Right wing rips Gingrich, Perry for attacks on Romney, capitalism (Rush, WSJ)

Right wing rips Gingrich, Perry for attacks on Romney, capitalism
By Justin Sink - 01/11/12 12:31 PM ET

Conservatives are savaging Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry for their attacks on Mitt Romney’s years at the private-equity firm Bain Capital.

The attacks from Gingrich and Perry, whose presidential campaigns are on life support, are meant to resonate in South Carolina, the next state on the GOP calendar and a place hit hard by the economic downturn.

Yet in slamming Romney as a corporate raider, the two candidates fighting for their party’s right-wing might have done what Romney never seemed capable of: rallying conservatives around the former Massachusetts governor’s campaign.

The influential Wall Street Journal editorial page denounced the criticism as “crude and damaging caricatures of modern business and capitalism” on Tuesday, saying that “desperate” GOP candidates “sound like Michael Moore,” the left-wing filmmaker and provocateur.

Other prominent conservatives similarly bemoaned what they viewed as liberal attack tactics that will be copied by President Obama’s campaign in November.

Conservative talk radio stalwart Rush Limbaugh said Monday of Gingrich’s criticism that “you could have read this in an Occupy Wall Street flier.”

“You could, after all these bites, say, ‘I’m Barack Obama, and I approve this message,’” Limbaugh said.

Former GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin on Tuesday warned on Fox News that candidates should shift the debate from “anti-capitalist mantra to what it is that the GOP really represents in free markets.”

Some conservatives are also warning that the attacks will backfire by galvanizing conservatives who see criticism of Romney’s Bain record as an attack on the cornerstone principle of free market capitalism.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) — who has not endorsed in the GOP primary race — predicted the arguments would drive Republican voters toward Romney in the upcoming South Carolina primary.

DeMint said Tuesday that Romney’s critics were “sounding like Democrats” in their attacks

“Frankly, I’m a little concerned about the few Republicans who have criticized some of what I consider free market principles here,” DeMint told talk radio host Mark Levin. “We know over half of new businesses fail ... that’s part of the creative-destruction process of free enterprise.”

Gingrich and Perry are giving their critics plenty of ammunition as they attack Romney.

A pro-Gingrich political action committee in South Carolina spent $3.4 million on a buy featuring ads deriding Romney as a “predatory corporate raider” and “scavenger.”

Perry piled on, calling attempts by Romney to sympathize with voters worried about losing their jobs “the ultimate insult.”

“I have no doubt that Mitt Romney was worried about pink slips — whether he was going to have enough of them to hand out because his company Bain Capital with all the jobs that they killed, I’m sure he was worried that he’d run out of pink slips,” Perry said while campaigning in South Carolina.

“If the Romney attacks are seen as an attack on ‘free enterprise,’ it will backfire, because fiscal conservatives see ‘free enterprise’ as the cornerstone of conservative ideology and will protect ‘free enterprise’ at all costs,” he said.

Gingrich has maintained that his criticism is not anti-capitalist but an issue of fairness.

“I think you have to look at the specific companies we are talking about and you have to ask yourself a very tough-minded question: Is it fair to have a system, is it right, is it the kind of country you want to live in, to have a system where somebody comes in [to] take over your company, take out all the cash and leave behind a wreck, and they go off to a country club having a great time and you go off to the unemployment line,” Gingrich said Tuesday in an interview with Fox News.

“Now this is not anti-capitalism, I am not for socialism, I am not for government stopping risk-taking, but I am for some sense of fairness that the entrepreneur and the worker have a joint investment in something succeeding.”

Romney said Wednesday that Bain-related criticisms “fell flat” in New Hampshire.

“They tried it very hard, ran ads here, were up and down the state campaigning, and people in the state here said, ‘Look, we want a guy who spent some time in the private sector, not someone who spent their entire life in Washington.’ So I think it’s working for my benefit,” he told ABC.

But judging from Vice President Biden’s comments Tuesday night, conservatives are right to think Democrats are gleeful to have Republicans using their talking points on the likely GOP standard-bearer.

“He thinks it’s more important for the stockholders and the shareholders and the investors and the venture capital guys to do well [than] for those employees to be part of the bargain,” Biden said during a teleconference with New Hampshire supporters.

People who attack Newt Gingrich for "anti-capitalism" or not understanding PE/Private Equity business don't realize or understand a few things:

1. Does stating the facts about some less than honest business practices and/or hypocrisy of big investors like George Soros, "The Union Guy" Ron Burkle or "Not Taxed Enough" Warren Buffett et al> have the same meaning as an "attack on capitalism"?

2. Newt was a member of Advisory Board at Forstmann Little, a big white shoe investment firm which competed with some of the "vulture funds" like Bain Capital or Wilbur Ross etc., so he is very well informed about PE business and the differences in investment models. Also definitely makes him anti-"anti-capitalist" and to call him a socialist or anti-capitalists is just silly. Teddy Forstmann (RIP) and his brother Nicholas (Nick) coined the phrase "Barbarians are at the gates! Let's push the barbarians back!" Teddy was a big Republican donor and philanthropist, donating time and money to reform education system and supporting voucher programs and charter schools, among many other things (instead of donating to the Met and other "glamorous" public "causes"). Ref: Other People's Money - NYM, 2004 July 12.

Most importantly, 3. The people who denounce Gingrich as "anti-capitalist rhetoric" and "speaking the language of the left" just for pointing out problems in Romney's self-described "job-creating," "executive" and "business" background (which the left will use anyway in the general election, along with "privileged," and about specifics of which Romney is uncharacteristically shy / quiet) are themselves engaging in "speaking the language of the left" by using left-wing tactic of defusing and obfuscating issues, e.g.,:

Pointing the problems with EPA and suffocating "environmental" regulations will get you branded as "anti-environment, wanting dirty air and dirty water..."
Pointing out problems with schools, high administrating costs, teacher's compensation, tenure etc. will get you branded as "anti-education, especially for poor and underprivileged..."
Pointing out problems with public unions or some oversized government workers compensation, overtime, pension packages and double-dipping will get you branded as "anti-government, anti-parks/environment, anti-firemen, anti-police and against law and order..."
Pointing out the problems with private sector unions will get you branded as "anti-working-class, anti-labor, anti-blue-collar and anti-middle-class..."

If you don't [want to] see the difference between anti-capitalist which Newt has never been (and, curiously has never before been accused of, until Mitt unleashed $10M ad campaign of lies) and someone who is pointing out problems with the ethics in Romney's business and political background (as opposed to what he is trying to portray himself in campaign) then you have a serious bias and this message won't get through to you.

So re being instrument of "Big Government, class warfare and language of the left", it is not Newt who is involved in it, but guess who does:
The GOP's Working Class Muddle (Santorum and Romney following Democrats class-warfare) | The Santorum and Romney campaigns are following Democrats down the class-warfare rabbit hole. - FR / WSJ, by Kimberley A. Strassel, 2012 January 06

From The GOP's Working Class Muddle

< snip > ..... What both campaigns are in fact doing is following Democrats down the class-warfare rabbit hole. Spooked by the Democrats' inequality theme, the Romney and Santorum campaigns are taking the narrow view, catering to the blue-collar vote, playing the class game.
In an election that needs to be about contrasts, this is point Obama. Game on for candidate Santorum, who gets to explain why his own policies for government to reward certain classes of citizens over others are any different than Mr. Obama's. Or let's see candidate Romney knock Mr. Obama's proposals to further tax America's job creators, those Mr. Romney thinks are doing "just fine." The bigger risk is that a Republican president actually pursues these distorting economic policies, sacrificing growth.
These are mistakes Ronald Reagan would never have made. The Californian was great at identifying with Everyman, but he never pitted the classes against each other. ..... < snip >

Do Republicans really want to nominate yet another Big Government "compassionate ~~conservative~~ Republican" or yet another privileged Harvard and/or Yale-educated lawyer/MBA?

In contrast, here's what Newt was doing post-Contract With America for conservative organizations and causes:
From Pelosi Fires Back at Gingrich - FR, posts #29, #27, 2012 January 09

In the 13 years since he suffered a string of political setbacks and quit the third most powerful job in Washington, Newt Gingrich has been busily laying the foundation for a comeback to an even grander perch. On any given day, the former Speaker of the House can be found on a chartered jet headed to Iowa to train future GOP candidates through his American Solutions group, or in Phoenix discussing ways to lower health-care costs with drug makers through his for-profit Center for Health Transformation. He might also be in Philadelphia, narrating a film produced by Gingrich Productions, or in Texas, reaching out to conservative Latino leaders through his bilingual news and commentary website, the Americano.
Now, as Mr. Gingrich prepares to launch a run for president as early as this week, this network of advocacy and for-profit groups is providing a publicity and policy machine without parallel among his likely Republican rivals, few of whom have stirred excitement among donors and activists.
His network has amassed more than 1.7 million voter and donor contacts and raised $32 million between 2009 and 2010 -- more than all his potential 2012 rivals combined.
Far less clear is whether these efforts, and the extent of his organizational infrastructure, will be enough to put him out front, should Mr. Gingrich decide to seek the presidential nomination. ..... < snip >
(Gingrich's Secret Weapon: Newt Inc. - WSJ, by Neil King Jr. and Patrick O'Connor, 2011 May 09

What did Romney-Perry-Santorum-Bachmann-Huntsman or other "talkers" do for conservative causes and organizations during that post-Contract period that was of any tangible value, instead of engaging in the class-warfare during their campaigns?

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