Candidate News Thread - Newt Gingrich

[Geee]

Newt Keeps Pitching the America of His Imagination-Michael Barone

 

Here are a couple of things to keep in mind about Newt Gingrich, as he leads in polls for the Republican presidential nomination nationally and in Iowa and South Carolina, and may be threatening Mitt Romney's lead in New Hampshire.

 

One is that he is an autodidact. A second is that he has incredible perseverance.

 

Autodidact is a fancy word for someone who is self-taught. Gingrich calls himself a historian and says his worldview was shaped at age 15 by viewing the bones at the ossuary at Verdun, site of the World War I battle. And he did earn a Ph.D. in history in 1971, with a dissertation on "Belgian Education Policy in the Congo: 1945-1960."

 

But he hasn't pursued that or any other subject with scholarly rigor. Instead, in his voluminous writings and unusually lengthy speeches, you will find references to the futurist Alvin Tofler, to Olympic beach volleyball, to zoos and space exploration. You'll find management book lingo, salesmanship tips, offbeat and sometimes revealing facts and anecdotes.

 

Gingrich started running for Congress as a teacher at West Georgia College, in a traditionally Democratic area where he had no local connections, in 1973. That was when Richard Nixon was president. Nelson Rockefeller was governor of New York, and Ronald Reagan governor of California. Both had supported tax increases and signed bills legalizing abortion. Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio and Bobby Jindal were not yet in kindergarten.

 

The sophisticates of the time said that Vietnam proved that America was overextended and impotent, Watergate proved that it was morally unworthy and corrupt, and stagflation proved that its days of economic growth were over. Gingrich disagreed on all three counts.

 

With autodidact intensity, he argued then and has argued ever since, that America is not in decline but at the brink of technological and economic breakthroughs; it is not a waning power in the world, but one that can inspire revolutionary transformation; the wave of the future is not the liberal welfare state but (in a 1983 phrase that never quite caught on) the conservative opportunity society.

 

Politically he persevered through adversity. He ran a strong race against a longtime Democratic incumbent but lost in the Watergate year of 1974. He set out to run again, but after Jimmy Carter clinched the Democratic nomination he knew he could not win in rural Georgia. It was only when he ran a third time in 1978 that he finally won.

 

http://townhall.com/columnists/michaelbarone/2011/12/05/newt_keeps_pitching_the_america_of_his_imagination

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Gingrich fires back at Pelosi over threat

Newt Gingrich said that a threat from ex-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to disclose information she learned while serving on an ethics committee investigating him during his time as Speaker of the House would "totally abuse the ethics process" and violate rules of the House of Representatives.

 

"I want to thank Speaker Pelosi for what I regard as an early Christmas gift," Gingrich said at a press conference in Manhattan Monday.

 

Gingrich denounced the threat from Pelosi, who is now the minority leader in the House, as "a fundamental violation of the rules of the House," and said that if Pelosi were to disclose details of the investigation, it would expose the "tainted ethics process the House was engaged in." He also called for the House to condemn Pelosi if she were to reveal anything from the ethics probe.

 

Video:

[Valin]

Audio: Glenn Beck Grills Newt

[Valin]

Gingrich fires back at Pelosi over threat

Newt Gingrich said that a threat from ex-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to disclose information she learned while serving on an ethics committee investigating him during his time as Speaker of the House would "totally abuse the ethics process" and violate rules of the House of Representatives.

 

"I want to thank Speaker Pelosi for what I regard as an early Christmas gift," Gingrich said at a press conference in Manhattan Monday.

 

Gingrich denounced the threat from Pelosi, who is now the minority leader in the House, as "a fundamental violation of the rules of the House," and said that if Pelosi were to disclose details of the investigation, it would expose the "tainted ethics process the House was engaged in." He also called for the House to condemn Pelosi if she were to reveal anything from the ethics probe.

 

Video:

 

 

No matter who wins the GOP nomination the general election is going to be nasty.

 

Remember!

[Valin]

A Blast From The Past

 

[Pepper]

Valin!

 

Great clip

 

keep reporters away from my mother

 

[Valin]

Valin!

 

Great clip

 

keep reporters away from my mother

 

 

 

All Democrats are Weeeird!

[Valin]

Gingrich the compassionate

Jonah Goldberg

12/7/11

 

Newt Gingrich wants to pay poor kids to clean toilets. And all of the right people are horrified.

 

The Nation says Gingrich is running on "a platform that seems to have been written by the unreformed Ebenezer Scrooge." The editors of the Newark Star-Ledger proclaim Gingrich wants to "bring back the days of Oliver Twist." The host of "Meet the Press," David Gregory, suggests Gingrich's take on the inner-city poor is a "grotesque distortion."

 

This controversy started last month at Harvard, when Gingrich suggested in a speech that perhaps the best way to break the cycle of poverty in inner cities is to break the culture of poverty that sustains it by, among other things, paying kids to do janitorial work.

 

"Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works," Gingrich explained recently in Iowa when asked to clarify his position. "So they literally have no habit of showing up on Monday. They have no habit of staying all day. They have no habit of 'I do this and you give me cash,' unless it's illegal."

(Snip)

[Valin]

OH NO! NEWT IS DOOMED

 

[Valin]

Power Line: A Critique of Pure Newt

Steven Hayward

12/8/11

 

Among the much older but familiar catalogue of Newt criticisms are gems such as these: “Newt is often right, but when he is wrong, well, my God!” “His planning is all wishing and guessing.” “He is easily taken in by quacks and charlatans.” “Newt carries great guns, but his navigation is uncertain.” He is “a genius without judgment.” He is a man of “transitory convictions,” who has been “on every side of every question.” “His mind is essentially critical and volcanic and he is used to proposing and propounding schemes and ideas . . . and as a rule gracefully withdrawing them.”

 

About his military views, one high-ranking officer said, “Newt has only half the picture in his mind, talks absurdities and makes my blood boil to listen to his nonsense.” His many non-fiction books have been dismissed as “autobiographies disguised as a history of the universe.” Even his historical novels get the lash, with critics calling them “crude and immature,” revealing Newt to be “a perfect poseur, adept at the arts of notoriety.” One of his accomplished peers in public office said, “He will never get to the top in politics; with all his wonderful gifts. . . [he] does not inspire trust.” Even the kindest description of him cannot avoid noting his flaws, such as “He is like a wonderful piece of machinery with a flywheel which occasionally makes unexpected movements.” And as a prominent person told a foreign leader after Newt resigned from the House in 1998: “Newt? Oh, he’s finished.”

 

Wait—did I say I was talking about Newt Gingrich? Actually, all of these statements were made about Winston Churchill in his day. I merely swapped out the names and obscured the person who said them.

 

(Snip)

 

 

More Here...

power Line: Winston S. Gingrich, The Sequel

[Saltbag]

Newt's upcoming book on Climate Change?

 

Is this old news I missed?

[Valin]

Newt's upcoming book on Climate Change?

 

Is this old news I missed?

 

If you are talking about the new book, I do not believe this is old news, if you are talking about his position on global warming/climate change this is old news.

 

Thanks for the post BTW.

[Valin]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vma5oLGmbe0

Cheap Shot by Mitt...IMO

[Saltbag]

Newt's upcoming book on Climate Change?

 

Is this old news I missed?

 

If you are talking about the new book, I do not believe this is old news, if you are talking about his position on global warming/climate change this is old news.

 

Thanks for the post BTW.

 

If it's the case, "Flippity, Floppity, Newt is on his way..."

 

I still think Newt is brilliant. I've listened to hours of his history online. Yet, news like this gives me great concern.

[RandyM]

Because the good ones won't run, we end up having to choose between a piece of crap and a chunk of crap......... to run against a pile of crap. [sanitized version]

[Valin]

Newt's upcoming book on Climate Change?

 

Is this old news I missed?

 

If you are talking about the new book, I do not believe this is old news, if you are talking about his position on global warming/climate change this is old news.

 

Thanks for the post BTW.

 

If it's the case, "Flippity, Floppity, Newt is on his way..."

 

I still think Newt is brilliant. I've listened to hours of his history online. Yet, news like this gives me great concern.

 

 

"Flippity, Floppity? Expand please...thanks.

 

Also

Something we must always bear in mind is that we are talking about politicians. There is a line from the movie The Hunt for Red October sums up quite nicely politicians...Jeffrey Pelt: Listen, I'm a politician which means I'm a cheat and a liar, and when I'm not kissing babies I'm stealing their lollipops. But it also means I keep my options open.

 

If you are looking for someone who has been very consistent in what he has said, then Ron Paul is your guy...never mind the small fact that on foreign policy the guy is batsh*t crazy, and bt crazy I mean Charlie Manson crazy, but he doesn't flip flop. He has a wonderful 18th century view of how the world works and how America should fit in...except his view is historically wrong.

IMO consistency is an over rated political virtue "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

[Argyle58]

Newt's upcoming book on Climate Change?

 

Is this old news I missed?

 

If you are talking about the new book, I do not believe this is old news, if you are talking about his position on global warming/climate change this is old news.

 

Thanks for the post BTW.

 

If it's the case, "Flippity, Floppity, Newt is on his way..."

 

I still think Newt is brilliant. I've listened to hours of his history online. Yet, news like this gives me great concern.

 

This is in no way a flip flop for Newt.....he's always been a GW sympathizer, but does not advocate radical changes. Rather he speaks of responsible changes in life style and technology that would not cripple the world economy or lower the standard of living.I recall sometime in the past that he reminded some reporter that the root of the word "conservative" is "conserve".

[Valin]

Because the good ones won't run, we end up having to choose between a piece of crap and a chunk of crap......... to run against a pile of crap. [sanitized version]

 

 

People have their own reasons for running...and not running. Some people are just not willing to pay the price. This is especially if you are on the right, in todays (last 50-60 years) environment. I was really hopeful that Mitch Daniels would run...but he didn't. We are rapidly coming to the point where we have 3 choices Mitt Romney...Newt Gingrich...Ron Paul. You may not like it, I may not like it, but those are the choices....choose, but choose wisely.

Me? I can live with the first two quite nicely, as for the 3rd...he scares the hell out of me.

[Argyle58]

Because the good ones won't run, we end up having to choose between a piece of crap and a chunk of crap......... to run against a pile of crap. [sanitized version]

 

 

People have their own reasons for running...and not running. Some people are just not willing to pay the price. This is especially if you are on the right, in todays (last 50-60 years) environment. I was really hopeful that Mitch Daniels would run...but he didn't. We are rapidly coming to the point where we have 3 choices Mitt Romney...Newt Gingrich...Ron Paul. You may not like it, I may not like it, but those are the choices....choose, but choose wisely.

Me? I can live with the first two quite nicely, as for the 3rd...he scares the hell out of me.

 

AMEN!!!

[Valin]

Because the good ones won't run, we end up having to choose between a piece of crap and a chunk of crap......... to run against a pile of crap. [sanitized version]

 

 

People have their own reasons for running...and not running. Some people are just not willing to pay the price. This is especially if you are on the right, in todays (last 50-60 years) environment. I was really hopeful that Mitch Daniels would run...but he didn't. We are rapidly coming to the point where we have 3 choices Mitt Romney...Newt Gingrich...Ron Paul. You may not like it, I may not like it, but those are the choices....choose, but choose wisely.

Me? I can live with the first two quite nicely, as for the 3rd...he scares the hell out of me.

 

AMEN!!!

 

 

His followers remind me of the followers of a certain Democrat presidential candidate in 2008.

[Valin]

Newt Gingrich Judges You

 

 

[nickydog]

Newt Gingrich Judges You

 

 

They're all good, but I like the first one best.

[Geee]

Why Many Republicans Oppose a Gingrich Nomination — and Why the Left Favors It: Their Reasons are the Same!

 

As the campaign heats up, a strange dichotomy is taking place. Many Republicans — including tested conservatives like Sen. Tom Coburn — are publicly attacking Newt Gingrich. Here’s a list of what many of them say. In her latest Wall Street Journal column, Peggy Noonan captured the argument of anti-Newt conservatives and wrote that, although he can be inspiring, “those who know him fear — or hope — that he will be true to form in one respect: He will continue to lose to his No. 1 longtime foe, Newt Gingrich. He is a human hand grenade who walks around with his hand on the pin, saying, ‘Watch this!’”

 

In yesterday’s New York Times, its house conservative, David Brooks, wrote that in many ways, Gingrich could be described as a big government conservative who over the years has favored cap-and-trade legislation to curb global warming, supported universal health care coverage, favored liberal immigration reform, and whose common theme “is that government should intervene in crucial ways to create a dynamic, decentralized, low-tax society.”

 

Indeed, Brooks thinks that “Gringrich loves government more than I do,” and has “no Hayekian modesty to restrain his faith in statist endeavor.” Some would say, should they discover this, that Gingrich is no Tea Party right-winger. Even a “national greatness” conservative like Brooks thinks that Newt’s program “is a little too great.” So Brooks joins others in faulting Gingrich for his work with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. He also endorses the widely read blog post by Yuval Levin, who at NRO noted that the programs of Newt and Romney are not that different. But what is different, Levin observes, is their very different temperaments. Romney has a temperament of an executive, is disciplined, and shows “calm and restraint.” As for Newt, Brooks writes, he “seems to have walked straight out of the 1960s. He has every negative character trait that conservatives associate with ’60s excess: narcissism, self-righteousness, self-indulgence and intemperance. He just has those traits in Republican form.”

 

Hence Brooks concludes that Gingrich “would severely damage conservatism and the Republican Party if nominated.” Writing in even harsher terms, Levin puts it this way: “he has no discipline whatsoever, can be almost unbelievably erratic and unfocused, and is unironically conceited.”

 

The analytical Republicans who oppose Gingrich are not what some call RINOS (a term I disdain, for it is a put-down to real debate and consideration of issues); they are conservatives who have served with Gingrich, know his volatile character and lack of discipline, and worry about his un-electability and — if elected — what kind of a president he would be.

 

As for the Left, they favor a Gingrich nomination for their own reasons, and in fact, they are more than similar to the very reasons many Republicans hope Romney gets the nomination. Case 1 is the example of the recent article by historian Michael Kazin in The New Republic. Like many Newt supporters, Kazin relishes a presidential debate between Gingrich and Obama. He thinks, as he puts it, that it would “bring a healthy candor to our politics and end up boosting the fortunes of liberalism as well.”

 

In other words, voters would see a great difference between the conservative and liberal approach to the world, and Kazin’s side, that of the liberal-left, would easily win. Kazin thinks a debate between the two would be “refreshing,” and that we would see “a serious debate between articulate exponents of liberalism and conservatism — the ideological conflict that has shaped American politics since the emergence of a mass movement on the right in the 1950s.”

 

Kazin also likes Newt’s stridency. As he writes, he is “an articulate, if savage, exponent of a conservative world-view, and his nomination…would represent the triumph of rhetorical boldness over Romney’s cautious artifice.” Moreover, he thinks that would allow Obama “with an opportunity to advocate the progressive principles that inspired him to run for office in the first place.”

 

So Kazin is confident that in a two way serious debate, “Obama would win,” since Gingrich to a wide audience “comes off as an arrogant pedant unable to convince those who are not already on his side.” As he says, “preeners don’t get elected president.” Finally, with an Obama victory in hand, Kazin sees Nirvana finally arriving: “It would expose the moral and logical defects of the conservative ideology that has been mostly dominant in the U.S. since 1980.”

 

http://pjmedia.com/ronradosh/2011/12/10/gop-democrats-gingrich-nomination/

[saveliberty]

Thanks, Geee!

 

Here is what confounds me: Gingrich is a man of flaws, yes, but he is quick on his feet and he stands up to the abuse.

 

Policy-wise, it is hard to understand how someone who actually imposed a health insurance mandate is somehow someone of a completely different point of view.

 

Without Newt, we would not have cut spending during the Clinton administration, we would not have had welfare reform. Newt has flaws, but he fights.

 

Mitt seems to be flustered easily, even though he is much better as a candidate than he was in 2008.

[Valin]

Thanks, Geee!

 

Here is what confounds me: Gingrich is a man of flaws, yes, but he is quick on his feet and he stands up to the abuse.

 

Policy-wise, it is hard to understand how someone who actually imposed a health insurance mandate is somehow someone of a completely different point of view.

 

Without Newt, we would not have cut spending during the Clinton administration, we would not have had welfare reform. Newt has flaws, but he fights.

 

Mitt seems to be flustered easily, even though he is much better as a candidate than he was in 2008.

 

 

Given that Obama is going to run one of the dirtiest most negative campaigns on record (examples can be found in the Obama/Clinton primary campaign), IMO the GOP needs someone who can take it and dish it out, I have some questions whether Mitt is able to do that. I think Newt is someone who can.

 

Just saying this should be a factor in making a decision.