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."
You tell 'em Newt.
Yes he IS right about the Rumsfeld thing.
Pres Bush waited until the day after the election because he didn't think it was fair to inject the effect of removing Rumsfeld into the election.
Both he and his father have this "play nice" attitude that too often winds up shooting themselves in the foot.
Hastert's defending of William Jefferson, D-LA, was the straw that broke the camel's back.
----.......
..monday morning football???? ...etc. :/
Rudy has the same problem. Or does it only matter for Newt.
Newt's right. Defending Bush on this point is dumb.
Conservatives engaged in their favorite sport: the circular firing squad.
Newt!!!!
Sorry sucker. You betrayed us once. We don't give second times.
From world net daily
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39239
Now I remember about his divorce. His divorce records are sealed.
But Jack Ryan's were opened during his campaign.
"The couple had two daughters, Alexandra in 1973 and Vanessa in 1976, but all was not bliss in the Kerry mansions. They separated in 1982, with Thorne in the depths of a severe depression and on the brink of suicide, which she blamed on her husband's cold and distant nature, his long absences and his fierce ambition (which she was bankrolling). The separation came as Kerry was mulling a bid to run for the Senate seat vacated by Paul Tsongas in 1984; Thorne said she still associates politics 'only with anger, fear and loneliness.' In 1988, the final divorce went through. ... She later called her relationship with Kerry a 'suffocating marriage.'"
That played a part.
'...but any man who has 2 ex wives shows he is lacking in commitment and responsbility..."
Millions of irresponsible non-committers running around....
That's how I recall it. Oddly, Kerry is apparently still "friends" with her brother. Well, maybe she was as glad to get out of the marriage as he was -- by the little I've seen about her, she seems to have been a nice person.
I wonder why they won. Why were Americans so stupid not to vote for us?
I always liked him too. from wikipedia'
In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed Rogan as Undersecretary of Commerce and director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He left the positions in 2004 to join a law firm in Washington, DC, but later joined Preston Gates & Ellis LLP in Irvine, California.
In 2004, Rogan wrote his autobiography, titled Rough Edges: My Unlikely Road from Welfare to Washington.
In August 2006, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Rogan to serve as a judge on the Orange County Superior Court. [1]
Really? Not philandering, fat, power-happy old gasbags?
Neat. And people complain about Ahnold.
The GOP eared their losses. They strayed from their conservative principles and values. They went on a spending spree and their power went to their heads. They became the antithesis of what conservatives stand for.
You can all criticize New Gingrich - how soon you all forget that he brought the Republicans into power in Congress.
Et tu brute?
Independent voters believed that the war in Iraq was a mess and the only way to change course was to vote Dem, when Bush could have said weeks ago that he recognized things in Iraq were a mess and that he was making a change.
Thanks for the update.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.