Posted on 01/26/2012 9:32:00 AM PST by Merciful_Friend
It can really take one's breath away to see the explosion of hits and hit pieces on Newt Gingrich—from Republicans and/or conservatives—in the past 48 hours. (The Drudge Report has played a big role in marshaling and promoting the links and stories.) It's not news that Newt Gingrich is less than perfect, and although I continue to support him against Romney, I'm certainly not going to try to maintain he is a saint or a conservative of unimpeachable purity. Yet, the criticisms of Gingrich, while overwhelming in their sheer number and passion, do not convince me that Newt is less of a conservative than Mitt Romney. Some of them are quite strange.
R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. (the founder of The American Spectator) has written one of the most widely read slams of Newt, published yesterday: William Jefferson Gingrich. I'm quite willing listen to criticisms of Gingrich from people who might know something that I don't, but this column weirded me out so much in its opening paragraphs that I completely lost sympathy with where the writer is coming from. In those first two paragraphs, R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. tells his readers (in a tone that suggests that it is not even up for debate) that former president Bill Clinton is both charming and "drop-dead beautiful."
Perhaps in your world, Mr. Tyrrell, but not in mine. Bill Clinton has virtually always come across to me as dishonest, sleazy and utterly unprincipled. Those are not, for me, the ingredients of charm. As for drop-dead beautiful ... well, again, Mr. Tyrrell possesses a perspective that eludes me, and all the more dramatically in this case.
Suffice it to say, I do not think that Newt Gingrich is currently fighting for the votes of those, like Mr. Tyrrell, who find Bill Clinton both charming in personality and beautiful in physical aspect.
The rest of Mr. Tyrrell's column rehashes a lot of criticisms we have already heard to the effect that Gingrich was not a good leader in Congress and not a true conservative. Although younger than R. Emmett, I too lived through that era, and I simply remember things differently. In my mind Gingrich was a highly effective Republican leader who was ultimately taken out after years of being demonized by the media and the (drop-dead beautiful) Clinton spin machine. His public image was assuredly toxic in the end, and certainly House Republicans didn't want their own electoral prospects to be dragged down by such a lightning rod. And certainly Gingrich contributed to the problem with various personal failings. However, on substance, he had succeeded in leading the Republican majority (which he was highly instrumental in achieving in the first place) to passing many of the serious reforms that had been promised in the "Contract with America" (which Gingrich gets credit for devising). I like the substance of what Gingrich got done. (Just read his Wikipedia entry, for Pete's sake.) I don't like that he was vilified non-stop in the media from the very first moment that the Republicans won the House in 1994 ("How the Gingrich stole Christmas") and I don't like that the vilification succeeded.
I also don't like to hear so many conservatives today pushing the line on Gingrich that the liberal media and the (drop-dead beautiful) Clinton spin-machine concocted. Accepting their narrative is not the way to go. Effective conservative Republicans always get demonized. I am of the point of view that we should reject such tactics and question the premise of such characterizations, rather than buying into them lock, stock and barrel.
Count me as unconvinced that Gingrich's record does not show him to be a more reliable and effective conservative leader than Mitt Romney, given his record.
...
As for the revelations elsewhere that Newt Gingrich criticized Ronald Reagan and his administration on multiple occasions while Reagan was in office: Gingrich deserves this for wrapping himself in Reagan's mantle so frequently (for which I made fun of him the other day). Certainly his criticisms at that time don't show him in a wonderful light, but if everyone who criticized Reagan during his presidency were run out of the conservative movement, I fear that we'd be left only with Nancy. It is a tribute to Reagan that he succeeded in so much even with the opposition—at times—of many on the conservative side of things. I remember very clearly in particular that he faced a great deal of skepticism and mockery from conservatives for his arms reduction negotiations with Gorbachev. So, Gingrich deserves the knock, but I also think he deserves to be judged more on his own later achievements in leadership rather than his fire-brand rhetoric during the 1980s.
I don't have a vote in Florida. But if I did, I'm afraid I would not be getting in line. Not with old R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., and not even with Ann Coulter. And not, especially, when in denigrating Newt Gingrich, the alternative that we are told we must embrace is Mitt Romney. In this case, I'm willing to concede that Mitt may well be drop-dead beautiful in a way that Newt will never be, but as for the rest of it: it just doesn't add up.
from The Cinch Review
it will be my first election I have no helped nor would I send money or vote if Romney is the nominee.
The establishment has gone over the top now and burned too many bridges and they still think many of the base will act like sheep even they throw us a bone and put a slightly more conservative on the ticket
Won’t work no more.
2008 they lost
2010 we gave them a warning and they ignored it and still fought us
2012 and they still ignore us
well I’ll be ignoring them , so will my money and votes , same for my family
“this isn’t mild.”
Compared to the MSM treatment of Democrats it isn’t mild. It is brutal.
Compared to what Newt will be subject to if he gets the nomination it is extremely mild.
My point is simply that Newt needs to deal with this stuff because if he wins the nomination it will get much worse. It is better that this stuff comes out now and he learns to deal with it than if Newt sees it for the first time in October.
Good synopsis and great advice for Gingrich. See my post above.
same here, the GOP has lost me forever if their candidate RINO gets it.
LOL! The honey badger is to audio what Downfall is to video.
Newt knows how to deal with it. He’s been doing so since he worked with Reagan.
As it should be....but if one thinks the "war" has begun....oh, no indeed.
This isn't even a war! This isn't even a neighborhood scuffle.
The war begins in earnest when two things happen:
1. the right wing selects their nominee, and
2. The real money begins to be spent.
REAL MONEY, you ask???
Yep!!! Take a look here:
the WAR begins when the $$ starts flying. He who has the most, wins.
The right wing....with all of the $$ added together is woefully "out gunned, out manned, and out fought" against the stain and the current regime.
If the establishment gets their way and Romney wins then forget about me and my family
Before I was just determined I would not vote for Romney in the General, now with this all out concerted effort I am ready to tell the RNC to KMA!!!! I am ‘’ this close to voting straight third party or not at all. May they all Rot in hell, even the good solid conservatives who go along with this crap.
The war for the soul of the party is on.....!
The liberal, marxist, moderate establishment is drudging up all kinds garbage and piling it on....they see defeat coming.
Screw’em if they want Mitt, they can have him but I think they lose the republian base....! I honestly believe the base or the tea party will walk away and form a new party....
I tried to get tickets for tonight as I live 35 miles away
The GOP told me they had room for 300 but only 800 went out to the likes of me.
Seems the GOP establishment has put their stooges into place in the crowd ready to cheer Romney and boo Newt
Be prepared if this happens and hopefully Newt tells the crowd that they have a first amendment and that they can cheer for him not like last time when the crowd was told to shut up.
The establishment knw the crowd was for Newt and he got a bounce out of it so they tell the crowd to shut it and now they put their stooges into place
When you start taking a lot of flak, you know you are over the target.
OOOH! I like that.
GO NEWT!
If money can’t turn the talking heads, I’m sure dirt can. I wonder what they have on Drudge. And I wish conservatives had someone who would dig dirt on them. Brietbart doesn’t have the venue to actually do some digging.
“If GOP nominates a dog catcher, or even Bernie Madoff, I will walk over broken glass and through forest fires to vote against Zero.
Conservatives are alwasy asked to hold our nose and vote for the lesser of two evils...NO MORE....!
We held our noses and voted for Bush and what did we get? A big gov. left winger that put us four more trillon dollars in debt..
We got runaway gov. spending, runaway gov. growth, runaway gov. welfare, runaway crony captialist, runaway corruption, I’ve had it NO MORE MODERATES OR LIBERALS....!
Republicans and deomcrats are the same...there is NO DIFFERNCE, NOTHING CHANGES...We must purge the party of the moderates, socialist, and liberasl at all cost....!
Only hope is in the GOP voters in FL to realize that the established elite are trying to destroy Newt. Vote for Newt if for any other reason we should be suspicious of the left and this constant fear of those of Newt. Something is wrong that they fear Newt so much.
I, truly, believe that any of the Republican candidates can defeat Obama if they go on the offensive against Obama’s record. However, as Conservatives we know that the establishment, reflexively, plays nice while democrats wage jihad. As Conservatives, we have to insist on a candidate, who will take it to Obama as fiercely as he will attack our nominee. Gingrich is the only candidate, who fits that bill.
If Newt can't rise from the dead again in the debate and Mitt gets the nod then Newt should run 3rd party.
Newt absolutely needs to be in the debates, He's the only one with the guts to bring up the Obama scandals. Near the end, after debates, he can talk to Mitt and offer to drop out if he will make promises and move to the right on certain issues.
Mitt might be willing to make public promises if Newt holds the keys to the white house for him.
Whether Mitt can be trusted to carry out any promises is a question though.
Does Newt love the country enough to slog through a 3rd party run just so he can force Romney into shifting right? I sure hope so...If Newt is destroyed by the onslaught against him I can see no other way to get the truth about Obama before the public.
The republicans won't declare war on Obama....
“If Newt can’t rise from the dead again in the debate and Mitt gets the nod then Newt should run 3rd party.
Newt absolutely needs to be in the debates, He’s the only one with the guts to bring up the Obama scandals. Near the end, after debates, he can talk to Mitt and offer to drop out if he will make promises and move to the right on certain issues.
Mitt might be willing to make public promises if Newt holds the keys to the white house for him.
Whether Mitt can be trusted to carry out any promises is a question though.
Does Newt love the country enough to slog through a 3rd party run just so he can force Romney into shifting right? I sure hope so...If Newt is destroyed by the onslaught against him I can see no other way to get the truth about Obama before the public.
The republicans won’t declare war on Obama....”
I’d sure love to see Newt go thrid party if all these elitest attacks work against him...
Not ready to give up yet though as I believe Mitt and the establishment are desperate...! I truly think they smell defeat for Mittt and they are doing there best to save him..!
What was the context on his statements?
At least Newt has a record of being fiscally conservative, unlike Mitt, the GOP-E and his socialist friend, the pres__ent.
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