Posted on 11/23/2006 6:36:57 PM PST by no dems
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is telling associates that he’s launching a major new grass-roots movement to recapture the soul of the Republican Party, and quite possibly the White House.
Gingrich says that the effort will be much larger than his founding of GOPAC and his creation of the Contract with America.
The Georgia Republican is spearheading a program called "American Solutions for Winning the Future” in an effort to revitalize the GOP with Ronald Reagan conservatism.
This is the third time Gingrich has led a drive to steer the Republican Party toward traditional conservative values. In 1986, Gingrich took the chair of the Republican political action committee GOPAC and transformed it into an effective tool for electing conservative candidates. The stated theme of GOPAC was "a conservative opportunity society replacing the liberal welfare state.”
GOPAC was a key element in Gingrich’s rise to the leadership of the Republican caucus in Congress.
Then in 1994, as House Minority Leader, Gingrich was a co-author of the Contract with America, a conservative political platform that helped the GOP gain 54 seats in the House and end 40 years of Democratic majorities there.
Gingrich’s new program echoes the title of his 2005 book, "Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract with America.”
Sources close to the former speaker say Gingrich believes the Republican Party has once again lost its way, and needs to refocus its agenda with an eye toward regaining Congress in 2008.
Stepping back into the political spotlight could help Gingrich’s presidential aspirations as well.
He recently told an interviewer that he won’t decide whether to seek the White House in 2008 until September of 2007.
But insiders predict Gingrich could throw his hat into the ring if a true Reagan conservative doesn’t emerge as a likely GOP candidate.
For the time being, he’s playing his cards close to the vest. "I am not ‘running’ for president, I am seeking to create a movement to win the future by offering a series of solutions so compelling that if the American people say I have to be president, it will happen,” he tells Fortune magazine.
Gingrich said he plans to build grass-roots support for the health care, national security, and energy independence ideas he has been promoting for the past six years.
All he had to do was hold the line on spending when he was in charge, and he'd have my respect and support.
Could he be elected without the Evangelical Christian vote?
....VERY LITTLE!? !
The most charitable reply to that statement is 'you have a very poor memory'.
The correct answer is virtually ALL of it.
Witness:
"The ten items in the Contract were all acted upon in the first 100 days of the new Congress, which is what the signatories had pledged. Nine of the ten items in the Contract passed the House: Only the constitutional amendment on term limits (which required a two-thirds vote) was defeated. Out of a total of 302 roll call votes on issues related to the Contract With America, the conservatives prevailed on 299 of them. A balanced budget amendment passed in the House by a 300-123 margin but was subsequently defeated as it fell one vote short of the two-thirds needed for passage in the U.S. Senate. The overall margin by which the items in the Contract were passed averaged about 70 percent despite the fact that the Republicans only held a 12-seat margin over the Democrats (52-48 percent, the smallest House majority margin in 40 years). Given the notorious lack of party discipline in the American Congress, the passage by a large majority of nearly all of the items in the Contract was a remarkable achievement."
This stuff is quickly and easily found .... on the internet.
Yours for accurate recollection,
skeptoid
I'm not trashing him at all. I like Newt, but I think on a massive scale, he would lose.
The same idiot swing voters that helped the Dems take Congress would vote for Hillary over Newt.
We do need NEWT if he ran for president I'd support him in a NY minute.
Perhaps enough time has passed from the media's "Newt is Evil" phase for people to give him a listen. I just remember back in '97 or so some very conservative people spouting "Newt's a crook" and all that jazz.
He married that younger woman.
Well, I remember the media working 24/7 to bring Newt down. That should show anyone good he was. Remember, the Democrats in congress tossed out ethics violations everyday. They eventually had their day.
My family loves Newt (just not his name).
My family loves Newt (just not his name).
Isn't is always amazing that large issues geared in peoples favor fail by one vote? The term limits could have passed because this same group - the Supremes - would have overturned it. Remember in government, once you figure out the rules & start to put these in place for our benefit, the pols change the rules. Remember one other statement by me when GW was 1st elected I stated & guaranteed no true conservative Supreme Court when he left.
All right, he who has not sinned may cast the first stone!
He has paid dearly for his mistake. Why do you want to keep punishing him? Are you perfect?
"Newt needs to do a modified Checkers speech prior to declaring his candidacy and see how it is received. He has to purge his soul and get right with the lord to get past his past."
And I suppose you will be the one judging whether he is "right with the Lord" Such hubris!
I'm just listening to the radio and they're (virginradio.co.uk) playing "I Love Rock N Roll" by Joan Jett, and it made me think of Newt, and how he really rocks, and could take on any and all challengers.
I was a Dem and had voted for Clinton way back then, and yet, I'd see Newt & Clinton on television, and I'd listen to what Newt had to say, with an open mind, though I was, at that time extremely leftwing. And what Newt was saying was making sense to me, in fact, it seemed (to me) that Clinton was capitulating to Newt, because Newt was just plain smarter.
I think it was Newt, Michael Savage, and the real world of working for the San Francisco Unified School District that all came together and changed me, forever.
Its still early to be choosing sides, but I like that ticket. Hypothetically speaking, of course.
Both Gingrich and Tancredo are fine examples of Reagan conservatives.
I'm glad you changed.
I think I became a true conservative by listening to talk radio back in the 80's. I used to drive on sales calls all the time and would really get into those shows.
Newt has the ability to communicate with the common man. He doest't come off as a political panderer, as so many do.
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