"Oh, geez, NEWT. STFU!
Posted on 01/22/2010 10:25:12 PM PST by pissant
Golly, I wonder what the reaction in the comments to this bon mot will be.
Gingrich sees the Massachusetts as a boost for his party, but also as a renunciation of go-it-alone by either party, and thinks Republicans would be “clever” to pass a series of relatively non-controversial measures with “huge bipartisan majorities.”
That said, he thinks many Republicans disdain Pelosi so much they simply won’t go along with anything with the speaker’s name on it, even if it serves the party’s larger interests.
“If you are a House member in the [GOP] caucus, I suspect we are about to have a huge argument. We could get clever and work with her…And I think people should work with her… But at that point it becomes a huge problem because nobody trusts her, they distrust her ideology and distrust her because she has run over them so hard…
Insane? Eh, not really. It all depends on how inoffensive the new stripped-down ObamaCare bill is and whether it looks like the Dems really do have the votes this time. If it’s a fait accompli and the reforms are minute, why not take a free kick by voting yes and blowing a hole in the left’s “party of no” crap before the midterms? Then the GOP could boast that not only did it help kill the awful first iteration of ObamaCare, but that when they finally got a good-ish bill, they proved themselves to be “Scott Brown Republicans” or whatever. The problem is, the left is already worried about precisely this scenario and is whining about it to HuffPo:
That the latter strategy [of passing a pared-down bill] is being seriously considered by progressive lawmakers is a testament to how large an albatross health care reform has become for the party. But the worry, for some, is that it could lead to Republicans claming victory.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell “will have his whole caucus vote for it and make it a political win for the Republicans,” one well-connected Democratic health care strategist said. “They’ll say, ‘This was the Republican plan from the beginning. We’re glad the Democrats joined us.’ And take all the credit for passing reform.”…
Alternately, some Democrats might welcome such a move. “Hell yeah,” a Democratic congressional aide said. “We would have created a bi-partisan bill. We would have shown leadership. And we’d get credit for that.”
They would get some credit for it, which is the main partisan objection to it on the Republican side. It’s also hard to imagine the circumstances in which Pelosi would need a bunch of GOP votes for a health-care bill. Is she really going to float something that’s so centrist and modest that House progressives would walk away from it, leaving a vacuum for Boehner to fill? I’m skeptical, but if this drags on another week or two and there’s still no clear path ahead for Dems, they might just be desperate enough to try it. The urgent question right now: Should McConnell and Boehner approach Reid and Pelosi with their own compromise plan? At the moment they have as much leverage as they’re every going to get. If they think some sort of legislative accomplishment is important before the midterms, there’s no time like the present to strike.
Elsewhere, my lefty pal Michael Roston is horrified that the Democratic strategist quoted by HuffPo would reduce the health-care issue to such pure partisan politics. To which I say: But why? Hasn’t the goal from the beginning been simply to pass something to placate the left and preserve the Dems’ electoral viability? Politics has always been job one here. Effective health-care reform is an afterthought.
Those stairs Newt, the ones on your left. Yea those. Those stairs lead off the stage Newt. Just go over there and step down one at a time, don’t trip, just get the hell outta here!
He is probably eyeing someone else’s Democrat wife and hoping for goodies.
Considering that the Democrats' plan doesn't even start kicking in with new bennies until 2013 or 2014, but does start off immediately with new taxes and penalties, it seems to me that we have every reason to believe that such a common-sense approach to reform would yield a lot better results, in a market-oriented manner, without having to tear up the existing healthcare industry root and branch, as Obamacare does, and still get to substantive reforms and new entitlements - if such end up being truly necessary - on about the same timetable as the Democrats' abomination, but without doing even a scintilla of the damage to the American economy, the American people, and our traditional liberties that the Democrats' abomination would do.
Obama would immediately be toast, probably be run out of DC first by the lawyers then by the avowed socialists whose only desire (right now, that is)is to get control of the nation's "health care" and the citizen's money. They will never allow him to sign on to that at all costs.
It has never been about improving the situation, it's always been about controlling it (us.)
We need to hold a rally to tell newt to STFU.Preferably in front of his house.This idiot needs to go away.
That’s good!
Thanks, Newt, now I don’t even have to think about not supporting you.
Where’s my duct tape? I need it for a certain mouth thst keeps flapping in the wind.
“.... many Republicans disdain Pelosi so much they simply won’t go along with anything with the speaker’s name on it, even if it serves the party’s larger interests.”
I wouldn’t give Pelosi the time of day, but then I’m not a politician and I hate her guts.
I’m sure that you have heard the one about the camel getting it’s nose, just inside the tent?
Once government gets it’s nose ...
Newtie is so 1994.
definition of “work with”: give up GOP principles and give the Dems what they want.
Wouldn’t him and McCain just be perfect together?
Only if it starts with tort reform.
Which isn’t going to happen...
Add a little Graham and it would be picturesque.
I hope JD beats McCain.
Be glad to answer you, Newt.
Shut up and go away. We the people are tired of your kind. We have no idea why you choose to do what you are doing; but please leave America and its people alone.
Yuck.
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