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."
Yes I think President Bush IS too nice. MSM would have attacked him for being rude/truthful but he was attacked constantly anyway. I would have loved to have seen him smack some of them up side their heads, verbally of course.
Firing Rummy a day after the election disappointed me.
And the referendums in Arizona and around the country prove you to be right.
I don't agree with Newt about Rumsfeld. But I have heard him speaking on talk radio about the election and he is worth listening to. He says--rightly--that we should not be blinded by the fact that conservatives won Dem seats. That's important. But to remember when a voter says the alternative is better than the incumbent, he is voting against that incumbent. He also said that with so many new Blue Dogs in the House, the Republican should immediately form good relationships with them and develop conservative legislation that can pass. I think Pelosi has a real job on her hands. And I want to see that we make her work very hard at it. Newt was in the minority House when Pres. Reagan was in the WH. He knows what he is talking about.
I would never vote for him, but I sure would listen to him.
There may be some minor squawking and squealing an finger pointing, but we will never outdo the dims in crying in the streets, having nervous breakdowns, and nursing hatred for a scapegoat in the other party.
What they see, but will never understand are people attempting to make sense of a failure in order to save this country - not their own egos. We are regrouping in a sane, if sometimes emotional manner.
That a DUMocRAT can not see it for what we know it is, should be of no concern to us.
Should we just shut-up? Should we fear that we look like them, act like them? They will laugh no matter how we act and still think themselves superior.
Any dummy reading this should know that I could not possibly care less about how they see me, I care for this COUNTRY, which makes me better than the best Dummycrat.
Its like this. God allowed Satan to think he was in control during the temptation of Christ. Satan actually thought he had the authority to offer Christ the world if he'd bow down to him
Well, I'm willing to allow the dummies to think the House and Senate has put them back in control. But, they have no power that WE do not allow them to have.
I think Newt has some valid points. However, he needs to face reality too. He has NO chance of winning the Republican nomination. Too much baggage.
oh me to, I have no doubt Newt is a good guy, but I don't he is qualified to run this country. One failed marriage isn't going to push me over the top, but two is enough for me not to vote for him or Guiliani!
I hate to break this to you, Newt -- but I was disappointed in YOU just four years after 1994.
Thank you. Newt is right, as usual, and is an intellectual and visionary giant when compared to the current GOP leadership. This election was a repudiation of the President, plain and simple, and while much of the criticism is malicious and undeserved, the White House seems unwilling or unable to respond in any meaningful way.
And proud of it.
I agree with Newt. He is no Reagan but he is as close as we have now. I would vote for him.
Read about Reagan and then you will know why. This is why the Republican party is in a shambles. People have forgotten.
Think all you want. Consider our failures and work to right them. However pointing the finger of blame at the folks on your side emboldens your enemies.
If Newt wants to help then he should present his message in Reaganesque language. Instead he chose the "smartest person in the room" mode, which takes him out of consideration for anything other than an attack dog.
"Why does Newt have to have a June and Ward Cleaver personal life?
He's no worse the Xlinton"
Not exactly a ringing endorsement.
I would like to think we could do better than someone who "is no worse than Clinton." Newt has too much baggage, not only with the girlfriends and ex-wives, but abandoning ship like a rat when the going got tough.
Jesus Christ himself could come down and run as a republican. If he has no baggage, the media will invent it. In 2008 no matter who the republican is... there WILL be baggage
Yup, when Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman divorced the faild marriage prefigured the failed Reagan presidency. /s/
Newt is the ULTIMATE hypocrite . . .
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE:
NEWT GINGRICH AND THE GOP DEBACLE OF 1996
In 1996, Clinton's '6th year', Congressional Republicans under the leadership of Newt 'Conservative Contract With America' Gingrich were expected to crush the Democrats in the mid-term elections.
Here's what actually happened:
Before the election -- 230R 204D (+26R)
After the election -- 226R 207D (+19D)
Yep, the Democrats actually gained seats and Newt resigned in political disgrace.
RONALD REAGAN AND HIS '6th YEAR' DEFEAT IN 1986
In 1986, Ronald Reagan and the GOP suffered HORRIBLE electoral losses:
8 Senate seats . . .
Moving the GOP from the majority (53-47 +6) to the minority (55-45 -10) . . . [At worst, GWB will face a 49-51 (-2) minority -- and that -2 will include a very GWB-leaning Independent!!]
5 Congressional seats . . .
Giving the Democrats an even wider margin in the House
from a 253-182 (+71) majority to a 258-177 (+81) majority! . . . [It appears that GWB/the GOP will endure a much smaller 229-196 (+33) majority!]
Why did Reagan suffer such devastating losses in 1986?
Like President Bush, he just wasn't able to avoid the '6th' year hex! First there was Bork, then Reykjavik, then the election losses, then Iran-Contra, and then an historic 23-point drop in his JA rating in just one month -- AND GUESS WHAT: THE UBER CONSERVATIVES DESERTED HIM IN DROVES [FYI: These are the same conservatives who today use a bastardized version of the Reagan legacy as a weapon with which to bash President Bush -- what a bunch of soul-less losers!] . . .
FAST FORWARD TO 2006: If the NewtGingrichRushHannityIngrahamNROelitistsRightwingpunditsFreeper ubercons were to be "intellectually honest", they would use the same convoluted logic to explain the 1986 and 1996 GOP mid-term losses as they are currently using to explain the 2006 loss:
"Conservatives didn't lose in 1986 or 1996; Republicans lost. If only Reagan and Gingrich had been authentic movement conservatives with the uncanny ability to circumvent the leftist media and communicate directly to 'the American people', the 'purist' conservatives would have stormed the polls in record numbers and carried these two RINOs, and their Republicrat Party, to victory!"
Oops, I forgot, our rightwing intelligentsia isn't interested in either HONEST ANALYSIS or HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE; it's only interested in bashing President Bush in a transparent attempt to position themselves as KING MAKERS for the 2008 Republican nominee for President! [They also want to obscure their own culpability for the loss! . . . What a bunch of pathetic poseurs!!]
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