Posted on 11/10/2006 6:59:08 AM PST by Pokey78
After having watched the majority he engineered in 1994 crumble in this week's elections, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich laid into President Bush and congressional Republicans in an Atlanta appearance Thursday.
Taking questions after a medical forum, the former GOP congressman from Cobb County said four c's an absence of competence in Republican performance, an absence of candor, corruption and the bad advice of consultants led to Tuesday's defeat.
But Gingrich saved his strongest words for President Bush's performance at the Wednesday press conference announcing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's resignation. Bush told reporters that he had planned to replace Rumsfeld since before the election, despite praising the unpopular defense secretary a week ago and saying he would remain for the duration of his presidency.
"If the president had decided to replace Secretary Rumsfeld he should have told us two weeks ago," Gingrich said. "I think that we would today control the Senate and probably have 10 to15 more House seats. And I found it very disturbing yesterday in the press conference, the explanation that the President gave.
"We need candor, we need directness," said Gingrich, a potential 2008 presidential candidate."We need to understand the threats we faced with are so frightening and so real, the danger that we'll lose two to three American cities so great, that we cannot play games with each other, cannot manipulate each other, we have to have an open and honest dialogue, and I found yesterday's staments at the press conference frankly very disturbing."
He condemned Bush's admission that in making last week's statement about Rumsfeld, he had known he was being misleading.
"It's inappropriate to cleverly come out the day after an election to do something we were told before the election would not be done," Gingrich said. "I think the timing was exactly backwards and I hope the President will rethink how he engages the American people and how he communicates with candor."
He contrasted the euphoria of 1994, when his Contract with America agenda helped ended decades of Democratic rule in the House, with the bitterness of Tuesday night's Democratic sweep.
"I remember what it felt like the night we were at the Cobb Galleria and for the first time in 40 years we won control of the House and (there was) the Contract with America and people were very exicted about welfare reform and cutting taxes and balancing the budget and all those things, and I have to say 12 years later that I'm very disappointed, but if you look at what I've said all year, I'm not surprised."
As for whatRepublicans should do now, he said, "I believe the House and Senate Republicans and the White House need to take a deep breath and think very seriously about this election result, because I think we're at a very important turning point this is either a temporary interruption of what has been a gradually consolidating center-right majority, or this is a breakdown of that center-right majority leading to a significant effort to establish a center-left government majority."
Ditto!
LLS
"If the president had decided to replace Secretary Rumsfeld he should have told us two weeks ago," Gingrich said. "I think that we would today control the Senate and probably have 10 to15 more House seats. And I found it very disturbing yesterday in the press conference, the explanation that the President gave.
Ayup. I couldn't watch the whole thing because I didn't want to sour my stomach before lunch.
You can't do much more damage to this party, so kick the rubble and enjoy your waning political capital....
I totally agree with Newt regarding the Rumsfeld issue. Had Pres. Bush replaced Rumsfeld weeks ago, we might have at least held on to the Senate, and quite possibly both houses. That he was planning to replace him, but held off until the day after the election is unbelievably ham-handed.
Newt is a decent guy, but any man who has 2 ex wives shows he is lacking in commitment and responsbility, therefore I would never vote for him.
Hillary Clinton has had only one spouse. Will you vote for her over Guillani or Gingrich?
He is dead right. You dispute what he says?
"One of the reasons the GOP lost is because of Bush's stance on illegals"
True...and fighting a pc war...and huge spending. I can find more but those are really the biggies. He couldn't have done that without the help of the dem....er republican majority. majority.
Anyone who thinks Bush should use the miliatry for political purposes is a true disappointment to me.
I'm not a Bush apologist, what Newt says makes sense and it should me said. We have nothing to lose now, lets get the dirty laundry aired so we have our act together in 2 years.
Politics is a blood sport. It's not a backyard barbecue where everyone is expected to be nice and polite.
It's not "Bush-hate" to point out when the President has made a mistake. If we don't understand what went wrong, and yes, Bush contributed to it, we'll be wondering what the hell happened election night 2008.
Let's everyone agree that George Walker Bush is a good, decent, God-fearing man who loves his wife.
Now maybe we can move on and prepare our party and political cause for victory in 2008, with or without the President's leadership.
Yes, many conservatives were called DU Trolls by republicans. I fear they did more harm than good with name calling. Instead of letting the consevatives vent in FR and other Forums, they vented at the polls.
I thought it was Clinton's fault.
The time to speak ill of fellow Republicans is precisely now, so that we can get the party back on track.
Newt's problems were a questionable book deal and lobbyists.
LLS
> After reading FR for these last few days I was wondering if any Reaganites were left besides me.
> To the rest of you, Reagan would be appalled.
Yes. As post mortems go, this one has been particularly bitter and self-flagellative. It's no way to win in 08.
Oh yes, all of our individual grievances just totalled a huge loss for the overall cause.
Congratulations! Good thinking! Now the liberal agenda moves forward.
What brought down the GOP was the way the Iraq issue was made a central theme in the election and the corruption element. That's what killed the GOP.
Still when you look at the overall results, the GOP almost pulled it out - in other words the losses were only by a few thousand votes in many elections.
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