Posted on 12/08/2011 12:14:45 PM PST by TBBT
I just returned from the belly of the beast, Washington, D.C. There is not a more parochial or insular city in the country. While there, I had a conversation with two members of what can be described only as the Republican establishment, one in the print media and the other a K Street lobbyist. In short order, the conversation turned to Newt Gingrich and his surge to the top of the ladder.
There is no one more reviled in Washington than Newt. If anyone believes he is part of the establishment, he or she is mistaken. In fact, it would not be a terribly great stretch to say some in the Republican wing of the governing class would prefer to see Obama re-elected than Newt in the Oval Office. However, the vast majority of this class are now in a panic as the preordained choice, Mitt Romney, is truly threatened by the rabble in flyover country constantly looking for anyone but Romney. These people have settled, so it seems, on Gingrich. The increasing volume of commentary of the Beltway insiders and attendant vitriol toward Newt has become a near-hysterical tidal wave rehashing and embellishing Newt's supposed failings and personal "baggage."
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Bull Crap, newt is an insider, but the people up there knows he would sell his own mom down the river for a fast buck. In short, they do not trust his word is better that a bucket of spit.
" These words were not greeted warmly by my two acquaintances, but as it has been often said: the times are a-changin. Those now safely ensconced within the Beltway are being sent a warning. It is not the deep emotional desire to choose Newt Gingrich that has changed the landscape of the nominating process in 2012, but what he represents -- a threat to the establishment."
If I decide to vote for Gingrich, this will be the reason. That also assumes that neither Bachmann nor Santorum have a chance in Hades, which seems like a foregone conclusion at this point.
Fine, believe what you want to believe.
Oh my goodness, I love your bumper sticker! May I borrow it?
I also agreed with every word of your post as though I had written it myself.
“Reaching out” in itself means nothing, it’s what you say while doing it.
Obama reaches out to Replublicans regularly, stating “get on board and comply with my wishes or I’ll blame you for everything”. Thankfully, our House majority has saved us from his Socialist gavel (for the most part). If Newt “reaching out” means pretty much the same and we still have the majority then I am OK with it.
Woo-hoo. Excellent post. We need a “Bull Moose” to stir up Congress and turn things around—not another establishment nominee.
Remember what I wrote in 18 months.
Santorum couldn't get elected dog catcher in Scranton!
An idiot whooped him badly in 2006.
The brilliant architect of the Democrat's comeback, Howard Dean, helped select Dems that appeared more conservative than Republican incumbents that year, enabling them to take back Congress.
Bachmann is a stalking horse for Romney.
If he gets the nomination, she gets a big cookie.
Santorum had won two elections previously in a heavily democratic area where the GOP doesn’t win. He beat the Carville gang and yet he got beat a third time but no one expected him to win at all.
Look at Santorum’s record. Look at what he did.
It is up to us NOW during the primaries to pick the candidate to oppose Obama.
If you think Romney or Gingrich are an answer to Obama you are not informed - PERIOD. In fact it is because of the progressive right (Bush, et al) that we got Obama. Who do you think will be next after Gingrich or Romney? Obama 2.0 and that person will be 10X’s as bad as Obama.
Voting for a progressive is not a WIN for America.
That’s the point. We either make our stand now and save our country from the progressives or they win. This is the end game.
Pollster1, yours is a reasonable response. It is basically: “Trust but verify and then verify again, and then verify somemore ...” But, finally, is this not what we should be doing (should have been doing) with every GOP president? So, I say, elect Newt; and then lean on him continuously to do the right thing. Demand that he choose a solid VP running mate. Insist that his cabinet and advisors be sound, level-headed conservatives who plan to return home to their communities and want to be able to look their neighbors in the eye without shame or embarrassment. Work to get real conservatives into the congress at every opportunity, and real conservatives into the state and local governments at every level. Assume that unwatched conservatives sent to Washington or any state capital are like well-intentioned policemen who go to work in Chicago. They need to be watched and supported, in that order, for the temptation to corruption is strong.
His congressional experience gives him the best shot at undoing obamacare, if, in fact, he wants to.
All in all, probably our best choice.
He also would be the beat president at manipulating congress since Johnson (spit).
I like Ron Paul.
He should be appointed as Secretary of Education to dismantle it.
And then in order, reappointed as Secretary of Commerce, HUD, Energy and Interior to do the same job.
If he could accomplish all that in four years, he should get a medal!!
Make that big government and amnesty. I noticed today, that Rush said there was a lot of room for someone to move to the right of newt, bet that makes you middle of the road and lefty types happy.
Newt's style is much more pedantic, as befits a professor. What he most lacks is Church's focus. Newt is all over the place, with opinions about everything, but he is far from being a polymath, more the dilettante. The real question is: does he have Churchill's ability to stay the course on the great issues confronting the country?
Lincoln had that ability. He focused on the war and left the secondary matters to Seward, Chase, and the Republican Congress. One impression I got from Palin--as governor--is that she had that ability. She had strength of will. As president, she might have brought the same focus. But as a genuine outsider, with pedigree or polish, she could never win over the Establishmentarians. Lincoln did, at least enough. We forget how much he owed to Horace Greeley. Greeley not only polished his debates with Douglas --the ones we read today were redacted by Greeley's paper-- but brought him East to give the Cooper's Union speech which was wildly applauded by the elite audience there.
Palin is not capable of finely crafted speeches. Lincoln had a love and a gift for the language that Palin lacks. But, as Elizabeth I, said on a famous occasion, She might have the heart of a woman, but she has the stomach of a king. Does New have the stomach? I don't mean the self-confidence, but the courage to go against elite opinion when it matters. Neither Bush really had that. Reagan did.
The tactical problem with Newt is he just doesn’t know when to shut up. The way to run for president is to paint a few ‘Big Ideas’ in broad strokes and then give out details with an eye-dropper. You just know that Newt is going to P- off ever significant constituency in BOTH parties before this thing is over. If he can survive that and get elected in the face of Obama’s billion-dollar warchest, then it would be a miracle.
You can’t escape the fact that Newt is pro-amnesty (yes, it’s amnesty), pro-TARP, and pro-global warning.
That is as far from Tea Party principles and Constitutional governance as you can get. Are we to hope that as Newt’s head spins around on these important issues he will eventually stop in the right direction?
Question: How many of Newt’s 10 points in the 1994 Contract With America survived? And who was in charge to make sure they survived?
Um, fightinJAG, “penultimate” means “next-to-last”
From a LIBERTY perspective Ron Paul nails it.
BTW as far as I can tell only Ron Paul and Michelle Bachmann do not participate in the insider trading that goes in DC...
That's a given.
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