The History of Newt - Are Republicans ready to look past his transgressions?

The Weekly Standard ^ | November 28, 2011 issue | Fred Barnes

[Cincinatus' Wife]

……..If 2012 were an ordinary election year, Gingrich would be doomed by his gaffes, three marriages, and fleeting alliances with HillaryClinton on health care and Nancy Pelosi on global warming. But 2012 is different. Republicans are fixated on defeating PresidentObama. They’re obsessed. They think about little else. And if that means choosing a candidate with a lurid past and a penchant for self-destruction to beat Obama, Republicans are likely to swallow hard and nominate Gingrich.

In their hearts, Republicans have always wanted a candidate who is bold and tough, and Gingrich is. They’re not sure about MittRomney, who is cautious, conventional, and sounds more conciliatory than Gingrich. There’s a reason Romney’s support has been stuck for months at roughly a quarter of the Republican electorate. His blandness explains it. Gingrich is anything but bland.

To rally behind Gingrich, Republicans wouldn’t have to forgive his past sins, just treat them as irrelevant. They already talk about how sweet it would be to see Gingrich crush Obama in presidential debates. They don’t see Romney that way.

But Romney has two important traits Gingrich lacks: carefulness and self-discipline. He doesn’t shoot off his mouth recklessly, as Gingrich often has. In May, the former House speaker practically blew up his campaign by attacking Representative Paul Ryan’s Medicare reform plan as “right-wing social engineering.” He later apologized.

Talk to any of Gingrich’s current or former associates and you hear about the “bad Newt.” This is the undisciplined Gingrich, prone, as one long-time friend says, “to overshoot the runway on something,” perhaps with a wild and inappropriate comment that’s ruinous to his campaign. Many of those who know him believe it’s only a matter of time before he runs amok.

Believe it or not, his press secretary…insists Gingrich has gotten a grip on himself….

[ontap]

I’m not lumping them all together, that’s what I’m complaining about.Historical context has nothing to do with it. If it is put into context today it’s an untrue and stupid comparison.