The problem I think is that Newt will never get a nod from George Bush and therefore he will not be named chairman of the RNC which is a very great pity. I have long thought that Bush, instead of mediocrities like Governor Ridge and his successor, should have made Gingrich czar of Homeland security. Had Bush done so, we almost certainly would have avoided the catastrophic aftermath of Katrina and its consequences at the polls in November.
But Gingrich is not Bush's kind of man. Gingrich is not button-down. Gingrich is a team leader more than a team player and Bush, if nothing else, wants conformity on his team. Maybe this is what led us to the disaster in Iraq. In any event, Bush will not tolerate Gingrich in any position where he can make policy. So in order to have influence, Newt is left with making a run at the White House in 08. In this respect the Republican establishment's attitude towards Gingrich resembles that of British Conservatives toward Churchill between the wars. Indeed, in many ways including his intellectual candlepower, his prodigious output of writings, and his incendiary tendency to piss off a friend and foe alike, Gingrich resembles Churchill. How nice it would be if the Republican Party could send out a message to its ships at sea, "Newt is back." If the nation finds itself in a fix resembling that of Britain in 1939, after a strike on the homeland for example, such a message might have to be sent.
Meanwhile, we really need Newt to play a bad cop to Bush's good cop for the next two years. Newt can attack, attack, attack, and unmask the lunacy of the coming Pillosi/Reed Congress. Any hope that Bush will even attempt to do this is forlorn.
The really depressing thought is that the only ball carrier we have on our team now is George Bush. We need somebody in some pulpit, bully or otherwise, who can at least fashion a coherent sentence if we are not to be swamped in 08.
And here:
While Bush is preoccupied with his historical legacy which is all wrapped up with and the war in Iraq, the Republican Party must be concerned, literally, with its own survival as a viable national party. In the 2008 election the odds are against us: the 2006 election demonstrated that the Democrats are capable of raiding deep into our territory and we can make no gains anywhere in the blue states. We will be conducting a national election after having held office for eight years. The demographics are increasingly against us as unchecked immigration changes the coloration of America and in America all politics are racial, not local. From the top of the ticket on down, Republicans will face a relentless media tsunami which will require a whole new set of tactics to counter. Finally the war in Iraq is a political disaster which may shatter our election hopes across-the-board and leave the party holding not much more than the old Confederacy. The last election demonstrated that the Republican hold on Missouri, Tennessee, Virginia (gasp, the Old Dominion!), Ohio, and even Florida are in grave jeopardy and with the loss of almost any one of these states we cannot have the presidency.
Enter Newt Gingrich who I believe sees the handwriting on the wall in the general terms which I have just set down. Newt knows the only possible chance Republicans have is to revert to conservative principles and to do so while changing the subject away from Iraq, away from health care, in short, away from the entire "progressive" Democrat agenda and onto a whole new way of seeing the world. We simply cannot win the election if it is fought over Iraq and healthcare as the establishment media will try to achieve as it sets the agenda. Gingrich is possessed of the kind of mind which can change the whole agenda but he is not the right messenger.
And finally, along the same lines, here:
Gingrich has nearly as much downside as Hillary but 10 times the upside. Historically, our closest article to Winston Churchill was probably Theodore Roosevelt. But among the current crop of politicians in America, the closest to Winston Churchill is clearly Newt Gingrich. He has not been utilized by the Bush administration for the same reasons that Winston Churchill was not utilized during the years of appeasement in Great Britain-neither one was a team player, both were brilliant, and both had a pyrotechnic ability to piss people off.
The Bush administration never embraced Gingrich, not because he is radioactive, but because he is not button-down. Can you imagine the last election if Newt Gingrich had been chairman of the Republican National Committee? Can you imagine the aftermath of Katrina if Newt Gingrich had been ram rodding Homeland Security? We might still have the House and Senate.
There was wide scope to let play the genius of Newt Gingrich in this administration but the country club Republicans would not have it. Karl Rove would rather pretend to be a real conservative than to actually set one loose inside the harem.
Newt Gingrich cannot be our nominee, we all know that, but he can save the party.
