Gingrich's Main Backer Plays Two Angles (Report: Adelson after Rick)

Wall Street Journal ^ | 2-14-12 | Mundy

[VinL]

Billionaire Sheldon Adelson, by far the biggest financial backer of Newt Gingrich's presidential bid, is preparing to open his wallet again. But this time, the casino magnate appears to have more than one agenda.

In a bit of political chess, Mr. Adelson is ready to not only directly support the former House speaker in the Republican primary, but to use his cash to push Rick Santorum from his position atop the latest national polls, according to people to have discussed the matter with Mr. Adelson.

Enlarge Image ADELSON ADELSON Las Vegas Review-Journal/Associated Press

Sheldon Adelson, shown with his wife, Miriam, at a Nevada caucus meeting in Summerlin, Nev., could give an additional $10 million to Newt Gingrich.

If Mr. Gingrich could afford to continue campaigning, one of those people said, he might be able to draw off conservative and evangelical voters from Mr. Santorum, improving the chances of Mitt Romney, who Mr. Adelson believes has a better chance to win November's general election.

"Sheldon says we all have to keep our eyes on the goal here—beating Obama," said a person who talked with Mr. Adelson.

According to the people who have discussed the matter, Mr. Adelson could give an additional $10 million or more to an independent group supporting Mr. Gingrich before Super Tuesday, March 6, a likely pivotal day when 10 states go to the polls. The Adelson family has already given $11 million to support Mr. Gingrich since December.

Mr. Adelson has repeatedly declined to comment on his donations. He "holds his cards tight to the chest because this has been such a seesaw primary you don't know where it's going to go," said Andy Abboud, vice president for government relations at Las Vegas Sands Corp.... (snip)

[sheikdetailfeather]

CNN asked Newt if Romney would be on his short list for VP. He said yes. I can tell you that was being diplomatic. Trump said Gingrich and Romney cannot stand each other. As for Newt supporters being bamboozled, I would say those who support Newt do so knowing all his shortcomings and weighing the good against the bad.

[VinL]

My friend, with respect, I believe you’re absolutely wrong. Newt would never want Romney as a VP- and how in the name of Heaven could Romney take Newt as a VP after “destroying” his character over the past 4 months?

Marcus Aurelius-accept the obvious. Adelson and Newt have been friends for almost 40 years— Adelson likely has nothing against Rick, and nothing for Romney-— he merely supports his frien Newt.

[Lazlo in PA]

If Mr. Gingrich could afford to continue campaigning, one of those people said, he might be able to draw off conservative and evangelical voters from Mr. Santorum, improving the chances of Mitt Romney, who Mr. Adelson believes has a better chance to win November’s general election.

I guess we now know who the real stalking horse is. Mystery solved.

[erkelly]

Newt is not the Ross Perot of this election. Ross Perot was a third party kook, not a top tier candidate running in the GOP primary. Mr. Newt has been doggedly pressing on from the beginning, getting his message out, and never wavering. Because that dishonest lying worthless Romney hit him repeatedly below the belt and (perhaps temporarily) knocked him from his front runner status does not make him another Ross Perot whose wounds were entirely self inflicted; indeed that crackpot was only in the race to elect Bill Clinton, he most certainly was not in it to win.

If Santorum or Romney or another Republican should win the nomination, and if Newt THEN decided to run as a third party candidate, and then IF he found himself at the top of the polls projected to be the likely winner, decided then to act like a flake and a screwball, dropping out for the stupidest and most unbelievable of reasons, and then coming back in just in time to take just enough votes away from the GOP candidate by people who were not thinking quite straight, therefore ensuring an Obama win, then the comparison would be apt.

Newt has endured enough slander and slime, he certainly does not deserve to be called a Ross Perot.

[sheikdetailfeather]

Supposedly, the Romney camp met with Adelson in Vegas during their primary to see if Adelson would give money to Romney. The media confronted Newt to see if he would be upset about it. That is when Newt said Adelson is for getting rid of Obama because he is anti-Israel, so whoever he feels can win, he will help.

[VinL]

You’re absolutely correct. Romney has been pressuring Adelson not to give Newt funds- and Romney is vicious and formidable.

This funding has absolutely nothing to do with Rick- and everything to do with merely funding Adelson’s long time friend, Newt. I commend Adelson for his loyalty to Newt- he’s actually making a powerful enemy in Romney.

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

Santorum makes Bush look like Ronald Reagan. But go ahead, keep on shilling for this closet RINO till you are “blue” (Get it?) in the face.

http://www.redstate.com/erick/2012/01/06/what-a-big-government-conservative-looks-like/

NEA
Voted for taxpayer funding of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Voted against a 10% cut in the budget for National Endowment for the Arts.

Bankruptcy
Voted for a Schumer amendment to make the debts of pro-life demonstrators not dischargeable in bankruptcy.

Defense and Foreign Policy

Voted for the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
Voted against requiring the President to certify that the CWC is effectively verifiable.

Voted against requiring the President to certify that that Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, North Korea, China, and all other countries determined to be state sponsors of terror have joined CWC prior to submitting the instrument of ratification.

Voted for the START II Treaty
Voted to allow the sale of supercomputers to China.
Voted to ban antipersonnel landmines
Voted against increasing defense spending offset by equivalent cuts in non-defense spending.
Voted to require that Federal bureaucrats get the same payraises as uniformed military.
Voted to allow food and medicine sales to state sponsors of terror and tyranical regimes such as Libya and Cuba.
Voted to limit the President’s authority to impose sanctions on nations for reasons of national security unless the sanctions were approved by a multilateral regime.
Voted against requiring Congressional authorization for military action in Bosnia.
Voted to give $25 million in foreign aid to North Korea
Voted to weaken alien terrorist deportation provisions. If the Court determines that the evidence must be withheld for national security reasons, the Justice Department must still provide a summary of the evidence sufficient for the alien terrorist to mount a defense against deportation.
Voted against delaying the India Nuclear until the President certified that India had agreed to suspend military-to-military exchanges with Iran.
Voted against the Conventional Trident Missile Program

Nominations
Voted for Richard Paez to the 9th Curcuit (cloture)
Voted for Sonia Sotomayor, Circuit Judge
Voted for Richard Holbrooke to be Ambassador to the UN
Voted for Margaret Morrow to be District Judge
Voted twice for Marsha Berzon to the 9thg Circuit
Voted for Mary McLaughlin to be District Judge
Voted for Tim Dyk to be District Judge
Voted for James Brady to be District Judge

Labor
Voted against National Right to Work Act
Voted against Real of Davis-Bacon Prevailing union wages
Voted for Alexis Herman to be Secretary of Labor
Voted for mandatory Federal child care funding
Voted for Trade Adjustment Assistance.
Voted for Job Corps funding
Voted twice in support of Fedex Unionization
Voted against allowing a waiver of Davis-Bacon in emergency situations.
Voted for minimum wage increases six times here here here here here and here
Voted to require a union representative on an IRS oversight board.
Voted to exempt IRS union representative from criminal ethics laws.
Voted against creating independent Board of Governors to investigate IRS abuses.
Guns

Voted to require pawn shops to do background checks on people who pawn a gun.
Voted twice to make it illegal to sell a gun without a secure storage or safety device
Voted for a Federal ban on possession of “assault weapons” by those under 18.
Voted for Federal funding for anti-gun education programs in schools.
Voted for anti-gun juvenile justice bill.

Reform

Voted for funding for the legal services corporation.
Voted twice for a Congressional payraise.
Voted to impose a uniform Federal mandate on states to force them to allow convicted rapits, arsonists, drug kingpins, and all other ex-convicts to vote in Federal elections.
Voted for the Specter “backup plan” to allow campaign finance reform to survive if portions of the bill were found unconstitutional.
Voted to mandate discounted broadcast times for politicians.
Voted for a McCain amendment to require State and local campaign committees to report all campaign contributions to the FEC and to require all campaign contributions to be reported to the FEC within 24 hours within 90 days of an election.

Immigration
Voted against increasing the number of immigration investigators
Voted to allow illegal immigrants to receive the earned income credit before becoming citizens
Voted to give SSI benefits to legal aliens.
Voted to give welfare benefits to naturalized citizens without regard to to the earnings of their sponsors.
Voted against hiring an additional 1,000 border partrol agents, paid for by reductions in state grants.

Taxes
Voted against a flat tax.
Voted to increase tobacco taxes to pay for Medicare prescription drugs
Voted to increase tobacco taxes to fund health insurance subsidies for small businesses.
Voted to increase tobacco taxes to pay for an $8 billion increase in child healh insurance.
Voted to increase tobacco taxes to pay for an increase in NIH funding.
Voted twice for internet taxes.
Voted to allow gas tax revenues to be used to subsidize Amtrak.
Voted to strike marriage penalty tax relief and instead provide fines on tobacco companies.
Voted against repealing the Clinton 4.3 cent gas tax increase.
Voted to increase taxes by $2.3 billion to pay for an Amtrak trust fund.
Voted to allow welfare to a minor who had a child out of wedlock and who resided with an adult who was on welfare within the previous two years.
Voted to increase taxes by $9.4 billion to pay for a $9.4 billion increase in student loans.
Voted to say that AMT patch is more important than capital gains and dividend relief.

Welfare
Voted against food stamp reform
Voted against Medicaid reform
Voted against TANF reform
Voted to increase the Social Services Block Grant from $1 billion to $2 billion
Voted to increase the FHA loan from $170,000 to $197,000. Also opposed increasing GNMA guaranty from 6 basis points to 12.
Voted for $2 billion for low income heating assistance.

Waste
Sponsored An amendment to increase Amtrak funds by $550 million
Voted to use HUD funds for the Joslyn Art Museum (NE), the Stand Up for Animals project (RI) and the Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Project (WA)
Voted to increase spending on social programs by $7 billion
Voted to increase NIH funding by $1.6 billion.
Voted to increase NIHnding by $700 million
Voted to for a $2 million earmark to renovate the Vulcan Monument (AL)
Voted for a $1 billion bailout for the steel industry
Voted against requiring that highway earmarks would come out of a state’s highway allocation
Voted to allow Market Access Program funds to go to foreign companies.
Voted to allow OPIC to increase its administrative costs by 50%
Voted against transferring $20 million from Americorps to veterans.
Voted for the $140 billion asbestos compensation bill.
Voted against requiring a uniform medical criteria to ensure asbestos claims were legitimate.
Voted to increase community development programs by $2 billion.

Spending and Entitlements
Voted to make Medicare part B premium subsidies an new entitlement.
Voted against paying off the debt ($5.6 trillion at the time) within 30 years.
Voted to give $18 billion to the IMF.
Voted to raid Social Security instead of using surpluses to pay down the debt.

Health Care
Voted to allow states to impose health care mandates that are stricter than proposed new Federal mandates, but not weaker.
Voted twice for Federal mental health parity mandates in health insurance.
Voted against a allow consumers the option to purchase a plan outside the parity mandate.

Education
Voted to increase Federal funding for teacher testing
Voted to increase spending for the Department of Education by $3.1 billion.
Voted against requiring courts to consider the impact of IDEA awards on a local school district.

Energy

Voted to allow the President to designate certain sites as interim nuclear waste storage sites in the event that he determines that Yucca Mountain is not a suitable site for a permanent waste repository. Those sites are as follows: the nuclear waste site in Hanford, Washington; the Savannah River Site in South Carolina; Barnwell County, South Carolina; and the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee.

Voted to make fuel price gouging a Federal crime.

[Lazlo in PA]

Mr. Newt has been doggedly pressing on from the beginning, getting his message out, and never wavering.

That is not true. Newt gave an interview today, after addressing a Hispanic leadership event in Los Angeles, with the press today where he said straight up that most of his woes in polls and losing contests was directly related to him being off message. He explained that all the time going after Romney was damaging. That is why he is restating again that he is going to focus on policy.

[VinL]

Stop- you’re an intelligent person- and now you’re not being fair. Adelson is supporting Newt- a 35 year friend. If he were supporting Romney, he would have never given Newt the $10M after Newt lost Iowa.

[sheikdetailfeather]

I believe it. Romney does not want Newt to get any standing ovations. Northern Florida had a lot of Romney people in the audience from what I heard. That is why they were so weird.

[Christie at the beach]

>>On Facebook it is being said that Romney has bought all the —>>seats at the debate next week in AZ and is filling them with his supporters.

Oh, sorry, I meant to share this on another thread. another conservation/sorry, didn't mean to interrupt the subject on topic.

[napscoordinator]

On Facebook it is being said that Romney has bought all the seats at the debate next week in AZ and is filling them with his supporters.

Damn him. This pisses me off. Why not give the four candidates equal number of tickets and let them give them out. See we agree on this.

[Christie at the beach]

It is being posted on facebook and even now people

have posted it on Sarah Palin facebook so, I guess another

repeat like Jacksonville where Mitt bused in students. They should give out equal tickets ( Cheating to look popular) for the number of candidates or just let the public walk in.

[JohnBovenmyer]

The next debate is in AZ. Mitt is going to lose his home state of MI (IIRC his old home was one of the vacant ones torn down in Detroit area) but is going to try to make up for it by playing the McCain card in AZ. If it turns out that way all should go out of their way to give the credit to McCain, NOT to Romney, in AZ and to focus on the “big upset” in MI.

[napscoordinator]

The only thing I have heard from Santorum say is that he will repeal Obama Care.

He has said more. I am hoping for a constitutional amendment for getting rid of abortion, getting rid of gay marriage and getting rid of gays in the military. Those would be three issues that would most help America. We need to get back to our morals. Some said it would be hard because of the Democrats in Congress. However, with Santorum at the top of the ticket, we will have coat tails down ticket. See nobody showed up to vote for McCain (we did here), but EVERYONE will show up to vote for Santorum. Just knowing that he would ban gay marriage will get Americans to the voting booth in droves. We are very lucky that Santorum is a social conservative. It is going to be very helpful for the general. He is very good fiscally which is the cherry on top.

[re_nortex]

So the big money scum will now completely control our elections.

I think those who have done well should have an active voice in our election process. These people are the risk takers who embody the Capitalist system of free enterprise. It's the so-called "big money scum" that provide jobs for thousands and are the engine of America's economy. These are the people and corporations who have a stake in our country.

I'm on record as being in full agreement with the Citizens United v. FEC decision. And if Mr. Adelson invests his money in the support of Newt Gingrich, I consider that a very wise choice indeed.

[sheikdetailfeather]

I heard a political strategist on Fox one night saying that when an attack ad comes out against a candidate, the best way to handle it is to address it briefly and get right back on message. Ronald Reagan did that well. They said the last thing you should do is just not answer it like what happened to Newt in Iowa. Of course, on the other hand, the way the superpac attacked Romney did not serve Newt well either. What happened here in Florida with all the Romney attack ads was a disgrace. It is not easy to answer 19 million dollars worth of attack ads coming at you like napalm.

[Reagan69]

Great post.

I copied and posted on Hot air. Hope you don’t mind.

[StarFan]

See Post 25 which resurrected my memory of the media confronting Gingrich and his reply.

Supposedly, the Romney camp met with Adelson in Vegas during their primary to see if Adelson would give money to Romney. The media confronted Newt to see if he would be upset about it. That is when Newt said Adelson is for getting rid of Obama because he is anti-Israel, so whoever he feels can win, he will help.

[Kimberly GG]

Wow....that’s some list! I’m not interested in Romney, but if you’ve also done a thorough ‘anti’ list on Gingrich, would you mind posting it too?.. it would be helpful in establishing a comparison. Thanks!