Posted on 11/23/2006 6:36:57 PM PST by no dems
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is telling associates that he’s launching a major new grass-roots movement to recapture the soul of the Republican Party, and quite possibly the White House.
Gingrich says that the effort will be much larger than his founding of GOPAC and his creation of the Contract with America.
The Georgia Republican is spearheading a program called "American Solutions for Winning the Future” in an effort to revitalize the GOP with Ronald Reagan conservatism.
This is the third time Gingrich has led a drive to steer the Republican Party toward traditional conservative values. In 1986, Gingrich took the chair of the Republican political action committee GOPAC and transformed it into an effective tool for electing conservative candidates. The stated theme of GOPAC was "a conservative opportunity society replacing the liberal welfare state.”
GOPAC was a key element in Gingrich’s rise to the leadership of the Republican caucus in Congress.
Then in 1994, as House Minority Leader, Gingrich was a co-author of the Contract with America, a conservative political platform that helped the GOP gain 54 seats in the House and end 40 years of Democratic majorities there.
Gingrich’s new program echoes the title of his 2005 book, "Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract with America.”
Sources close to the former speaker say Gingrich believes the Republican Party has once again lost its way, and needs to refocus its agenda with an eye toward regaining Congress in 2008.
Stepping back into the political spotlight could help Gingrich’s presidential aspirations as well.
He recently told an interviewer that he won’t decide whether to seek the White House in 2008 until September of 2007.
But insiders predict Gingrich could throw his hat into the ring if a true Reagan conservative doesn’t emerge as a likely GOP candidate.
For the time being, he’s playing his cards close to the vest. "I am not ‘running’ for president, I am seeking to create a movement to win the future by offering a series of solutions so compelling that if the American people say I have to be president, it will happen,” he tells Fortune magazine.
Gingrich said he plans to build grass-roots support for the health care, national security, and energy independence ideas he has been promoting for the past six years.
From what I recall, Newt resigned in 1998 after the Republicans, under his direction, lost a number of seats even though Newt had assured the GOP caucus that, if they went hard on the Lewinsky-Impeachment thing, the GOP would win seats.
Just like D. Hastert has now resigned over his inept election strategy.
Newt was right in principle, but the American electorate in general viewed the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal as a sexual thing, and not a lawbreaking moral crisis.
I certainly dont recall this big swell of outrage over Newt supposedly "not being able to control his urges."
Do you happen to have any link to a credible source, or is this a case of a Freeper getting brainwashed again by the mainstream media.
I think I'd vote for him. A very smart and admirable man that more people should at least listen to.
Oh, that's right, he did immoral things. Okay, you sinless people don't have to listen to him.
I wasn't aware he moved back to Georgia.
Is this poor journalism or have I missed something?
The "Divorce" issue today is not like it was in 1952 when Adalai Stevenson lost to Ike. His divorce was a big issue.
BTW, see my post #238.
The majority of those bills were never passed by the Senate. And then whatever didn't get passed was dropped the House. Bye, bye contract.
The Contract with America was a clever piece of the Republican strategy in one election. And that is all it ever was.
As for Newt running for president, by all means send him a check, But I won't be voting for him in a primary.
He'll always be the "Georgia" Republican. He served in Congress from Georgia. It's just like Gerald Ford will always be the President from Michigan although he hasn't lived there for many, many years.
Yes, he did "blow" it more ways than one....
BTTT!!!
Well, I do remember. Newt's infidelity to his wife was a part of the picture. It made him look like a hypocrite. I am your credible source.
I don't think so. His potential problem is that he is a Mormon. I would hope that the country wouldn't be predjudiced against him for that, but I am not sure. He does not seem to have involved his religion in his governing thus far.
Harry Reid is a Mormon and the 'rats don't seem to care. Of course they depend on their non-elite constituency to be uninformed so that doesn't prove anything.
Newt could never have been Governor of Georgia because this was a Democrat state then. [He was also originally from Pennsylvania, which was a tough thing to overcome in the 1970's rural Georgia.]
Newt won as a real Conservative in the GA 6th and GA 7th districts [Remember Larry McDonald killed on Korean Air Flight 007]!
The only way a Republican finally won, was for Sonny Purdue to cross over from Democrat to Republican and bring his Blue Dogs with him to the Governorship.
I want to know also....who is your candidate stripes?
We have a long time to the primary. But I do have two on the strike off list: McCain and Gingrich. If either of those two should unfortunately get the nomination, I will of course hold me nose and vote.
" But I do have two on the strike off list: McCain and Gingrich."
Looking at your previous post, "But if a man can't govern his own sexual passions, how does that qualify him to govern the passions of a nation?", Rudy must surely also be on the "strike off list".
All of it as promised in the House!
Here is the point. The Contract for America was a clever part of the Republican strategy to elect people to the House. Most of it was not passed by the Senate. And then the House just dropped what the Senate didn't pass or Clinton vetoed. Bye, bye contract.
You recall incorrectly! He had just won reelection. The MSM revealed that he had an affair with his assistant. They fell in love over breakfast every morning. He was leaving Marianne. Then he bolted from Congress apparently in shame.
He was my Congressman and I remember all of Cobb County was left in shock! Dems had a field-day. I had to develop a look to shut down their taunts.
Am I still bitter? A little I guess.
But I would still vote for him again if he told me he would stand up to the Dems at any cost this time!
Great suggestion. I didn't think he would run. But if he is, let's put Giuliani on the list too.
Hmmmm, interesting when you describe it that way, I'm left to wonder if perhaps he was both in love as well as embarassed at the same time.... it's not an uncommon emotion. I'm old enough to recognize that sometimes people have no control over who or when they fall in love and I'm not going to judge him on that, rather on how well suited I think he may be to run this nation in a very trying time.
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