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.
Well said!!!!!
Uh...the GOP did not win over the majority of the people because it became fat and arrogant and abandoned the same old same old. Human nature doesn't change, and neither do the time tested principles of governance and human aspiration. Recognition of these truths is what conservatism is all about after all, and it works (almost) every time it is actually tried.
Newt's old ideas are better than any new idea that the Republicans have come up with in the last fifteen years.
You mean better than massive pork, amnisty for invaders and drug benefits?
We do not need a brilliant President [could be too dangerous], and luckily haven't had one since Jefferson. Newt would make an excellent geheimrat, a consigliere.
"the GOP did not win over the majority of the people because it became fat and arrogant and abandoned the same old same old."
Bingo.
He won the R straw poll this spring. I assume that support today still stands, maybe even stronger. How often do these straw polls run? Annually?
Sure - it's a great way of running a minority conservative party.
At least Newt doesn't speak in run-on sentences...
I agree. Giving the benefit of the doubt is on my agenda regarding Newt!
I think Bush 41 would have beat him easily had Ross Perot not changed the equation.
Perot wouldn't have been an issue if HW couldn't have been defined by "read my lips" and "new world order".
Be patient. You haven't been here that long. :)
Don't you realize how these type of comments hurt us all? Think about it for awhile.
But he needs to forget about running for president. He's yesterday's news and failed to hit back when the Clintonistas demonized him for shutting down the government.
We need a standard bearer who can hit back AND keep his pants on. His best service to the country will be behind-the-scenes organizing. I have no objection seeing him get a job or having a lot of influence in a new administration. But job #1 is to crush the Hildebeast.
Newt's the most realistic candidate for President in 2008. I don't see anyone else on the horizon yet.
Rudy and McCain are too liberal, both totally unelectable. Sure, it would be great to nominate a Tancredo or a Doc Coburn. But the facts are that they just don't have the national backing yet, to make the run.
Newt's a solid conservative, a man of ideas, an intellectual. Best and probably only chance for the GOP in 08.
So far no one has been floated that comes close to Newt; as far as conservative voters stand. He stands for everything most of us stand for and yet all these people saying they won't vote for him because of the rumors and inuendo's and his divorce.
Oh, believe me I know.. well, I think I know. You realize it turned out Perot was a good friend of Bill Clinton's and who is a better triangulator than Bill Clinton.
He didn't hit back. That is true, but he did clear his reputation after he left office and after Clinton's demonized him. Somehow, I think that might make him a pitbull in an election running against Hillary.
How much of the "Contract with America" did Newt get put into legislation? Very little. And why has he been so chummy with Hillary Clinton? Like I said. You can forgive a man a great deal, but has he learned to keep his zipper up?
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