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The GOP Empire Strikes Back At Gingrich
Washington Post ^ | January 27, 2012

Posted on 01/27/2012 7:27:18 PM PST by Steelfish

The GOP Empire Strikes Back At Gingrich

By Dan Balz January 27

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The revenge of the Republican establishment is a sight to behold. From one corner to another, those who have tangled with Newt Gingrich, who feel aggrieved toward Newt Gingrich or who fear Newt Gingrich have amassed to stop him. They know how much harder it will be to do so if the former House speaker wins Florida on Tuesday.

The quintessential example of establishment angst came Thursday from Bob Dole, the former Senate majority leader and 1996 Republican presidential nominee. Hours before Thursday’s GOP debate, he released a letter — circulated by Mitt Romney’s campaign — attacking Gingrich and pleading with Republican voters not to make him the party’s nominee. There is much rich history behind that letter.

Dole is just one voice in a chorus of critics who have spoken out. Gingrich’s victory in South Carolina just a week ago sent a shudder through the ranks of elected officials and others who make up the establishment and the conservative elite. Fear of Newt has displaced lack of love for Romney as the dominant emotion among these Republicans.

In recent days, the group has included former House majority leader Tom Delay (R-Tex.) and the caustic Ann Coulter. A trio of House members shadow Gingrich’s events. Others who are prominent in the conservative movement have joined ex-colleagues of Gingrich to sound the alarms.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2012gopprimary; balz; fl2012; newt2012
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To: Steelfish
"He may resent what the establishment is doing to him now, but he also may welcome the attacks as ratification that he remains a threat to established order.

Gingrich may lose this battle, and he could damage himself in the process. But he will not go quietly, and his old friends and enemies in the party know it."

This is truly grand and historical drama.

It's a good time to be alive.

41 posted on 01/27/2012 9:02:09 PM PST by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: MasterGunner01
We are taking flak over their target!
42 posted on 01/27/2012 9:12:22 PM PST by txhurl ('We need to be sudden and relentless.' Save the canons for the whites of their eyes.)
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To: Steelfish

Perhaps more and more people will come to the conclusion I did back in 1998 that the Grand Old Party is no longer Grand and just an Old Party which has no integrity and deserves to be relegated to the dust heap of history.


43 posted on 01/27/2012 9:31:59 PM PST by ImpBill ("America, where are you now?" - Little "r" republican!)
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To: fabian

I predict Newt will start to threaten the GOP-e miscreants that are attacking him. I think he will get pissed and state explicitly that he will create a Tea Party (actual 3rd party) and destroy the GOP....if they don’t repent and mend their ways.

How could anyone blame him!?

I have never seen anything so underhanded as what they have been doing to him.


44 posted on 01/27/2012 9:35:04 PM PST by Bobalu (It is not obama we are fighting, it is the media.)
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To: Steelfish

If Willard the liberal can buy Florida with negative ads against Newt, let’s see how it works in REAL SOUTHERN STATES. The liberal Willard will be shut out in the South by Newt Gingrich. The GOP “establishment” are too damn stupid to realize this.


45 posted on 01/27/2012 9:38:13 PM PST by NKP_Vet (creep.)
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Click to view video
2008 Flashback: Michele Bachmann Gushes Over Newt Gingrich
Go Newt!


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Support Free Republic!

46 posted on 01/27/2012 9:55:13 PM PST by RedMDer (Forward With Confidence!)
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To: All

If Mitt wins the nomination, he will of scorched the electoral landscape so badly that any attempt to unify will be very difficult. I must believe that he doesn’t want the tea party or conservative base. He’ll do what Dole and McCain did and go for the “moderate/independent” vote. It’s a loser strategy even if he gets a “token” conservative as his VP nomination.


47 posted on 01/27/2012 9:56:42 PM PST by ak267
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To: Steelfish

I honestly believe that Newt could create and build up a viable 3rd party that could actually win the Nov election.

He would have to go scorched earth on both Romney and Obama, bring in Paul and his Paulistas, make certain promises to various groups....if anyone could do it Newt could. Look what he accomplished as speaker that nobody else ever could have. He not only enraged the democrats, he infuriated the RINO republicans....both are our enemies!

It would require a certain amount of outright lies and conniving, but extreme circumstances sometimes call for extreme measures.

Newt is just the ahole that could pull off the impossible.
Build a coalition, let him know we support him and will go along with whatever he decides he needs so do...even if it seems extreme....this is the time for EXTREME!!

I’m all in with him should he decide to go this route!

Just what do we have to lose??

I’d rather go down fighting! Even if it is a very dirty fight! Pull out all the stops, go for broke, Do whatever it takes.

I will cast my lot with Newt, the angry Irishman, and roll the dice, if we don’t take the chance we are LOST anyway....WTF do we really have to lose.

Life is short, I don’t want to go down as a spineless worm that was not willing risk all for a chance to save the nation....My God! Look what the founders risked! I can picture Washington on his knees, tears streaming down his face...promising God he will risk everything for the cause of freedom ... we should do the same!

Who is with me? This is the moment of truth!

Remember that if not for Newt we would already be living in a very different and sadder world.....lets pay him back for the work he has done for us.

Nancy and Michael are correct, The Gipper did pass the torch to newt. Newt, the flawed and extraordinary gentleman that may very well be our last, best hope.

Let victory be our motto, victory at any cost, victory or death. Death is preferable to slavery.


48 posted on 01/27/2012 10:20:37 PM PST by Bobalu (It is not obama we are fighting, it is the media.)
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To: Steelfish

What the dumbass GOP establishment(I used to consider myself one) doesn’t understand is they are destroying the party forever with this Romney moderate garbage. They have effectively given this country over to the liberals. The are killing what the founder created and what thousands died for.People like me feel so jaded by this BS, that I am questioning my loyalty on alot which I will not name and I served in the US military. Just my 2 cents.


49 posted on 01/27/2012 11:57:44 PM PST by MARKUSPRIME
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To: ngat

which part?


50 posted on 01/28/2012 12:02:57 AM PST by antceecee (Bless us Father.. have mercy on us and protect us from evil.)
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To: ngat

Which part?


51 posted on 01/28/2012 12:03:26 AM PST by antceecee (Bless us Father.. have mercy on us and protect us from evil.)
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To: RedMDer

I like Newt... because he’s a SHITSTER! (That makes him like family).


52 posted on 01/28/2012 12:06:24 AM PST by antceecee (Bless us Father.. have mercy on us and protect us from evil.)
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To: ngat

Which part isn’t true?

He said “Newt is not a conservative”.

He was a carpet cleaner.

He didn’t move back home.

He’s a millionaire.

He cashed in like 99% of those elected to congress.


53 posted on 01/28/2012 7:59:11 AM PST by Terry Mross (We need a second party.)
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To: Paperdoll

I am well aware of the idiosyncrasies of the “ruling class”.
But they are a small segment of American society.


ARGGGG But they control everything !!!!!!!


54 posted on 01/28/2012 9:49:04 AM PST by freedommom
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To: infool7
Me too, but the real question I have is, has Jim Thompson endorsed yet?

No.....but Fred Thompson has.

B

55 posted on 01/28/2012 10:28:52 AM PST by Donald Rumsfeld Fan (EWT OR oBAMA??)
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To: freedommom

Of course they do! But they do it from behind closed doors.
They are the Establishment!


56 posted on 01/28/2012 10:41:09 AM PST by Paperdoll (On the cutting edge)
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To: ScottinVA
It is imperative that we focus our energies on the Congressional and statehouse elections this fall. I hope Newt gets the nom, because he would win easily over Obama. But it looks more and more like he will be T-boned by his own party and their 'rat collaborators.

The best defense against a Romney/Obama regime will be a stout firewall in the House and a Republican Senate with at least some integrity.

57 posted on 01/28/2012 2:26:09 PM PST by hinckley buzzard
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To: Terry Mross

“Which part isn’t true?”

Okay, I’ll spent time on questions to set the record straight because I figure you are a person of good will who has been deceived by the mainstream media, and to defend a good conservative man, Tom DeLay.
1. He said “Newt is not a conservative”. That is the one part of what you said in your post that could be considered a true statement, but...
Many conservatives believe you can’t have a liberal personal life and be considered a conservative. They see that as a form of corruption that will extend into business and the political and all areas of a person’s life. They also believe consistency, stabilty, and some degree of humility are hallmarks of the conservative way of life and people that do not exhibit those traits cannot be counted on to successfully lead over the long term. This way of thinking, in my opinion, is what led Dr. Dobson to trash Fred Thompson at the critical juncture in 2008 and endorse Mike Huckabee, who of course had absolutely no chance of winning. So, in certain ways, perhaps Speaker Gingrich is not conservative. Private citizen Tom DeLay is entitled to his opinion on that subject.
2. “He was a carpet cleaner.”
Not true. He was in the pest control business. But if he was in the carpet cleaning business, so what? It is as honorable a business to be in as flipping burgers (Ray Kroc) Garbage Collection (Waste Management, BFI). Orkin does pretty well in the pest control business. You only mentioned he was a small businessman of whatever business to try to demean him anyway.
3.”He didn’t move back home”. Not true. He moved back home to Sugarland, Texas, which is where he came from when he was elected to Congress.
4. He’s a millionaire. I doubt that very much. The Austin Texas Democrat system broke him, and he is still trying to gather up enough money to pay his lawyers while appealing his conviction by the Aliskyites, I mean Austinites. This was payback for Tom DeLay having the guts to be involved in the first redistricting Texas House Republicans had a chance to have input on in like, forever; after the 2000 census.
5. “He cashed in like 99% of those elected to congress.”
Consider that untrue because there is no evidence offered, and like I said in #4 above, the political establishment, rather than enriching Tom Delay at this time has made him broke! What you said is a totally groundless assertion and obviously made-up statistic out of your own imagination. (99% of those elected to congress “cash in” - What does that even mean?)

There are resources that give the true account of the unjust way Tom Delay, a good conservative, has been pilloried and made the scapegoat for the actions of others. Just look beyond what you’ve heard from the mainstream media about Tom DeLay.


58 posted on 01/28/2012 3:30:34 PM PST by ngat
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To: ngat

Never mind all that.

Just tell DeLay to get behind Newt.


59 posted on 01/28/2012 3:59:28 PM PST by Warthog-2 (Character Counts)
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To: Terry Mross

For the few of us on FR who rightly called Delay out as a crook but got shouted down for not being “team players,” I take this as some vindication. Delay was and is a snake. Sad that it took some folks on here awhile to figure out that. Now accepting mea culpas.


60 posted on 01/28/2012 4:41:02 PM PST by KantianBurke (Where was the Tea Party when Dubya was spending like a drunken sailor?)
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