You want Newt Gingrich as Speaker? The guy who just this morning said: ““Everybody’s now talking about, ‘Oh, here comes the debt ceiling.’ I think that’s, frankly, a dead loser.”
My “up to you” comment was that if specific things turned out your way, the resulting consequences flowing logically from that would lead to a minority for the GOP house. I can’t know if you would welcome that outcome, as some did in 2006 and 2008, as a “necessary step” to the long-term goal.
To illustrate — if we snapped our fingers and Newt Gingrich was the speaker, and there was a game show such as you request, by 2014 the democrats would control the house.
In the interim, Newt would, as a pro-government-solution activist, look for the places where he could achieve victory to stroke his considerable ego and build up his prestige. And that means acting on all of his recent proclamations, such as dropping the fight on gay marriage, moving forward with global warming initiatives, supporting “republicans” like DeeDee Scozafozza simply because they have an “R” by their name, and grandstanding for the cameras instead of winning the conservative battles.
He’d probably find a way to kick up some ethical dustballs while he was at it, although I’m willing to believe he has matured and grown wiser in his years, and even that his wandering eye has finally come home.
Gingrich is a wonderful blend of conservative strength, liberal pandering, and hair-brained schemes, with the common thread that Gingrich believes that government exists to solve our problems.
So, he shut down government, and pushed to reform welfare. But he supports ethanol subsidies, and established the modern pork-barrel politics.
He balanced the budget, and sat on a couch with Nancy Pelosi. He debated John Kerry, but said Kerry’s book was good and that something needed to be done to stop global warming.
Then he proposed a “better solution”: “a program including cash prizes, targeted tax cuts and other economic incentives will lure business entrepreneurs to develop technology to tackle the climate problem. He said that type of program would be faster than a bureaucratic government program because it will avoid the rush of special interests to avoid regulation and costly litigation.”
A great plan, if you think that there is a real problem, that government exists to solve problems, and that the only problem with liberals is that they pick the WRONG government solutions.
He wanted to extend all the Bush tax cuts, but thinks we shouldn’t use the debt ceiling to fight for spending cuts.
He opposed Obamacare, but advocated for the individual mandate. He proposed a federal rule requiring kids to take gym class. From one of his many “idea” books: “Physical education in schools is done under a federally mandated guideline. Although it states that schools are to provide physical education classes three to four times per week, the only state holding to this guideline is the state of Illinois. Demand it.”
Because that is what conservative believe in, the federal government mandating the curriculum of local schools. But it’s not that Gingrich isn’t conservative, it’s that he is a solution guy, and believes government is an integral part of the solution.
So he sees fat kids, and says “How can I make the federal government fix fat kids, but in a ‘conservative’ way”. When in fact, the federal government has no business forcing kids to take gym class.
Anyway, even if Gingrich did everything you would want, the very act of putting him in power, and of winning primary battles against every republican house and senate member that you find “moderate”, would be to lose enough seats to put Pelosi in power.
Unless you can also click your magical heels and give us a new set of conservatives who actually understand conservative principles, AND know how to articulate them. We have way too few people for whom conservatism is their life, rather than their political choice.