I think we are all witnessing something we don’t quite grasp, yet. Perhaps a reformulation of the GOP. I personally think at the Presidential level this election has moved beyond republican/democrat. It is about preservation of a financial system whose failings may well become more apparent in the coming months. Therefore, it only matters to Soros, Murdoch, et al except that it preserves their power. These people are concerned about rumblings in the grassroots.
In other words it’s ultimately about money. Desperate people will be doing desperate things. We’ll see soon enough where it all goes and who are the real conservatives.
I could not agree more.
I think Newt had decided to blow up the GOP, primarily because it doesn’t stand for anything any more. I think this has the folks riding the gravy train nervous.
I think ideology is at an end. The next decade is either going to be about fixing it, or about what happens after the collapse.
A whole lot of the animosity towards Newt goes back to him virulently opposing the tax hikes by Bush, Sr. They blame Newt for costing Bush, Sr. the 1992 election. Sununu is part of this, he’s the guy who advised Bush, Sr. to raise taxes and he’s now one of the top Romney spokespeople. Some pundits were discussing this on TV at some point, basically saying it’s probably hard for anyone to understand just how deep a rift this event caused between Newt and his opponents in the party.
This article is a good one that explains what happened when Newt was taken into the “smoky backroom” and refused to cut a deal.
http://www.unionleader.com/article/20111227/NEWS0605/712279989&source=RSS
On the eve of a deal, the clear implication was that Gingrich was going to support it.
Gingrich had been warned about this moment. He said that a group of senior Republicans who had served in previous administrations told him he would have to cave in when a deal was struck.
“They all said, ‘Well, (the White House and the congressional Democrats) will in the end cut a deal and they will in the end call you in a room and they will tell you, you have to agree.’ And I said, ‘Boys, there’s not a chance in hell I’m going to agree . . .’ And they all said, ‘Yes, you will, you just don’t understand, yes, you will.’ ”
Gingrich said that on Sept. 29, he was told that an agreement had been reached. “They told me the deal they’d cut. I called my daughter, and my wife talked to her mother. Both my daughter and mother-in-law thought it was nuts.”
Weber said that Bush later said that it was Gingrich’s revolt, and not the deal itself, that cost him. Without the high-profile rebellion, Bush concluded, “he would have paid no political price for it.”