Gingrich’s Next Move

Creator's Syndicate ^ | March 15, 2012 | Pat Towery

[Cincinatus' Wife]

It was unbelievable: After Newt Gingrich failed to win both Alabama and Mississippi in the GOP race for president, most members of the mainstream media and political strategists with whom I talked readily admitted, off the record, that he was the most qualified among the Republican candidates to serve as president.

Now these are objective pros that have been around presidential politics for years. I have no doubt they were telling me the truth because these folks only tell you this stuff when it is relatively clear that the candidate is no longer a viable alternative.

Best on foreign policy The Gingrich campaign is pushing the concept that, by staying in the contest, Gingrich could help take away enough delegates to deprive Mitt Romney the numbers needed to have the GOP nomination locked up by the time the candidates reach the convention in Tampa.

Obviously, as a friend of Gingrich’s, I am not going to argue with their decision to press forward. Their frustration is that their candidate knows more about foreign policy and defense matters in his little finger than the other two leading candidates know in their entire body.

It is likely they find it incredible that a man who could out-debate Barack Obama is now in this predicament.

But the reality is that no camp agrees with any other camp’s delegate math.

Romney, who has spent a fortune to amass his delegates, believes the numbers suggest that he will have no problem locking the nomination up by or before the last contested state.

The fact that Romney continues to gather delegates in areas he himself considers “away games” suggests that his staying power might just deliver a requisite number of delegates before the convention.

As for Santorum, his camp believes their best chance is for Gingrich to exit stage left and allow there to become a consolidation of “conservative” voters who, by their calculations, would leave Romney pulling his usual 35 percent in most states and give Santorum huge wins in critical upcoming contests.

That sounds great for Santorum, but it might not work out as planned. Unless Santorum received an outright endorsement from Gingrich, a portion of Newt’s votes might stray to Romney.

The truth is no one knows what will happen. But for my friend Newt there are certain things I hope will take place.

First, I hope that if the money starts to truly disappear, he will scale his efforts back appropriately. That does not necessarily mean leaving the race, but it does mean picking and choosing battles and making sure that the end result of those battles will not be disastrous.

The second thing I hope he will do is start to put aside any personal feelings he might have toward any of his fellow candidates. It appears he is well on his way as to Santorum. But it is also clear that the path toward a relationship with Romney seems rocky.

What Romney should do And really, who has the responsibility to repair that relationship? The answer is Romney.

If Romney’s math is right and he does get the GOP nomination, he is insane to believe that followers of Gingrich or Santorum will flock to the polls to support him. He would need Gingrich, Santorum, Rick Perry, Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann on his team to have a prayer of not repeating a “John McCain, Part Two.”

Oh, and add to that Sarah Palin, whose voice has only been made stronger in recent weeks.

No, I would not ask Newt to leave the race. I have seen his seemingly impossible schemes work too many times. But what I would ask of the other two major GOP candidates would be to show this man some respect.

He has earned it, and they will need him in November ... if not sooner.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Over the last week I've had the opportunity to watch "Game Change" and "The Undefeated."

It was interesting to note striking similarities in how Gingrich and Palin were portrayed once they threatened the Establishment.

They're "crazy," "egotistic" and "power hungry."

But prior to being labeled thus by their own party, they were heroes of reform and limited government.

Both had a barrage of ethics violations (that were later dismissed) aimed at them to force them to "quit." Which they both did in the end to allow their party to govern.

Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich are both feared by the Establishment. They are recognized as effective leaders, who will offer true conservative change.

This GOP Primary MUST go all the way to the floor in Tampa.

[onyx]

You’re right!

BTTT

[onyx]

FIRST TWO PARAGRAPHS ARE A MUST READ!

[Ronin]

Sounds good to me. Let’s face it, a big part of our feelings of distaste for Romney is the way everyone has been trying to spoon-feed us on the “inevitability” myth.

I want a convention, not a coronation.

We need to get some serious Conservatives in there to keep the conversations interesting and the real issues and some genuine strategies. And take some real jerks to the woodshed (metaphorically speaking, of course).

If Sarah shows up like I have a feeling she will, she probably won’t end up on the top of a ticket, but she may get offered a VP slot (not sure if she would take it or not) but think what THAT would do to the race?

Anyhow, even if that doesn’t happen (though it would certainly be fun) what is liable to happen is that she is just going to climb in there and start knocking heads together. I think she’s probably in training right now. Working up stamina and saving up sense.

I’ll give one to five odds that inside the first few hours, a lot of RINOs are going to be scurrying around trying to stay out of her sight!

Now that’s going to be fun to watch.

Whooot!!!

[Gene Eric]

Go Newt!

[true believer forever]

I put the following together for a Freeper, who was wanting to do some knocking on doors for Newt, and didn’t feel prepared enough to defend the ethics violations well enough... No one seems to have a really good handle on this, and it will surely be an issue in the General election... Just wanted to post it in case it would help others understand.

“Here is a little cheat sheet I put together for you... A bunch of links, a great Freeper thread, some FR posts, and some other stuff, and if you read it all (it’s not really that time consuming) you should have a great understanding about the case.

What finally put it ALL together for me was reading the one of the last links I posted here about Sarah Palin’s emails, and how what they did to her was so similar to Newt. And it seems this kind of effort that includes nuisance suits, one unfounded charge after another, mounting legal bills is what the left and dems do to true reformers, and there have only been two... newt and sarah.

The last Hillbuzz link has a little bullet point on the entire thing which is really concise and simple.

Romney did extreme extreme damage to Newt in florida, with that term “resigned in disgrace” and everybody has this issue at the top of their list as to what we really have to have an in-depth understanding of to bat away all the attacks that will surely come regarding it in the general...

********

Newt House Charges

Since Newt Gingrich, there has only been one other government reformer that the establishment republicans and the DC democrats have feared – Sarah Palin.

Only two republicans in GOP history have been demeaned, denigrated, sought out to be destroyed by the establishment Republicans – Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin.

Yes, it became completely obvious that a unified vendetta was mounted to harass and debilitate her ability to serve with FOI demands, harrasments, and law suits with bogus ethics claims.

The left did the EXACT same thing to Newt Gingrich in the ‘90s with the frivolous ethics charges levied against him. I’m sure they wanted him to resign too but they settled for a pound of flesh, having him settle for $300,000, which Bob Dole had to promise to loan him. The left probably thought that would be enough of a black mark on Newt’s record to stop Newt from ever running for president.

The Republicans at that time barely understood what was going on I think, and certainly didn’t realize the left was trying to create a tactic they could use over and over again to destroy us. And now, often because of our own conservatives claiming Newt’s “unelectable” because of those bogus charges, conservatives are willing to give the left exactly what it lied and cheated to get by not supporting Newt for president.

It’s a shame when even our own conservative brethren fail to understand the evil the left is engaged in to destroy anyone they perceive as truly conservative. And of course our own liberal RINOs are all too happy to take advantage of the groundwork the leftists laid. I’m sure Romney would have said Palin “resigned in disgrace” too if she had stayed in the race.

Saying Alaska Libs ever loved her is a gross misstatement. The animal rights people hated her for the wolf hunting business. The good ol boy club hated her for messing with their cronyism, and that jails from the left, even when the GOP is doing it. There’s never been any serious doubt she’s on the wrong side of social issues, if you’re a lefty.

Abortion is absolutely central to the left’s agenda. It grants ultimate power over life and death to the state. Her fiscal policies, right or wrong, were designed to promote private sector growth through free enterprise, not your typical lefty posture.

This is exactly what they did to Newt... all but one of 80-some ethics violations dropped and a clean bill of health from the IRS... afterwards. No legal fine, he paid for the cost of the investigation.

There is something about Newt and Sarah, they didn’t defend themselves overtly regarding both of these stampedes... maybe it is their concept of honor or something...

Newt was palinized before there was a palin, it is what dems do to true reformers... it is very sad.

http://apapromotions.com/commonsense/2012/02/02/setting-the-record-straight-senator-graham-speaks-about-newt-gingrich-his-term-as-speaker/

In the aftermath of being hammered in South Carolina, Mitt Romney realized that ending his campaign howitzer ads against Newt Gingrich after New Hampshire had been a mistake. So according to the New York Times, he decided during a staff meeting to “destroy” Gingrich. The decision was taken to go after Gingrich for the alleged ethics violations that dogged the speaker for to years, but were later dropped.

The case against Newt Gingrich (Democrat recriminations for Gingrich’s ousting of Speaker Jim Wright for legitimate ethics violations) began in the unlikeliest of ways, was enormously complex and was an acidic vendetta launched by Newt’s then political opponents.

The charges are rooted in part in classes Gingrich taught at two Georgia colleges from 1993 to 1995. The course he created, designed and presented was Renewing American Civilization, and the funding for it came from the non-profit Progress and Freedom Foundation.

Oddly enough, the charges originated with Ben Jones, the man who played Cooter in the hit TV show The Dukes of Hazzard. A recovering alcoholic, Jones decided to get into politics and ran as a Democrat from Georgia. He served two terms, but when the boundaries of his district were redrawn, he found his seat to be extinct. In an attempt to stay within the hallowed halls of Congress, he challenged Gingrich in 1994, and took a shellacking.

Deeply angered and embittered by the loss, he decided on retribution. He charged that the course Gingrich taught was, in fact, not educational as Newt maintained, but rather a way for the speaker to spread his conservative ideology with the backing of the Progress and Freedom Foundation. As such, it constituted obscure ethics and IRS violations. Jones apparently tried several times to bring this “ethics breach” to the attention of the House Ethics Committee, but it wasn’t until he got help from the highly partisan Democrat Rep. David Bonoir that intense political pressure forced the GOP committee members to agree to conduct an inquiry.

James Cole, a Washington attorney, marinated Jones’ contention and provided the legal basis for the probe. While never denying Newt’s argument that the course was indeed educational, Cole nonetheless accused Gingrich of spewing his own political beliefs and violating ethics by having that exercise subsidized by the tax-exempt organization.

In all, 84 ethics violations were heaped against the speaker. Listing them all here is beyond the scope of this article, but it was definitely a “kitchen sink” attempt to bring him down.

In addition to the course, he was accused of violating Rule 45 by using a paid consultant, Jeffrey Eisenach, who helped form GOP strategy for Newt in 1990-91. But Gingrich had stopped using Eisenbach after becoming speaker, so that charge was later dropped.

By 1997, the media attention began to be a real issue not just for Newt, but the Republican Party. Fears began to manifest that GOP would lose House seats unless the investigation was ended and quickly.
Newt dutifully fell on his sword by admitting the ridiculous contention that he had failed to get the proper tax advice before teaching the course. In fact, he had spoken with not one but two attorneys regarding the tax issues.

“With deep sadness, I agree. I did not seek legal counsel when I should have in order to ensure clear compliance with all applicable laws, and that was wrong,” Gingrich said. “Because I did not, I brought down on the people’s house a controversy which could weaken the faith people have in their government.”
He also confessed that he had provided the committee with “inaccurate, incomplete and unreliable information.” The alleged false information was his contention that the course was not political. He swallowed hard and admitted that it was political. It was later proven not to be.

As has been the case for far too long, the mainstream media had a field day. In fact, Tom Brokaw’s erroneous announcement that Gingrich had been convicted of the ethics violations “by an overwhelming vote” became fodder for Romney’s attack ads.

Brokaw, while not acknowledging that the report was wrong, demanded that Romney stop using his image without his permission. Romney ignored him, and the ad aired ad nauseum in Florida, even though Gingrich was completely exonerated of 83 of the 84 charges filed against him on October 10, 1998. That mattered not to Romney, who has shown himself to be decidedly and deliberately duplicitous throughout the campaign.

Obviously with a news anchor of that repute, people believed the lie that ended with, “I’m Mitt Romney and I approved this ad.” It cost Newt Florida.

Many have questioned why Gingrich admitted wrongdoing when he had not, in fact, done anything wrong. His desire to end the impact the probe was having on the GOP is the reason.

In essence Newt copped a plea. He was guilty of neither the charges he admitted nor any other charges save one, a letter written by his attorney that provided incorrect information. Trusting that because he was paying a bloody fortune for legal advice, Newt believed a letter written by the law firm had to be correct, and he never read it. Instead, he submitted it to the committee. In that case, “inaccurate, incomplete and unreliable information” was what would later be the only violation to survive of all 84 charges against him.

While Brokaw, Romney and armies of Newt’s enemies claim he was fined $300,000 for that one violation, that is not the case. Once again, anxious to end this litany of partisan attacks, he paid that amount to cover the cost of the investigation of his own accord. It was not a fine, penalty or any other payment for any ethics breaches.

According to the Washington Post “Gingrich is paying $300,000 for the costs of an ethics committee investigation after admitting last year he made inaccurate statements during a lengthy probe into Democratic allegations that he misused tax-exempt donations. Gingrich denied the charges but submitted to a reprimand by the House.” It was not and is not a fine or financial penalty of any kind.

As Newt was taking blame for violations not real, the IRS, the Federal Elections Commissions and a federal judge were evaluating the various allegations (such as how Newt had allegedly misused funds from GOPAC, a GOP group, for his campaign). All three investigations were digging hard to find anything that would incriminate him. A number of investigators examined everything from the course material to what Gingrich had provided in his lectures. But as hard as investigators tried, the IRS team, the FEC and the federal judge completely cleared Newt of any wrongdoing, except for the erroneous letter he submitted.

On Saturday, October 10, 1998, the Ethics Committee dropped the last three remaining charges, and Newt was exonerated.

But Romney isn’t willing to accept the truth. While on the stump in Florida he told the gathered crowds that Gingrich resigned in disgrace as a result of the violations. Oh what a tangled web we weave…. In fact Newt stayed on as speaker for two years after the probe. When the GOP failed to win the number of seats Newt had promised, he felt, as did others, that he had lost the confidence of his House GOP caucus and he resigned. His departure was not motivated by the ethics probe in any way.

So if you see this ad in an upcoming primary or caucus, it’s absolutely false, and you need to ask yourself, does Washington need another liar who will stop at nothing to destroy his opponents and force what he wants on the people? I think not. This ad, together with other ads Romney is running, is absolutely false. Romney knows it and should be ashamed of using it, but he’s simply bent on ruining the others in the race, including Rick Santorum.

But that may have come back to bite him on February 7, 2012, when Rick swept three states, beating Romney in Missouri with 55% of the vote to Romney’s 25%. That may well have been due in part to protest votes in Santorum’s favor against Romney’s dishonest and over-the-top tactics. If that’s true, it’s about time that somebody beat Romney and in a big way. Hopefully now he’ll get the message and knock off his vicious attempts at ignominy and run on his ideas, but then that is a problem. He clearly can’t win unless he uses these ads to annihilate the competition.

Newt most certainly can. In fact, he’s by far the best able to clean Obama’s clock during debates, and is the only candidate amply experienced to engineer the massive changes that must be made in Washington.

http://conservativenexus.com/article/what-hurt-newt-in-florida-lies-about-ethics-violations-for-which-he-was-exonerated/

********************
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/02/lindsey-graham-gingrich-coup_n_1249641.html

What I’m saying about Newt, why did we lose confidence in him? Because he was changing the game plan. The last group to talk to him sort of won the day. But I can’t imagine his job. The first time Republicans had the congress in 40 years, trying to lead a revolution, taking people like me that came here to burn the place down and govern the country and deal with Bill Clinton — a good politician. Looking back, I appreciate how hard his job was better than I did in 1997. And I’m here to say, as the guy who was in the coup, that looking back we were too hard on him and if he got to be the nominee I think he could win.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is6Ovf2NBk4

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/26/gingrich-coup-conspirator-gingrich-has-mellowed-and-is-electable/

“Being a backbencher throwing bombs because you’re not pure is a lot of fun, but governing the country is a lot harder,” he said.

The South Carolina Republican said he believes the country now needs someone like Gingrich to “embrace big ideas and take political risks”

“The one thing about Newt that is compelling is that I don’t think he looks at politics in terms of the next election cycle. He looks at politics as a generational issue,” said Graham.

Sarah Palin on Alaska job: I can’t take it anymore, reveals new public emails

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2850815/posts

Newt Gingrich Cleared! Now How About a Refund?
link, http://www.rightgrrl.com/carolyn/newt.html
******
Ethics Committee Drops Last of 84 Charges Against Gingrich, link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/govt/leadership/stories/101198.htm

************

http://hillbuzz.org/byron-yorks-breakdown-of-what-really-happened-in-gingrich-ethics-case-31106";

[true believer forever]

FIRST TWO PARAGRAPHS ARE A MUST READ!

Yes. Yes, yes. this is very heartening, isn't it? Things are getting clearer, bit by bit. Thanks for the ping!

[PhilDragoo]

I would vote for Newt. I would vote for Sarah. I would vote for Newt and Sarah.

George Soros said, "If it's Obama and Romney. . .there's not that much difference."

Newt's got that ability to stand on the track and have the whole shrieking fairy train come to a shuddering halt.

Sarah can do that, too.

It's why the shrieking fairies and carping harpies have to be sent out in Pearl Harbor attack waves to strafe and torpedo and bomb.

And our boy-king closet-queen crack-smoking islamo commie is definitely bombing.

The four-candidate kali is giving the mumbler fits.

Where's that silver-tongued whistling lisper.

Kind of lost control of the sea levels he has, he has.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

GREAT post tbf!!

Be sure to replace your last link with this one.

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/article/what-really-happened-gingrich-ethics-case/336051

[Cincinatus' Wife]

And for clarity about Newt and his comments on the Ryan plan:

Does Ryan Now Agree with Gingrich? [And now, here's the rest of the story]

[Happy Rain]

“...a portion of Newt's votes might stray to Romney.”

What an incredible understatement!

The way many of Newt's supporters hate on a true conservative like Santorum shows a heck of a lot more than “a portion” are closet Mittbots—Better Mitt than Rick to them and they are using Newt's selfish recalcitrance as an excuse to help get Romney nominated.

Sophistry abounds about Newt's grand scheme to hang on til the convention even though he lost lost lost.

OK, so nobody has the 1144—Newt has pulled his Perot and kept both Rick and Mitt from reaching that goal so now it's Tampa time.
First ballots don't solve anything so the delegates are released to pick Newt, Palin, Rubio whatever...right?
Wrong! The GOP-e will be making the rules as they go along and like 1976, they will anoint Romney just like they did Gerald Ford over Ronald Reagan. They have too much invested in Mendacious Mitt to let a silly conservative majority stand in their way.

Why do you think super RINO of color Michael Steele is so looking forward to a brokered convention—he and the GOP-e know the plan and they are laughing at their useful idiot from Georgia.

I listen to the Quinn and Rose show streaming from a Pittsburgh FM station and you wouldn't believe the ugly,nasty and disingenuous smears coming from the Gingrich campaign AGAINST RICK SANTORUM!

It may as well be Nitt and Mewt.

[true believer forever]

I’m so glad you caught that... thanks.

[who knows what evil?]

This GOP Primary MUST go all the way to the floor in Tampa.

Absolutely...Romney is BAD news for America.

[fortheDeclaration]

It is only hope.

If Santorum is nominated he will lose.

[true believer forever]

The Hillbuzz link is still active, I just posted it incorrectly, and it has a good little bullet point presentation as well as the Byron York article.

http://hillbuzz.org/byron-yorks-breakdown-of-what-really-happened-in-gingrich-ethics-case-31106

[true believer forever]

The Hillbuzz link is still active, I just posted it incorrectly. It has a good little bullet point presentation as well as the Byron York article, and a little vid of that guy Cooter from the Dukes of Hazard, who started all Newt’s problems.

http://hillbuzz.org/byron-yorks-breakdown-of-what-really-happened-in-gingrich-ethics-case-31106

[Little Pig]

And the Balkanization of the Republican voter base continues.

The longer there’s no clear leader for the nomination, the more ossified the supporters of the various candidates are going to get. Comity has all but disappeared from US society, so if two or three candidates roll in to the convention, it won’t be a spirited debate over the merits of each, but rather a shouting match, each side adamant that they are the only “true” side. The result will still be one eventual nominee, but the supporters of the nominee’s rivals will be embittered and resentful. I believe they will be reluctant to rally behind someone they don’t consider to be the “right” candidate.

The end result could then go a couple of ways. One, and the most likely, is that a significant chunk of the failed candidates’ supporters will stay home on election day, their own disappointment overshadowing the need to get the Zer0 out of the White House. Two, one or more of the failed campaigns will go third-party, either through their own belief in their momentum, or through a draft movement by their supporters. That will significantly split the GOP vote, even more so than the Clinton election. Back then, Perot almost certainly got at least a few of the more conservative Democrats to vote for him, as he had no real political baggage prior to his campaign. This time around, the third party would be a failed republican, and likely one of the more conservative ones. Thus, they will draw exclusively from within GOP voter ranks, and will only lessen the impact of the Republican side of the election.

Either way, Soetoro is almost certainly headed for a second term. Hope you’re ready.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I notified the moderator that I had the correct text (and author) of the article but the wrong title and link (too many windows open makes for "oops!").

This is the title and link that go with the thread body above:

March 15, 2012: Gingrich's Next Move

[Cincinatus' Wife]

And the Balkanization of the Republican voter base continues.

Better to have it out on the floor of the GOP Convention hall in Tampa, than to have our grandchildren fight and die for their liberty in the streets.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Good!! I’ve had bookmarked links become inactive and it always is such a disappointment. Great that you re-connected with the Hillbuzz piece.