

 

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55679.html

[Geee]

Newt Gingrich: I'm debt-free and frugal

 

(CBS News) In answering questions about his financial status, former House Speaker and Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said he was debt-free and frugal, and discounted a recent report of his having run up charges of as high as a half-million dollars at the New York jeweler Tiffany's.

It was reported on Tuesday that, according to financial disclosures filed with the Clerk of the House of Representatives in 2005 and 2006 by Gingrich's wife Callista (who was working for the House Agriculture Committee), a "revolving charge" (credit card) account at Tiffany and Co. involved debt in the range of $250,001-$500,000.

 

When asked about the debt on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday, Gingrich said the disclosure (which has "been sitting there for five years") was about "obeying the law."

 

"We're private citizens," Gingrich told host Bob Schieffer. "I work very hard. We have a reasonably good income. I currently owe nothing, except I owe one mortgage on a house that's rental property in Wisconsin. Everything else is totally paid for. My home is paid for. My cars are paid for. We don't have a second house. We don't do elaborate things."

 

"Did you owe a half-million dollars to a jewelry company at one point?" Schieffer asked.

 

"We had a resolving fund," Gingrich said.

 

"What does that mean?" Schieffer asked.

 

"It means that we had a revolving fund," he replied.

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/05/22/ftn/main20065133.shtml

[Geee]

Gingrich Taking Heat Over Global Warming Ad

 

 

GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich is facing scrutiny over a 2008 global warming ad he made with former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

 

On the May 13, 2011, edition of 'The O'Reilly Factor', host Bill O'Reilly and guest Lou Dobbs warned that the ad could single-handedly derail his presidential bid. When O'Reilly asked Dobbs whether the ad could end Gingrich's chances, Dobbs replied, "Without question. If he had said nothing, Bill — just sitting next to Nancy Pelosi. "

 

"This is going to be more difficult than any charges about his personal life. This is more difficult, in my judgment, for him than anything else . . . Gingrich is talking about climate change, he is making clear the implication that climate change is the responsibility of a Republican speaker and a Democratic speaker."

 

http://www.newsmax.com/MarcMorano/newtgingrich-nancypelosi-globalwarming-ricktyler/2011/05/25/id/397643

[Rheo]

I don't even want to do a players card for him. ha.

[Geee]

Well, I figured if I didn't put him in the mix someone would squawk

[Rheo]

Well, I figured if I didn't put him in the mix someone would squawk

True. Who knew it would be me first.

 

In the interest of fairness, I'll add him and that Ron Paul feller, too.

[Rheo]

Newt Gingrich
Presidential 2012
Website

[Geee]

Newt and Paul Ryan

 

WASHINGTON -- How did so flawed a man as Newt Gingrich get to the top of his party in the 1990s? For that matter, how did so flawed a man as Bill Clinton get to the top of our government in the 1990s? And -- here I am giving you a hint to the answer for the above questions -- how did so flawed a man as Dominique Strauss-Kahn get to the top of the International Monetary Fund and of French politics? All are about the same age. All have similar, shall we say, recreations. The answer is that they came from what is called the 1960s Generation. Now they are gone. There will be temporary reprises -- more court appearances for DSK, an occasional public appearance for Bill, some more catastrophic missteps on the campaign trail for Newt -- but for all intents and purposes they are history.

 

In Europe and in America the 1960s Generation was pretty much the same. It was composed of student hustlers who became national political hustlers. Some were rock prodigies who continued as rock prodigies, rather pathetically into middle age and, rather absurdly, beyond. They did not amount to a majority of their generation but they claimed to typify it, and their cheerleaders went along with the sham. They were called the most idealistic generation ever and the call was close. Other idealistic generations, for instance the generation that founded this country, fared better. Unfortunately, the 1960s Generation was flawed from the start and never overcame its flaws.

 

Let us hope that we have seen the last of them. The other morning in the New York Times David Hajdu, an associate professor of journalism at Columbia University, marked Bob Dylan's 70th birthday by noting how many voices from the 1960s had recently turned 70. John Lennon (RIP), Joan Baez, Paul Simon, and George Clinton, were mentioned. Next year, Hajdu reverently enthused, Paul McCartney, Aretha Franklin, Carole King, Brian Wilson, and Lou Reed will achieve their 70th. How long can this go on? Will no one from a younger generation note the obvious, to wit, in the arts and in politics the 1960s Generation was a bust.

 

http://spectator.org/archives/2011/05/26/newt-and-paul-ryan

[Pepper]

Candidate News Threads courtesy of Geee:

 

Herman Cain: Candidate News Thread

 

Newt Gingrich: Candidate News Thread

 

Jon Huntsman Jr: Candidate News Thread

 

Gary E Johnson: Candidate News Thread

 

Ron Paul: Candidate News Thread

 

Tim Pawlenty: Candidate News Thread

 

Mitt Romney: Candidate News Thread

 

RIck Santorum: Candidate News Thread

[Geee]

Tiffany responds to Gingrich stories

 

My blog post yesterday on the Tiffany-Gingrich connections got a lot of Twitter attention today. There were two details:

 

1) That Gingrich's old floor staffer is a lobbyist representing Tiffany's (first reported by me)

 

2) Tiffany's was lobbying agencies overseen by House Ag at the time Callista Gingrich was on House Ag (first reported by SpyTalk).

 

Let me note point (1) doesn't suggest anything improper to me. It does suggest a closeness between the company and the Gingriches. Point (2), on the surface, is more troubling.

 

Today, Gingrich's people passed along a statement from Tiffany's, reproduced in whole, below:

 

Tiffany's lobbying efforts have been focused on the reform of the General Mining Law of 1872 (to fairly compensate taxpayers for metals extracted from public lands and to better protect the environment from the impact of hard rock mining) and the clean-up of abandoned mines. We had no reason to lobby the Agriculture Committee and we did not. Nor did anyone at Tiffany & Co. (or Cassidy & Associates on behalf of Tiffany) ever speak to Speaker Gingrich or Mrs. Gingrich about either of these matters. Our focus has been on the Natural Resources Committee which has jurisdiction over these matters. The one and only meeting with the Forest Service on the matter of Mining Law reform was in response to an invitation by Dale Bosworth, Chief of the Forest Service, as a result of our Open Letter to him in the Washington Post that appeared on March 24, 2004.

 

To re-iterate, there is nothing unusual or extraordinary about the credit extended to Speaker Gingrich. Last year, Tiffany & Co. extended credit to over 1,000 customers on identical terms.

 

http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/05/tiffanys-statement-gingrich-stories

[Geee]

Gingrich calls for ‘all out’ drilling

 

 

The Republican White House hopeful says such efforts would bring down gasoline prices long before new supplies are produced.

 

Republican White House hopeful Newt Gingrich is calling for an “all-out” effort to expand U.S. oil-and-gas development that he alleges would bring down gasoline prices long before new supplies are produced.

 

Gingrich, in a speech in South Carolina, said this should include natural-gas drilling off that state’s coast, and development of oil shale in Western states.

 

“We have natural gas off South Carolina which will create jobs in South Carolina and an export product for America. New jobs will grow in the Port of Charleston around natural gas just as new jobs will grow in an offshore industry – high paying, high value jobs,” Gingrich said in prepared remarks before a rotary club in Columbia, S.C.

 

“We don’t have to wait years for gas prices to come down. An aggressive commitment now to develop more of our abundant oil and natural gas resources will put downward pressure on prices at the pump long before any new reserves actually come online,” the former House Speaker said.

 

The White House, following the BP oil spill, last year backed off plans to sell oil-and-gas leases off the Atlantic Coast, although President Obama recently pledged to speed up evaluation of Atlantic offshore resources.

 

http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/163771-gingrich-calls-for-all-out-drilling-expansion

[Geee]

As Gingrich exits, remember his gifts as well as flaws-Barone

 

 

Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich's campaign manager and numerous other key aides have resigned this week, a strong blow to his hopes for the Republican presidential nomination.-Cheryl Senter/AP

Exit Newt Gingrich. Well, not quite yet, officially: On his Facebook page, Gingrich says he will endure "the rigors of campaigning for public office" and "will carry the message of American renewal to every part of this great land, whatever it takes."

Without, however, the assistance of his 16 top campaign aides, some of whom had been with him for years, who resigned en masse last Thursday. They wanted him to spend more time on personal campaigning. He and his wife, Callista, figured they could do a lot of their campaigning and fundraising over the Internet.

 

This is not the first time that political allies have turned on Gingrich. Most of his fellow House Republican leaders tried to mount a coup to overthrow him in July 1997, in his third year as speaker of the House; he survived, but not for long. Thus he has twice shown that he can inspire ties of great loyalty -- and can do things that makes those ties snap and recoil against him.

 

Gingrich may keep campaigning -- at the Republican Jewish Coalition today and at a candidates' debate in New Hampshire tomorrow night -- but his campaign is effectively over, just a month after he declared he was running.

 

In 30 days he careened from one disaster to another, denouncing House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan's Medicare plan as "right-wing social engineering" on the Sunday after announcing, later taking a two-week vacation on a cruise in Greece and Turkey.

 

http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2011/06/gingrich-exits-remember-his-gifts-well-flaws

[Geee]

Newt Aide Wonders ‘Who Would Ever Want to Hire’ Aides Who Quit; Hints at ‘Major Conflict of Interest’

 

On Thursday morning, June 9, former House speaker Newt Gingrich was informed that more than a dozen of his senior political advisers had resigned. All of them, except for longtime spokesman Rick Tyler, were recent additions to his team, hired guns for his nascent presidential campaign.

 

Knowing that things could quickly spiral out of control, Gingrich called an emergency meeting at his personal office, a few floors above K Street in downtown Washington. Along with his wife, Callista, Gingrich assembled his remaining loyalists for an important, closed-door discussion about how he would handle the news, and whether he would stay in the race.

 

“They were calm,” recalls Joe DeSantis, a longtime Gingrich adviser, in an interview with National Review Online. “Newt said that he was not going to get pushed out of this race. He and Callista both said that they felt compelled as citizens to keep fighting, to keep running for president, regardless of the news.

 

“Immediately, we all felt boosted, we got a wave of energy,” DeSantis says. “For weeks, with the old staff, we all wondered why we weren’t busy, why things were moving so slow. Once we saw that Gingrich was reinvigorated, we felt the same way. Newt World felt like it was kicking back into gear, back into the way it has operated for years. We worked till 9 p.m. that evening, looking at how to reframe the campaign in the days ahead.”

 

But things turned sour within hours. The advisers not only quit, they criticized Gingrich in numerous stories about the exodus, and some blamed their departure on Callista. This sent Team Gingrich into a fury, and remains an open wound within the inner circle.

 

“One or two former campaign staffers are tarring the Gingrich family in the press,” DeSantis says with scorn. “It is absurd and sadly follows the consultant tradition of ‘blaming the wife’ when one jumps ship. We are all surprised by the conduct of a few that left the team. Disagreeing with the direction of the campaign and leaving quietly is one thing, but trashing the family and lifestyle of the candidate? With that kind of behavior, we wonder who would ever want to hire them.

 

“Callista is a tad distracted by this, annoyed, but she is handling it all with grace,” he notes. “She knows that it is not about her, but about the former advisers lashing out, trying to pin their decision on somebody. It’s a shame, but she rises above the mess.

 

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/269736/newt-aide-wonders-who-would-ever-want-hire-aides-who-quit-hints-major-conflict-interes

[Geee]

Why Newt?

 

 

It could be said that Newt Gingrich's campaign "problems" of late have put the White House beyond the former speaker of the House's reach. The most recent issue was the defection of Newt's campaign staffers, who believed there was a strategy difference between themselves and Gingrich on how to move forward.

 

But not so fast. The departure of Gingrich's staffers is nothing more or less than a breath of fresh air -- after all, it is Newt himself, and not his campaign advisers, who is running for president.

 

The fact is that Newt Gingrich has a vision on how to move this country forward, and his pragmatic approach to dealing with America's issues has worked in the past. So while the light on his campaign might look dim, Gingrich in fact has a record that shines bright.

Newt's revolution wasn't new, but the idea was lost amid bureaucracy and bloated government. Nevertheless, the idea, as it was intended to be, molded government to the will of the American people. It came in an effort to offer an alternative to democratic policies and unite the Republican Party with what they called the "Contract with America."

 

As the architect of the contract, Minority Whip Gingrich, along with help from fellow Republicans, laid out ten policies on which Republicans, if given the majority, would vote on the House floor within their first hundred days. The people "signed," voting in the 104th Congress and giving the Republicans a majority that, under Speaker Gingrich, made good on their promise, bringing the prosperity America enjoyed in the nineties.

 

Today, however, Gingrich has been the target of many personal attacks, even from those within his own party. Before going into Gingrich's successes as a leader, let's take a look at people's objections to a Gingrich 2012 run for the White House:

Newt bought into the global warming scam and taped an advertisement with Nancy Pelosi.

 

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/06/why_newt_1.html

[octex]

Geee.....

 

Thanks for the many articles about Newt. I recognize and appreciate that he did accomplish many good things for the people and the country while in the House. ....The current message that he's pushing might also be equally good for everyone. However, his style and approach toward promoting his ideas just don't "play" in today's environment, where the public wants more than heavy intellectual discussion regarding solutions to problems. (After all, dumbed down citizens elected Obama due to his "Hope and Change" mantra, so, many voters don't care about serious discussions.)

 

Newt is very intelligent and savvy regarding domestic politics, but his delivery and past baggage that is still held against him makes him a loser in a political campaign. ...JMO

[Geee]

Octex-Newt would only be my pick if he is the last man standing against "he who must not be named' I just post the articles of any of the candidates that I run across.

[Pepper]

Octex-Newt would only be my pick if he is the last man standing against "he who must not be named' I just post the articles of any of the candidates that I run across.

 

 

And Rheo, for Heaven's sake, leave him to the lepidopterists, don't pin Newt either.

 

[Rheo]

Octex-Newt would only be my pick if he is the last man standing against "he who must not be named' I just post the articles of any of the candidates that I run across.

 

 

And Rheo, for Heaven's sake, leave him to the lepidopterists, don't pin Newt either.

 

No worries there.

 

Glad he is in the debates and getting some messages out there, but isn't really a contender.

[Geee]

Gingrich campaign fundraisers quit

 

Newt Gingrich's top two fundraising advisers resigned on Tuesday, and officials said the Republican candidate's hobbling presidential campaign carried more than $1 million in debt.

 

The departures of fundraising director Jody Thomas and fundraising consultant Mary Heitman were the latest blow for the former House speaker who watched 16 top advisers abandon his campaign en masse earlier this month, partly because of what people familiar with the campaign spending described as a dire financial situation.

 

These people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the campaign's inner workings, said the former Georgia lawmaker racked up massive travel bills but money had only trickled in since he got into the race earlier this spring.

 

These officials said that he is at least $1 million in debt. The current fundraising quarter ends June 30, and Gingrich will have to disclose his campaign finances by July 15. He is personally wealthy and could fund his campaign out of his own pocket, at least in the short term, to keep his campaign afloat.

 

Gingrich refused to discuss the latest defections Tuesday night, dismissing them as "campaign gossip" that's being publicized to detract attention from his policy ideas.

 

"The whole point is nobody has a clue why they left," Gingrich told reporters after speaking to a tea party group in Savannah. "Nobody has a clue whether they were failing to perform. Nobody knows anything except it's gossip."

 

He brushed off further questions about why the aides quit as well as about his campaign's debt load.

 

"I'm happy to talk to you about public policy," Gingrich said. "I'm not going to talk to you about campaign stuff."

 

http://townhall.com/news/politics-elections/2011/06/21/gingrich_campaign_fundraisers_quit

[NCTexan]

With all the exiting traffic lately... they probably need to post one of these outside the campaign HQ.

 

[Geee]

Newt says reporters are protecting Obama

 

BALTIMORE — Newt Gingrich said reporters are focused on the negatives of his fledgling presidential campaign because they are in the tank for President Obama.

 

In a brief gaggle with reporters before a GOP dinner here, The Daily Caller asked Gingrich his biggest regret of the campaign so far.

 

“It is so hard to get the news media to cover substance,” he replied.

 

He then drew applause during his speech before the Maryland Republican Party by saying reporters are focused on “trying to protect Barack Obama.”

 

Asked by a reporter if he’ll still be in the campaign when the Iowa caucuses take place, he said, “Sure, of course.”

 

While most of his senior staff has quit the campaign recently, Gingrich downplayed the significance.

 

http://dailycaller.com/2011/06/23/newt-says-reporters-are-protecting-obama/

[Valin]

Why I like Newt. From Sept 2010

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbiEKc6J6TU

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzLtBaLbaDA

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5fZJ1iX2ec

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwvpaUI5cQU

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pR2yfsgGYOU

[Geee]

Gingrich outlines his ’21st Century Contract with America

 

In an exclusive interview with The Daily Caller, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich discussed his forthcoming “21st Century Contract with America.”

 

Tuesday marked the 17th anniversary of the unveiling of the original Contract With America on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. Gingrich promises his new version “is much more comprehensive than the one we did in 1994.”

 

Gingrich plans to release the broad framework for his new contract in Iowa later this week, but the interesting thing is that it won’t be finished for at least a year.

 

In 1994, “we had 700 pages of legislative material behind the contract,” he said. “I will try to have us to that point by September 27, 2012, so you could have a complete, detailed contract at this point.”

 

He explained that as a presidential candidate he cannot “negotiate with [speaker John] Boehner and [senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell” — and get them to buy in at this point, because “it is going to take the prestige of becoming the nominee with a contract to get them to decide that this is a direction.”

 

Moreover, he added, unlike 1994, people “are so fed up with the way the stimulus is written in secret, so fed up with Obamacare being written in secret, Nancy Pelosi’s line about how you have to pass it to see what’s in it, [that] I don’t think they want something jammed down their throat.”

 

Furthermore, Gingrich said some of the ideas in the new contract “are so new and so different we have not yet developed the ideas on how to do it.”

 

“I would say in particular the section on brain science, which will be extraordinary as it is flushed out over the next few months,” he continued.

 

This isn’t the first time Gingrich has unveiled a “21st Century Contract with America.” It’s the subtitle of his 2005 book “Winning The Future,” and the subject of a 2010 Newsmax article. So was this just a clever repackaging of an old idea?

 

http://dailycaller.com/2011/09/27/gingrich-outlines-his-21st-century-contract-with-america/

[Geee]

Newt's New Contract

 

 

Election '12: In 1994, Newt Gingrich's "Contract With America" gave Republicans control of the House of Representatives. Can his new, bolder contract revive his presidential hopes?

 

Compare former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's "21st Century Contract With America" with Mitt Romney's timid "Believe in America" economic plan, and Gingrich wins hands-down.

 

Whereas the former Massachusetts governor "will seek" to keep the Bush tax cuts, for instance, and "will seek" to eliminate capital gains and other investment taxes on those making under $200,000, Gingrich would simply "abolish the capital gains tax" — no "will seek" about it, and no income threshold.

 

Besides Romney's curious embrace of President Obama's numerical definition of rich, there is also the glaring fact that only around 10% of Americans making less than $200,000 even pay capital gains taxes. That empties most of the air out of Romney's cap gains cut.

 

The Gingrich cap gains elimination, on the other hand, would make the earth move economically.

 

If investors were really convinced that cap gains taxes were gone, tens of millions of new jobs would be created in just a few short years, as owners of wealth shifted tens of billions of dollars from lackluster companies to cutting-edge firms — without being slapped with a hefty tax penalty by the IRS.

 

But that's only our favorite of Gingrich's many bold proposals. He would also:

 

• Replace ObamaCare with a free-market reform that includes a safety net for the poor.

 

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• Reduce the sky-high corporate income tax to 12.5%; offer an optional flat tax, while eliminating the Alternative Minimum Tax.

 

• Repeal Sarbanes-Oxley, which encourages U.S. businesses to move operations abroad.

 

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/586517/201109291843/Newts-New-Contract.htm