Re: Has Gingrich Changed? et al

NRO ^ | 12/6/11 | Mark Steyn

[Psalm 144]

Himmler stayed with his family too. Whoopee.

Both embraced genocide of the weak and unwanted, and neither drank beverage alcohol. Color me impressed with such moral purity.

Where is the quote?

[surfer]

Like you said Jim its beginning to look a lot like Newt vs Romnney...

This is just another McCain candidate solution from the wonderful corrupt GOP.

Here is what I say we do...we keep screaming at the GOP - stop sending us the lesser of two evils. Your nominee is still evil, still against liberty, still against the free markets, still against the US Constitution, etc...

Why are we willing to compromise NOW ON OUR choice before the primary has even happened?

Let’s ALL be screaming from the roof tops - hey GOP you aren’t going to get my support if you nominate one of these clowns.

How about Michelle Bachmann, Rick Santorum?

Hell even Ron Paul before a Romney or Gingrich!!!

This is it. If a progressives wins yet another election because we have all been sucked into believing the crap either one of these parties tells us - that person can’t ever win, etc...

The country is over and America will never be free. You can kiss Free Republic bye, you can kiss gun ownership goodbye, you can kiss the opportunity to better yourself goodbye...well that is of course your goal is to strive just to get to the middle class and stay there!!!

We are out of time. The next president is going to be a one term president, they are going to have to deal with a hell of a lot of crap and we better have a small government type in there to do it.

[nickcarraway]

driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate

[nickcarraway]

Olasky: Who did know?

Armey: When I heard that Newt had been carrying on an affair for all the years that we’d worked together, I went home and said, “Honey, I had no idea about this.” She said, “Of course not. You’re the last person in town Newt would have wanted to know about this.” Newt was scared of me. What I discovered: Clinton found out about the Gingrich affair and called Newt over to the White House for a private meeting between the two of them. Clinton said, “You and I are alike.” Which meant, shut up about Monica or I’ll start telling your story.

Olasky: Was it blackmail or bonding?

Armey: Newt and Clinton actually developed sort of a bond over it. They had many meetings that we didn’t know about where they’d drink wine and smoke cigars and talk about their girlfriends. It’s fascinating; why would you confess to your mortal enemy what you wouldn’t tell your closest friends?

[surfer]

Jim its also interesting if we were witnessing a coup from a foreign force...we all know what we would be doing...

People have just got to wrap their head around the fact that a coup in fact is underway by the progressives AKA socialists and it is the pre-cursor for total communism.

Normalcy bias has kicked in for too many people. If you know you are under attack you have to set the tempo to take the momentum back and candidates like Romney and Gingrich are there just to do the opposite - keep the momentum for the progressives.

We just have to stop it now!

What would George Washington do?

[Jim Robinson]

“What would George Washington do re: keeping the momentum from the progressives?”

Well, I’ll tell you, after Palin declined to run I really didn’t have a dog in this race. I liked Bachmann and Cain a lot, even Perry, but not as much as I liked Palin. Bachmann and Cain are both conservative enough, but neither have really been tested in higher office, nor do they have much experience in world affairs.

I also had high hopes for Perry because it looks like he’s done a great job in Texas, but his positions on the border issues turned off a lot of people. And his “heartless” statement didn’t win him much opportunity to turn that around.

I guess Santorum is conservative enough and possibly Huntsman, but neither engender much enthusiasm or excitement. Seems they’re just going through the motions. Don’t know if they have the real world experience to be CINC anyway.

Bachmann seems to be trying really hard but don’t know if she’s really qualified for the top spot either. Even so, had Bachmann really lit a fuse on the trail, I probably would have stood by and supported her, but she flopped and is unlikely to recover.

I thought early on that if Perry got into the race (without Palin) that he’d suck all the air out of it and would dominate. But he flopped. And then Cain took off like a rocket and he flopped.

Now Cain didn’t have elective experience, but he looked like a great conservative so we were all hoping and pulling for him. Well, that didn’t turn out well.

Mind you, that abortionist, lib progressive bastard Mitt Romney is just sitting there smiling through all this and he, Rove and the GOP elite think they’ve got it in the bag. Just gotta hang in there, not say anything rash, not rock the boat, no mistakes, just play defense as one by one the upstart tea party conservative candidates burn themselves out.

In my mind, we must defeat Romney AND Obama. I don’t think George Washington is going to be smiling down on us if we had this great tea party opportunity to knock off the progressives and we let Rove, Romney and the corrupt good old boys club bushwhack us. We’re supposed to be the bushwhackers.

So like a whole lot of conservative Republicans and tea party folks, we’re bouncing candidate to candidate looking for the one to knock off Romney so we can take the tea party battle directly to Obama. Romney is no tea party person. He and Rove, et al, sneer at us. No way in hell are they going to do anything we’re interested in doing even if they do get elected. It’ll be government as usual. Big. They hate us worse than they hate the democrats because we’re a direct threat to their power base.

So in comes Gingrich. Didn’t much care for him at first, mainly because of his well known baggage, and his perceived RINO plumage, but he began making a lot of sense and scoring a lot of points in the debates. Turns out his depth of knowledge and experience in government affairs both domestic and foreign and his experience with Ronald Reagan, the Reagan Revolution and the Republican Revolution of the 90’s are quite extensive and quite impressive if you look.

He’s been through the mill and that’s what a lot of our younger less experienced, less traveled candidates are missing. In the debates he comes off as a wiser, more experienced, more knowledgeable, level-headed senior statesman. And it appeared to me that the other candidates acknowledged and respected that.

So I start thinking back about his history as a congressman and speaker, and lo and behold, it appears to me he’s not such a RINO after all. He was a genuine Reagan protege. And he learned well from the master communicator. He eventually set a goal for himself to build a Republican majority and to take the speakership, and he determinately accomplished that goal.

And he had some great conservative accomplishments as congressman and speaker. He passed the contract with America. He cut taxes. Cut the deficit. Reformed welfare. Blocked HillaryCare. Became a thorn in President Clinton’s side, blocked much of his liberal agenda and ultimately allowed impeachment to proceed. Then of course, he resigned due to his own infidelity scandal. But, unlike Clinton, he didn’t deny it, didn’t lie about it, and he did the right thing by resigning.

Bottom line though, through his years with the Reagan Revolution and the Republican majority much conservative good was accomplished. The Wall came down, the Soviet Union collapsed and our great Reagan economy flourished for two decades.

Now, if a progressive RINO had been in charge of the congress during this period, who knows what would have happened. I’m sure the history would have been a lot different. Remember, before Gingrich and his Republican Majority, we conservatives had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years!! And our country was on life support after Jimmy Carter nearly killed it. And the democrats were saying at the time that there was nothing we could do about it. We were going to be stuck with the cold war. Stuck with the Soviet Union, stuck with Iran. Stuck with high oil prices, gas lines and rationing. Stuck with recession, high interest rates, high inflation and high unemployment from that point forward. They could not be fixed. Jimmy Carter and the democrats had given up on America and surrendered the USA to our fate as a failed nation.

In walk Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich and reestablish that great shining city on the hill! Thank God! It’s not the end of the world after all. Iran returns the hostages immediately. Reagan takes the Soviet Union head on! Reagan takes the democrats head on and doesn’t take no for an answer. Takes his ideas to the people. It was a struggle but eventually the economy began turning. Reagan’s central theme domestically was that the government was too big, too intrusive, taxes too high, too much spending, too many regulations, too many restrictions on business and industry and they all must be cut. And he took that battle over the heads of the democrat congress to the tax payers and they loved it. Sound familiar?

And in 1994, Newt Gingrich leads the charge against the democrats who had been in power for 40 years and the Republicans take the majority and Gingrich becomes Speaker. He dreams up the contract with America which was designed as an extension of the Reagan Revolution and and included items attempting to balance the budget, reform welfare, tort reform, term limits, line item veto, etc. Some of it was successfully implemented, some not. But under Gingrich they did cut the deficit and balance the budget four years running. Sound desirable? Sound progressive?

How many times in our history have you seen a liberal progressive, cut taxes, cut regulations, cut spending, cut welfare, balance the budget, block big government programs like HillaryCare, impeach a sitting president, etc?

Never! In other words, all this to say Newt is NO RINO!! He’s a pro-life, pro-small government, pro-national security, Reagan conservative!! In short, we’re desperate, and he’s exactly what we’re looking for, and he’s running head and shoulders over the rest of the field, so what the hell are we squabbling about?

Yes, Romney and Rove hate him, the Republican establishment elite ruling class hates him, the liberals hate him, the democrats hate him and they hate him for the same reasons the taxpayers will support him, the lovers of liberty will support him, the defenders of life will support him, the defenders of national security will support him, the lovers of the Reagan Revolution will support him, and we the tea party should support him!! He’s a tax cutting, budget balancing, strong defense, small government, pro-life Reagan CONSERVATIVE!!

After reviewing Newt vs Romney, George Washington would say, go, NEWT!!

[Quix]

I’ll have to ponder that one a long time to come up with your confidence about Newt.

I just don’t trust him that much. I think he’s far tooo beholden to RINO’s and far too vulnerable to being jerked around by those PTB.

imho, He still seems to be playing the good-cop role of the good-cop/bad-cop Wash DC Federal charade that’s gone on for so long.

Alas, . . . what’s left. Not much.

I’m sooooooooo sick of the lesser of two traitorous globalist marching weasels.

[dirtboy]

That is a pretty good description of the path I have taken this primary season as well.

Yeah, Newt has done some stuff I don't like one bit. But at this point, I see two basic Newts - the one without a clear political direction who dabbles in Beltway nonsense, and the one we see when confronted with a liberal juggernaut like what happened in 1994 and is happening far worse now.

Right now, the urgency of standing up to Obama is giving Newt the focus he needs to get in touch with his conservative side. And that has to be the focus of this race. GOP voters don't want an ankle-biter against the other GOP candidates. They want someone who will deliver a polar-bear-scale mauling to Obama and his Dem agenda. Newt has been that guy so far. When he sets his political Claymore mines, he doesn't have to be reminded in which direction to point the front toward enemy.

If Newt wins in November 2012, I have no doubts we'll have to man the phones against the occasional Newt idiocy the way we did with Bush. But all things considered, we have a choice this year that we didn't in 2000 and 2008. McCain was no alternative to Bush in 2000 and was a crappy choice in 2008. Fred sounded great in 2008 but all he taught us was the need for a candidate to have fire in the belly - and Newt has that.

We have a pretty clear choice now between Newt and Mitt. Newt has a past with clear conservative accomplishments that gets clouded by his more recent Beltway nonsense. Whereas Mitt is the polar opposite - he is trying to cloud his liberal past with unconvincing conservative stances now, and to this day refuses to denounce Romneycare. That makes the choice pretty stark, for those still not pushing their single-digit candidates.

Things could change between now and the January caucuses and primaries. But Newt has withstood a couple of gaffes and still risen in the polls. I think voters realize the time for dalliances with the anti-Romney du jour is over. Newt has emerged as the last man standing against Romney. The supporters of the other candidates may find that unfair and attack Newt out of frustration. But Newt did settle on a winning formula - taking the fight to Obama instead of the other GOP candidates, and being the best-prepared and most articulate by far in the debates at conveying anti-Obama red meat. The other candidates just haven't measured up to that.

[trisham]

Thanks, Jim. Well said! The quote below particularly caught my eye:

"In my mind, we must defeat Romney AND Obama."
~Jim Robinson

[Redmen4ever]

Thanks. Coming from you, this means a lot. I think Clinton and Newt sometimes cooperated and sometimes sparred with each other. Clinton, after all, was not a hard-core left-winger, like his wife, and certainly not a left-wing radical, like Obama.

[Psalm 144]

“There’s no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate,” said Gingrich during an interview with CBN’s David Brody. “What I can tell you is that when I did things that were wrong, I wasn’t trapped in situation ethics, I was doing things that were wrong, and yet, I was doing them,”

So his lame excuse is fatigue and over extension. He also states what he did was wrong. That is not saying “My adultery is an act of patriotism”. No where close.

[Psalm 144]

Hearsay is awesome, innit?

[Quix]

AT this point, to me, Newt is about half of 1% better than McChurian.

[Interesting Times]

As this lacerating article by Steyn suggests, a President Gingrich would require a great deal of herding by conservatives. And he’s famously difficult to herd, given his self-regard. Also, as Steyn pointed out, no one is going to mistake him for Reagan in terms of political charisma.

On the plus side, he’s highly intelligent, an excellent speaker and debater, and he understands the dire problems the Republic is now facing. There’s also evidence that he has learned from previous mistakes - for example, the “snarling” that Steyn rightly dinged him for in 1998 hasn’t been in evidence during the primaries.

The bottom line: Newt Gingrich is the last candidate left standing who 1) can plausibly be called a conservative and 2) has any chance of being nominated. And when you compare him point by point with Obama, it’s startling how good the old Newtster suddenly looks.

[untwist]

I totally agree, Jim. I remember the Gingrich of the 80’s, taking on the corrupt Tip O’Neil from the back bench, and never backing down.

I remember Newt making Clinton look foolish and forcing Clinton to reverse much of his tax and spend ‘93 steamroll. Clinton actually made a campaign stop in Houston in ‘96 and told the crowd that they would be surprised to know that he himself thought he raised taxes too much. Then, when Congress presented Clinton the Welfare bill, he signs it, then promised to ‘fix’ it after the election.

Gingrich was the force behind Clinton’s triangulation strategy, dragging Billy kicking and screaming to the middle while Newt set the agenda from the right. The economy and stock market skyrocketed after the American people voted a conservative majority in ‘94, and Gingrich deserves a great deal of credit for that. We need to remind people of this truth in this election season.

[larryleo]

Jim, I’ve been supporting Newt since day 1. Even after his campaign staff quit on him, I wanted to hear what he had to say first about why, before I past judgement. I’ve always enjoyed Newt’s commentary on Fox News and just seemed dead on about the issues and not afraid to make the conservative arguments in a direct and articulate manner. You have to hear from Newt directly, because the media and his opponents love to take what he says out of context. At this juncture in our history, we not only need a well-spoken problem solver, but someone who convey what the founding fathers wanted to today’s people with the ability to use a historical perspective.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you for sharing your insights!

[onyx]

You stayed up very late. Standing ovation!

I wish you would post this as a thread of its own. It's a guide for conservative thinking, so different from the reactionary, emotional comments we're seeing from otherwise very intelligent members.

Indeed members can all have favorites other than Newt Gingrich during this primary season, but to call him a RINO and worse isn't accurate and you have proved that claim false.

I think he's the best equipped to first takedown Romney and then the Marxist, so I'm all in for Gingrich. I trust him to carry the fight all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and then to carry through with his conservative agenda as outlined on his website to the best of his ability given the congress we can manage to elect for him.

Thank you very much, dearest Jim!

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks dervish.

[surfer]

IMO knowing what I have read about George Washington he wouldn’t pick either. Neither have principles or integrity and quite frankly Washington would have called up the Continental Army long ago.

Everyone talks about Newt in another life-time. In that life-time I support him as well and actually wished he would be POTUS...but then K-Street happened to Newt. I think Newt just kind of gave up, decided well if you can’t beat them you might as well join them and he personally pocketed millions of dollars from his lobbying efforts.

The real problem with Newt is just that - he is definitely part of the establishment and a very long way away from being a friend of the Constitution. He played a key role in getting Obamacare passed, he even lobbied for hospitals to get them medicare reimbursements for death panels, etc...

And of course you can’t forget the Pelosi/Gingrich climate change moments, nor can you ignore the 100’s of harmful bills he co-sponsored with Pelosi that actually hurts our country.

His approach and you will hear him say it...well you have to get stuff done so you just have to go along with this bad stuff...

We have an obligation to honor our part of the Constitution and that doesn’t mean we surrender to the establishment. There is still plenty of time and I think this election is very unique from several angles and anything can happen.

What I think we should all be doing right now, is FR, Tea Party Express, Tea Party, etc...leadership should be conferencing calling and pushing for a much stronger candidate with actual principles and integrity. Telling the GOP clearly they will not have our support if they think they can pull another McCain BS move on us.

I just think we are out time - if you think this country can handle another 4 years of cronyism , progressive ideas and continued loss of our freedoms then go for Newt or Romney. I am just not there yet.

They work for us and we better start acting like it! I have voted straight line GOP my entire life, every single election and I am just not happy, satisfied or impressed with what has happened and quite frankly I feel we are being set up.

If we surrender to the establishment and let this happen the consequences are dire. History is pretty clear where this ends up.