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."
Whether or not Newt is a hypocrite has zero relevance to the argument he makes about GOP strategy. Back to Logical Fallacies 101 for you.
Clinton/Giuliani (and Rice for Secretary of Defense) 2008
...to make man hater and Caligula "conservatives" happy. [g]
But if this country contains enough decency and common sense, Newt will be our president after '08.
How old was Newt when he married his teacher? Is she one of those who would be on TV today for having sex with a minor?
and Meyers
It wasn't that GWB was trying to hurt the Republican candidates. But he thought it was more important to make himself look good.
He is getting a lot of good publicity in the main stream media from his moves the last few days.
Well, OK . . . in which case Rumsfeld should have "fired" the administration a long time ago.
Maybe the fault is with the person they never blame.
And who would that be?
Reagan pounded Bush's policies but NEVER the man.
I only wish the Newt basher's would do the same
Romney used Massachusetts as a stepping stone for his political ambitions. After three years, he abandoned the state and Kerry Healey in her gubernatorial bid while he flew around the country. I always liked him, now I feel used.
the bad advice of consultants —
led to Tuesday's defeat.
It didn't help that the pundits, consultants, "experts" and current crop of CONgresscritters, were too busy publicly finding fault with the administration, pandering to terrorists and ILLEGALS while hiding and protecting the REAL CORRUPTION of the demonRATS and constantly apologizing for breathing.
> 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.
Rush Limbaugh has 3 ex wives, yet many people here worship the ground he walks on, which is the moral equivalent of voting for him.
Reagan wasn't, uh, "courting" his second wife when he anddivorced Ms. Wyman were divorced. I believe the Newtster , like Rudy, was.
You tell me. Which very high ranking Bush Administration offical is never attacked by Democrats or the media.
That offical is said to bring "calm" and "reason" and all the other stuff the New York Times just loves in foreign policy. A "global test" to decisions, one might say.
I hope so, but the "team" that seems to follow a member of the Bush family around seems to be stuck around them.
We'll see if Jeb ever runs and if he can maintain his independence from their likes.
I don't think it would have made a hill of beans worth of difference. If Rummy had resigned two weeks before the election, the MSM and the Dems would have just spent that final two weeks crowing about it, and the outcome would have been the same.
The bottom line is that the dems are NOT our friends, never have been and never will be. The goal always should be to defeat them and not to bow to them.
Good post! Thanks!
Why would anyone marry a guy who looks like Lurch, acts like Lurch, and can't get out of his own way? Bad taste, lady.
I dunno -- Colin Bowel has been gone for a while now.
Nah, I put that responsibility squarely on the shoulders of the members of Congress themselves. They got too full of themselves and too greedy; folks just got tired of it.
I am not advocating criticizing a person (esp a Republican) on a personal level, that is below the belt. If you look through my posts on FR, I don't think you'll find any personal animus from myself to anyone, politician or otherwise.
However, if a person is completely tied to a policy (ala CFR + McCain) then I have no qualms about criticizing that person directly. I also have no problems criticizing Bush for his double speak about Rumsfeld.
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