By July 1997, however, the contract was finished, and conservatives, particularly those elected in the Revolution of ’94, were growing frustrated with Gingrich’s leadership.
The speaker was disorganized. “He knew nothing about running meetings and nothing about driving an agenda,” DeLay writes in his memoir, No Retreat, No Surrender.
He was erratic. “On Monday, we would say we’re not going to give a $500 child tax credit to people who don’t have tax liabilities,” Graham tells National Review Online. “On Wednesday, he’d meet with President Clinton, and that position would change.”
“In May 1997 . . . Newt declared the GOP willing to separate tax cuts from other items in a balanced-budget deal that we were negotiating with Bill Clinton,” writes former speaker Denny Hastert (R., Ill.) in his memoir, Speaker. “That was news to us and represented a huge change in policy in less than twenty-four hours.”
He was hyperbolic. “He’d call something ‘the single most corrupt act in the history of Western civilization’ . . . always these Armageddon-type announcements,” says Rep. Pete King (R., N.Y.).
The congressman still remembers that fateful trip on Air Force One in November 1995, when Clinton made Gingrich sit in the back. Miffed, the speaker later asked the press, “You just wonder, where is their sense of manners? Where is their sense of courtesy?”
“I still think it’s the main reason we lost [the government-shutdown] debate,” King says.
“Before the government shutdown we thought Newt Gingrich was invincible,” writes Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) in his memoir, Breach of Trust. “After the shutdown, however, he was like a whipped dog who still barked, yet cowered, in Clinton’s presence.”...........
Amazing. Stick to,trying to support your candidate than simply trying to roast others.
Are we forgetting how all buddy-buddy Pete King was with Clinton during his time in the WH? King was Clinton’s favorite Republican.
It took me till King’s newly adopted post-9/11 persona to be able to tolerate him. He was all RINO with Clinton. We should not forget and take these comments in context.
I think both Newt and Coburn have changed a little in the past 15-17 years.
Coburn endorsed McCain last go-around and flew to South Carolina ahead of its primary to do it. Not sure I’d consider his judgment rock solid.
Shut up Pete King. Back then, at least Newt was on the right of impeaching Clinton, while you went on all the propaganda outlets trying to save Clinton.
Shut up Pete King. Back then, at least Newt was on the right of impeaching Clinton, while you went on all the propaganda outlets trying to save Clinton.
Shut up Pete King. Back then, at least Newt was on the right of impeaching Clinton, while you went on all the propaganda outlets trying to save Clinton.
Newt is EASILY rolled. Flakey, and unpredictable is his real history. As Mark Levin cryptically said on his show the other night, “I know all there is to know about Newt.”
People need to pay attention to Levin, and other well-known, respected, down the line small government, Constitutional conservatives.
The best candidate forum we’ve had yet (with three solidly conservative State’s Attorneys General asking HARD questions of substance), was last night on Huckabee’s 2-hour show. VERY REVEALING. It will be re-aired on FNC again tonight at 8PM eastern.
bttt