Newt Gingrich – The Grinch Who Stole Conservatism

You’re a mean one Mr. Grinch You really are a heel. You’re as cuddly as a cactus, And as charming as an eel, Mr. Grinch! You’re a bad banana, With a greasy black peel! You’re a monster, Mr. Grinch! Your heart’s an empty hole. Your brain is full of spiders. You’ve got garlic in your soul, Mr. Grinch!

Well, that’s a pretty good beginning at describing how most conservatives feel about Newt Gingrich these days. More of that later. Of course, many of us felt this way before the 2012 GOP presidential primary began, and have been vindicated as Newt has once again shown his true self to the world.

There are probably zealot followers of Newt who are stacking the wood to burn me at the stake as I write this. But I have long since stopped with political politeness toward those in the GOP who claim conservatism, yet through their actions continue to set the conservative movement back. No one has done that more than Newt Gingrich.

As the time was coming around toward the primary, most conservatives longed to have a strong conservative candidate emerge as the one that we could get behind. Knowing that Massachusetts moderate Mitt Romney was the establishment’s pick, and that the media would be strongly behind him all the way; we desired for unity among conservatives so that Romney might be defeated.

One phrase that has been repeated over and over is “anyone but Romney.” It really didn’t seem like that tall of an order, and it really shouldn’t have been. On the heels of the tea party’s great successes in the 2010 primaries I fully expected for conservatives to rally at some point and send Mr. “Obamaneycare” into political retirement.

Early on the field was very crowded. Some of us conservatives were with Bachmann, others with Santorum, Cain, or Perry. But who would have ever thought that any conservatives would have rallied around Newt Gingrich of all possibilities? Considering that Newt last held office in 1999 and had a coup held against him in 1997 by the conservative wing of the GOP. Considering that Newt stepped down in shame after he led the GOP to the single greatest loss in Congress that ANY party in history had ever suffered in the 1998 midterm elections, who would have thought it?

I wouldn’t touch you With a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole! You’re a vile one, Mr. Grinch! You have termites in your smile. You have all the tender sweetness Of a seasick crocodile, Mr. Grinch! Given the choice between the two of you, I’d take the seasick crocodile! You’re a foul one, Mr. Grinch! You’re a nasty, wasty skunk! Your heart is full of unwashed socks. Your soul is full of gunk, Mr. Grinch!

But slowly and surely the field narrowed as Cain dropped out due to scandal, then Bachmann after Iowa, and then Perry before South Carolina. Rick Santorum sailed almost totally under the radar until his surprise win in Iowa and seemed to be the clear conservative choice going forward. Newt finished a very distant 4th place in Iowa, and then 5th behind Santorum in New Hampshire. So going into South Carolina it would have seemed the better part of valor for Newt to have dropped out and helped consolidate the conservative “not- Romney” vote for Santorum. But it was not to be. In fact, Mr. 4th/5th place Gingrich was actually calling for Santorum to drop out and back him at that point. What arrogance!

Newt greatly benefited from the emotions of the moment surrounding the Charleston debate, and won South Carolina. Well ok, at that point Santorum, Romney, and Newt had each won 1 state, so each had a claim at staying in and fighting it out. In fact, it looked like Newt might just ride the wave of momentum from South Carolina on to the nomination. But then came Florida, where Newt, pandering to the NASA community literally promised the moon with his wild and wacky moon colony he promised to build before the end of his first term. Florida was a bust for Newt as Romney defeated him badly.

Then came Nevada where Newt finished another distant 2nd place, and afterwards gave an unprecedented speech blaming everyone but himself for his demise. But Nevada was actually the last state that Newt would finish as high as second place all the way until winning his home state of Georgia on Super Tuesday. Next it was Rick Santorum who surprised the world by sweeping all three states of Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado in one day. So at that point Santorum had won 4 states with Romney also having won 4. With Newt flailing, it seemed time for him to drop out and solidify the conservative vote behind the last conservative standing- Rick Santorum. But no, Newt promised his new “southern strategy” where he would concentrate on the southern states to stage his comeback.

The three words that best describe you Are as follows, and I quote, “Stink, stank, stunk!” You’re a rotter, Mr. Grinch! You’re the king of sinful sots! Your heart’s a dead tomato, Splotched with moldy, purple spots, Mr. Grinch!

But Newt’s southern strategy also went bust as Santorum took Tennessee and Oklahoma on Super Tuesday. Then Santorum swept Alabama and Mississippi were Newt had campaigned heavily. Finally, Santorum took Louisiana with nearly 50% of the vote while Newt finished a distant third. So surely by then with Newt’s southern strategy having totally failed he would have seen the handwriting on the wall. Surely he would try and salvage what little respect he had left among conservatives by giving Santorum the benefit of a consolidated conservative “not-Romney” electorate as the primary calendar turned back towards Romney’s blue states.

Not so. Even with top conservative voices such as Richard Viguerie, and even Michael Reagan who had endorsed Newt now calling for him to step aside for the sake of conservatism, Newt’s massive ego would not let him. Newt even earned the name “Newt Perot.” He continued to vow to fight on until the convention in Tampa. It seemed fairly obvious to many of us all along, that Newt’s campaign had been nothing more than him dancing for the Puppet Master in order to help Romney by keeping the conservative vote split.

What’s very telling about this is that Newt has raised very little actual campaign money and is now at least $4.3 million in debt. Basically all of Newt’s big money came through his super pac - Winning Our Future. And almost all of the super pac money came from corrupt billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife, a total of more than $20 million. Winning Our Future has raised a total of $23 million. Sources close to Adelson said as early on as mid February that Adelson was only funding Newt in order to help destroy Santorum’s chances of beating Romney. Further proof of that, is that Winning Our Future ran mostly anti-Santorum ads. In reality, if Newt truly was all about the conservative movement as he claims, he would have condemned the ads and focused his efforts on Romney instead of helping to destroy the only conservative candidate who had a real chance at defeating Romney. More on Adelson later.

Newt finished dead last in 21 of 36 states, which is dead last in over half of the states.

3rd place in 10 states. *3 of the 3rd place finishes came after Santorum was out of the race

2nd place in 5 states. *1 of the 2nd place finishes came after Santorum was out of the race

Newt has finished dead last in 4 more states than all his 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishes. combined, and 1 2nd place and 3 3rd place finishes came after Santorum was out of the race.

When even Ron Paul has beaten you 8 more times than you have beaten him, it’s a very sad thing. Continuing to lose to Paul should have been a wake up call for Newt to drop the heck out, but Newt will only follow where his ego leads him.

Let’s consider for a minute what would have happened if Newt wasn’t solely driven by ego. What if he was truly committed to the conservative movement and had gotten out before Super Tuesday? Well, it’s clear that would have meant that Santorum would have won the key state of Ohio, as well as Alaska, and Georgia in addition to the other 3 states he won on Super Tuesday. Santorum would have taken 6 of 11 states in one day leaving Romney with only 5 instead of the 7 he got. Think of the total game changing momentum that would have caused in Santorum’s favor. Then Santorum would have gone on to win Wisconsin as well. If Newt had dropped out when he really should have after New Hampshire, then Santorum would have also won South Carolina and could have dealt Romney an effective death blow in Romney’s home state of Michigan. That would have given Santorum 6 more states and lots more delegates, and denied Romney 5 states and many delegates.

The whole argument from the Newt camp was that his being in the race was helping defeat Romney by Newt getting delegates instead of Romney. But that argument is absurd because it’s a far more effective way to defeat an enemy by having one strong challenger instead of multiple weaker ones. This is especially true for the winner take all states like Wisconsin, because Newt prevented Santorum from even getting any delegates and allowed Romney to take them all. If Newt had dropped out before South Carolina, Santorum would have won at least 16 states instead of 11, and Romney only 15 instead of 18. If he had dropped out before Super Tuesday it would have been Santorum 14, Romney 16, (Newt 1). I will not even bother to get into how the delegate count would have gone.

Your soul is an apalling dump-heap, Overflowing with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable rubbish imaginable, Mangled-up in tangled-up knots! You nauseate me, Mr. Grinch! With a nauseous super naus! You’re a crooked jerky jockey, And you drive a crooked hoss, Mr. Grinch! You’re a three-decker sauerkraut and toadstool sandwich, With arsenic sauce!

As the process lingered on, it was becoming all about preventing Romney from getting to 1,144 delegates and allowing the convention in Tampa in August to be open and contested. But since Newt served as Romney’s wing man helping to destroy Santorum, we can all but rule out that possibility now. Romney will most likely coast onto his needed delegates and the nomination without a strong candidate such as Santorum to stop him. And no, Ron Paul is not a strong candidate. Ron Paul took on Romney one on one in Virginia due to no other candidates making the ballot, but Paul could only muster 40% of the vote. Paul hasn’t won a single state, though he has managed to take some extra delegates by hijacking delegate conventions in states like Minnesota and Missouri. But without winning at least 5 states neither Paul nor Newt one will be able to get their names on the ballot at the convention.

Newt has had to lay off one third of his campaign staff and is over $4 million in campaign debt. Even his flagship “The Gingrich Group” has filed for bankruptcy within the last few weeks, which is only one of at least a dozen such enterprises that Newt has led into bankruptcy over the last 30 years. But still Newt continued to flail around jousting at windmills.

After finishing dead last in 4 of 5 states on Tuesday, Newt has finally decided to drop out at long last. Though it is satisfying to see him admit defeat, it comes way too late to do have any real meaning or give any help to a fellow conservative such as Santorum. Had it come weeks or months earlier it would have certainly meant the defeat of Romney, and victory for a conservative.

To me the timing of Newt dropping out is very telling. He stayed in long enough to make certain Santorum was out, but had he dropped out then, it would have been obvious that he was the intentional spoiler. He continued to run a ghost campaign knowing that he would lose badly on Tuesday and then used that as the excuse to drop out. Adelson’s wife recently gave another $5 million to Newt’s super pac even though the Adelsons had changed their support over to Romney and Sheldon had stated that Newt was “at the end of his game” weeks ago.

The three headed snake of the GOP establishment – Sheldon Adelson, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney

Even though Newt’s campaign was $4.3 million in debt, Winning Our Future made no plans to spend any of the $5 million in any way. It seems that the plan was/is for it to sit there; because once Newt is officially no longer a candidate he can use it as he pleases with one exception, – he cannot use it to pay off campaign debt by law. However, he can use it in any other way he pleases and can actually pay off the campaign debt in an indirect way. For instance, he could purchase $5 million in property and then sell it and use the profits to pay off the debt. He could also put it into one of his business ventures and then give himself a pay bonus and use it to pay the debt. The point here being that Newt has more money at his disposal than he has debt; and it was given to him by someone who was supporting Romney at the time it was given, and given by a person who knew that Newt was not going to be able to win or even continue in the race at that point.

There is no “smoking gun” that directly proves that Adelson was funding Newt as a means to help Romney, but speculation has been risng for quite a while. We know for sure out of Adelson’s own mouth that he wanted to help destroy Santorum. We also know that Adelson had long since given up on Newt and was backing Romney for weeks prior to giving additional millions to Newt. We also know that Adelson has said that he is pro-choice and socially liberal. It would stand to reason then that he would have interest in helping Romney because of Romney’s pro-choice and socially moderate stances.

Whether Adelson’s game plan all along was to help Romney, or if that became plan B for him is not 100% clear. But what is clear is that Adelson had his bets hedged. (What else would we expect from corrupt guy who has made billions from casinos?) I smell a rat and say that 2+2 = payoff…….

Newt Gingrich is a political has-been that never really was, and never will be. Unless a miracle happens between now and the convention, Newt will always be remembered as the one who cost conservatives the single most important election in modern times. He will be known as the “Grinch Who Stole Conservatism”. At least the Grinch who stole Christmas eventually saw the light and gave Christmas back to the people of Whoville. But Newt cannot give back the 2012 GOP nomination to conservatives. In fact, by ensuring Romney the nomination he may well have handed Obama his second term.

It’s important to point out that the people who supported Newt also bear a great deal of the blame in ruining conservative chances in 2012, especially those who call themselves “tea partiers.” As someone who has been part of the tea party movement from the beginning, I knew that Newt Gingrich was last candidate I should get behind. But many others ignored the warnings. They got caught up in a bloodlust to see Obama embarrassed in a debate and fed the troll, so to speak. They acted as co-conspirators with Newt in stealing conservatism, and they will share in whatever consequences the are to come.

You should also realize that Santo gave an ‘impassioned endorsement” for his “man” Romney.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2877225/posts?page=20#20

...endorsing the guy whose record was liberal on spending and who sought working with liberals by tooting it in his political ads.

You mean as opposed to supporting the guy who was actively working with Algore on promoting the Global Warming hoax, touring the country with Rev Sharpton for education reforms, said Romneycare was a great idea, said the era of Reagan is dead, called Paul Ryan's modest plan extreme and gave speeches with Hillary Clinton to promote having our health care records controlled by the federal government. BTW, Rick had the highest rating from the NRA of any candidate running and also had a solid rating from the ACU and Taxpayers Union. Judging by the final results in this Primary, most Conservative voters saw it the way I did.

Gingrich out, will endorse Romney

Santorum: Romney is the "right guy" to challenge Obama.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2877248/posts

Not you Santo?

“...he will ultimately support the GOP presidential nominee. And he says it’s clear that Romney will be that nominee.” “... we have to focus on beating Obama.”

B:
“It’s clear Romney is the nominee and the focus should be on defeating Obama. We should not focus on defeating ourselves,”

A or B? It sounds as if Santorum and Gingrich are on the same page.

You're a pinhead. You look to Newt endorsing Romney after the race is over as some kind of proof that he was in it to sandbag the other candidates.

You can say that about just EVERY candidate who was in the race. So were ALL of them on Romney's dole?

Or maybe, just maybe, there wasn't a single strong enough candidate in the entire pack and the only reason Romney won was his overwhelming money edge and his lack of scruples in attacking the other candidates?

It isn’t productive in the least, but I am not going to let my guy get smeared with childish names and insults just so some can feel better about themselves.

I just as soon move on to the matter at hand. An out of control, corrupt WH and a House and Senate populated with enough Statists and Progressives to destroy the country.

What we have been covering here isn’t out of bounds for discussion. I am on the cat ping list for crying out loud. That is fairly unimportant, but this issue on this thread isn’t very important at this moment in time.

It isn’t productive in the least, but I am not going to let my guy get smeared with childish names and insults just so some can feel better about themselves.

Sour grapes and childish behavior started with the posting of this article and I feel the same as before.

BTW, Rick had the highest rating from the NRA of any candidate running and also had a solid rating from the ACU and Taxpayers Union.

Is that right? Lets take a look at Santorum's "solid ratings".

"According to National Journal’s annual ratings, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum’s votes on key issues often placed him in the conservative faction of the Senate. But he was not consistently found among the chamber’s most conservative members. For instance, in the years leading to his 2006 reelection contest, Santorum’s voting record became relatively much more liberal..."

http://nationaljournal.com/politics/rick-santorum-s-track-record-in-the-senate-20120104

Santo ranked 34th, 35th, 34th in his last years. Definite liberal pandering went on.

Ah. National Journal. The stalwart of Conservative thinking. Charlie Cook, Richard Cohen et al? I know they are my go to source, even over FR, for solid info on matters important to me.

he led the GOP to the single greatest loss in Congress that ANY party in history had ever suffered in the 1998 midterm elections

VERY unlikely. During the 19th century it wasn't uncommon for a party to lose 50% of its reps in a single election.

Not to mention that the Whig Party entirely disappeared. Which would seem to be a pretty significant defeat.

Newt was the spoiler. He could have been a kingmaker.
No way could he have beaten Obama. I supported him in the beginning but now have lost all respect for him.

He “fundamentally, transformationally” ruined this campaign for the one Conservative in the race: Rick Santorum.

Big ideas? Big deal.

Love the way the Newties have to keep bringing up Santorum in an effort to change the subject. Kinda like the Dems do with Bush.

Santorum can hold his head high for running one heck of a campaign.

Newt, on the other hand, has proven to be an embarrassment...

I disagree heartily

Santorum sucked from the beginning but a few went with him and ruined Newts chances.

Sanntorum never had a prayer.

Santorum sucked from the beginning...

You mean like having his campaign staff quit in disgust with the lackadaisical nature of their candidate?

BTW, the "few" that went with Rick was 1 Million more than Newt could muster. Hard to believe since that Southern Strategy worked like a charm.

A million idiots who went with the boy wonder.

Right now they have the same thing Newt people have.

Nothing, while Romney rises to the top,

Aint that great,but you go on with your lame candidate while I stick with my lame candidate.

Ya know what this really amounted to was Momentum.

Newt had Momentum and was rolling, then Romney spent millions to place him in a bad light, Then the Momentum switched over to Santorum, everybody jumped on that bandwagon except a few of us who saw Santorum didn’t have the juice to bring it home, but our boy Romney started spending millions to kill his candidacy. Now they are both gone and so we are left with a handfull of crap.

I really believe that either of them could have beaten Mit Romney, but both could not.

Romney played them and us for fools, and he had the money to do it. Now it is Romney who faces Obama’s millions we will see how he makes out.

A couple of people who really don’t have a clue.

Just an honest look at the records is all anyone needs to do.

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