Not that simple. Newt was being a typical politician and, thinking it was inevitable (sad to think that at the start) wanted to be sure “cap and trade” wasn’t rammed down our throats. I do hate when the GOP acts like that though but I get it.
No different than Rick jumping on the establisment bandwagon and backing earmarks and Specter, among other things, when he was “told” to do so by senate leadership and Bush.
It’s a long list of pros and cons with both and I’m still weighing my decision beyond NO ROMNEY!
Fair estimation. Finally, an honest Newt supporter. I think electability and fewer deviations from basic conservatism pts Santorum above Newt. However, I will always consider Newt a hero of sorts.
but he did support cap and trade
-In 2000, candidate George Bush pledged mandatory carbon caps; it was a campaign pledge. What did you think of it at the time? Were you for that?
I think if you have mandatory carbon caps combined with a trading system, much like we did with sulfur, and if you have a tax-incentive program for investing in the solutions, that there’s a package there that’s very, very good. And frankly, it’s something I would strongly support.
-And did you, at the time, in 2000?
At the time I wasn’t directly involved in the campaign.
-He reversed that campaign pledge within months of taking office. Would we be in better shape today if he had kept that campaign pledge?
If he had instituted a regime that combined three things I just said — mandatory caps, a trading system inside the caps, as we have with clean air, and a tax incentive to be able to invest in the new technology and to be able to produce the new technology — I think we would be much better off than we are in the current situation. ...
The CAFE [Corporate Average Fuel Economy] system for automobiles hasn’t worked. Everybody cheats and gets around it. The caps, with a trading system, on sulfur has worked brilliantly because it has brought free-market attitudes, entrepreneurship and technology and made it very profitable to have less sulfur. So people said, “Wow, it’s worth my time and effort.”
Americans get incentives. Americans like winning. ... What we ought to be doing is inventing a whole series of breakthrough mechanisms that create incentives for people to have a better environmental outcome in an economically positive way, to accelerate the transition to better and cleaner technologies. If Bush had led that effort in 2001, or if somebody will lead that effort in 2007, we will get much further down the road than we’re going to get with litigation and regulation. ...
Spector was a supporter of Santorum. That was no different than Sarah supporting Capt. Queeg in his last campaign. Loyalty is very important in politics. That is far more forgivable than being a mouthpiece of global warming one of the biggest frauds ever perpetrated by the Left.
I will vote for Newt against the Commie any day of the week in any case. But he is just too damaged by his personal life to get the nomination. The dumb comments do not bother me that much but the public is not accepting of Republicans with a checkered martial life. Santorum, on the other hand, is a Boy Scout and cannot be attacked in that area. The Left will have to attack him on policy which will make it clear that he is a solid conservative.