Memory refresh: someone brought to Newt's attention that Doug Hoffman, who ran on the Conservative Party ticket for NY-23 U.S. House open seat in November 2009 special election as a Tea Party candidate, didn't live in the district and if he won, he would be challenged and disqualified and the seat would go to a Democrat. Newt, who didn't know Dede Scozzafava from Adam, except that she was nominated by NY GOP, "endorsed" a Republican candidate to keep the seat and prevent handing the seat over to Democrats.
Why is that considered a problem? BTW, the postscript to this that nobody talks about, is that in 2010 Doug Hoffman ran again for the same seat, NY-23, in Republican primary and lost, so he decided to run as a Conservative Party candidate again, qualified for the ballot and then withdrew from the race. He received almost 10,000 votes in that election, while Democrat Bill Owen who beat him in special election in 2009 beat Republican candidate by less than 4,000 votes. Hoffman was a "spoiler."
There were no good choices, only two bad ones (due to NY GOP and Conservative Party/Doug Hoffman not doing their homework), so how much sense does it make to criticize Newt for making a "bad" choice, trying to keep the seat in (R) column?
Re ad with Pelosi and destroying Kerry and his arguments for energy scarcity and more government control, regulations and taxes due to "climate change" in the debate, it's an old Sun Tzu's strategy and tactic, today known better as Embrace, Extend, Extinguish. It's much more effective and easier - in public policy issue or politics - to co-opt and destroy the reason, the motive, the end goal of the proponents and the proposal, instead of arguing with the "science" / scientists / methodology etc.. Democrats have been doing if for a long time.
..... About a month after the commercial began airing, Gingrich's now defunct political action group, American Solutions for Winning the Future, began its own advertising campaign -- a pro- oil "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less," mantra aimed at blocking legislation co-sponsored by Senators Joseph I. Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, and John Warner, a Virginia Republican, to combat climate change by curbing carbon emissions. ..... < snip > ..... "We rejected the initial script because it stated positions that we just didn't believe were true," said Tyler. "They wanted Newt to basically talk about global warming, which we would not do. At the time, 'climate change' was seen as a safe thing to say." ..... < snip >
For more background: Pelosi Fires Back at Gingrich - FR, posts #27, 29, 2012 January 09
Outstanding post. Hope you don’t mind if I steal from it when addressing anti-Newt people on here.
You should consider making this into a vanity.