Free Republic

"The Republican meets with business contacts and conservative Christian groups, seeking ground troops and donations for his surging presidential bid." Newt Gingrich and his circle of supporters have launched a new plan to provide his reenergized presidential bid with two things it desperately needs: money and organization. The effort relies in part on the network of donors and business contacts that Gingrich has cultivated since leaving the House in 1999, and on his unlikely alliance with Christian conservatives. It also hinges on new campaign finance rules that allow donations of unlimited size to independent groups backing candidates. The campaign has...

GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich has gotten himself into hot water with the Arab world, and with the Palestinian Authority over an interview he gave to The Jewish Channel. Gingrich last week told the Jewish cable television station that the claim of Palestinian Authority Arabs to be "a people" is not legitimate, and that diplomatic efforts by the Obama administration in fact "favored the terrorists." The former Speaker of the House of Representatives said in the interview, "Remember, there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire" until the early 20th century. "I think that...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich says he is being factually accurate when he calls the Palestinians an "invented" people and says they are the creation of anti-Israel propaganda. Gingrich's chief rival for the presidential nomination, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, says the former House speaker has made a mistake in the description and has made it more difficult for Israelis and Palestinians to negotiate toward peace.

Time Magazine's latest cover is out, with a photo of Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney. The tag line: "Why don't they like me?" In a blog post accompanying the cover's release, Time columnist Joe Klein writes, "Romney has problems he can't do anything about. He's wealthy, a member of the Establishment in a party that is trending very strongly toward right-wing populism. He's also a Mormon, which is rarely mentioned by Republicans, but is an obvious disadvantage among the party's evangelical protestant base.

Newt Gingrich is drawing fire for arguing that Palestinians are an "invented" people. In an interview with The Jewish Channel, Gingrich said, "Remember there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire. And I think that we've had an invented Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs, and were historically part of the Arab community." Palestinian Authority chief negotiator Saeb Erakat described Gingrich's comment as "the most racist statement I've ever seen." So not only do the Palestinians want a state but now they want to be a race unto themselves, too? Two of Mitt...

As a country boy with six years of formal schooling, I am hardly the one to question the role of intellectuals in politics; however, after reading an article by Gary Gutting in the New York Times, I am reminded of a university professor who asked me to help him with a mule problem. I love mules, but you must be careful with a mule, they can kick with lethal force if they feel they have been offended. Since most of my career with horses has been directed more toward sorting out human problems, rather than equine problems, I was a...

At the start of each debate, the candidates usually jot down a few notes as soon as they step to the podium. What does Newt Gingrich write? At the start of each debate so far, he has jotted down two names: Maggie and Robert. Next to Maggie he draws a smiley face. Next to Robert he writes the words “be short.” Maggie is Gingrich’s 12-year-old granddaughter. She tells Grandpa Newt that he does not smile enough and at each debate she keeps a count of how many times he smiles. Robert, his 10-year-old grandson, complains when Gingrich’s answers are too...

Glenn Beck characterized Newt Gingrich as a big government "progressive" in the Teddy Roosevelt mold during a radio interview. Beck criticized Gingrich for his support for government initiatives to expand healthcare and curb global warming. It was a label that Gingrich embraced, saying that in the area of healthcare, "I'm a Theodore Roosevelt Republican and I believe government can lean in the regulatory leaning is okay," according to the transcript of the Glenn Beck radio show.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul's media blitz bashing former House Speaker Newt Gingrich as unworthy of Tea Party support isn't hitting its mark, at least not among leaders of the Tea Party Express, Tea Party Patriots, and Tea Party Nation. "I want people to go out there and work for who they believe in," says Tea Party Express Chairman Amy Kremer, who says she or any individual shouldn't dictate who people in the movement ought to vote for. "These people are intelligent. They're not just sheeple that are following somebody," Kremer says, adding that Tea Partyers haven't coalesced behind one candidate...

JERUSALEM - Palestinian officials are reacting with dismay to Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich's statement that they are an "invented" people. The Jewish Channel on Friday released excerpts of an interview in which the former House Speaker said Palestinians were not a people because - unlike Israelis - they never had a state. "Remember, there was no Palestine as a state," Gingrich said. "It was part of the Ottoman Empire. "I think we have invented the Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs and who are historically part of the Arab community, and they had a chance to go to...

Newt Gingrich declared in an interview that Palestinians are an "invented" people, though his campaign afterward claimed the candidate still supports the establishment of a Palestinian state. The front-running Republican presidential candidate made the comments in an interview with The Jewish Channel. The interview marks some of the toughest language to date any candidate has used to describe the Middle East peace process. It also comes after Gingrich pledged at a forum earlier in the week that if elected, he would name John Bolton -- a hawkish, pro-Israel former U.N. ambassador who served in the George W. Bush administration --...

The panic of the GOP’s Washington establishment has become, well, entertaining. The conservative movement that they have designed and programmed so carefully is in the process of going rogue on them, and that rogue has a name: Newt Gingrich. And in so many ways, they have brought this on themselves. He is their creation. If you indoctrinate your members to believe that compromise equates to failure, if that becomes a core principle in your movement’s identity, how can you demand they compromise by accepting Mitt Romney as their nominee? Is that not failure on the most important decision the party...

I had a friend once who amused herself thinking up bumper stickers for states. The one she made up for California was brilliant. "California: It's All True." It is so vast and sprawling a place, so rich and various, that whatever you've heard about its wildness, weirdness and wonders, it's true. That's the problem with Newt Gingrich: It's all true. It's part of the reason so many of those who know him are anxious about the thought of his becoming president. It's also why people are looking at him, thinking about him, considering him as president. Ethically dubious? True. Intelligent...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) called for an immediate repeal of President Obama's healthcare law but would reinstate "a little over 10 percent" of it.He made the remarks on Thursday in Iowa, when he introduced a new version of his "Contract with America."Gingrich, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, listed "Repeal ObamaCare" as the first of his 10 part contract."The reason you have to repeal it is it's a 2,700-page document," Gingrich said. "You can't repeal part of it, because candidly you can't trust the staffs to tell you which part you ought to repeal."But the former Speaker...

THE TWO HAVE MUCH IN COMMON As one of the most polarizing figures in modern American politics, Newt Gingrich has racked up a huge inventory of pungent criticism of both his ideas and his character — much of it from his fellow conservatives. National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru, for example, notes Newt’s “erratic behavior, lack of discipline and self-absorption” and “need to justify his every petty move by reference to some grand theory.” But before becoming prime minister, Winston Churchill was often dismissed in similar terms by members of his own party, who complained that “his planning is all wishing and...

“Anybody but Mitt” has become a familiar mantra throughout the Republican primary campaign. It is also weird and self-defeating. Republicans apparently want to nominate anyone except the one person who can defeat Barack Obama. And for all the strangest reasons: One: He’s changed his mind. True. He changed his mind, thus becoming more conservative. Two: He’s too perfect. Three: You can’t drink beer with him. Whatever. The result of these petty obsessions has been a pathological flirtation with a parade of lesser candidates who could replace Romney. This parade has persisted despite polls consistently showing Romney as the most likely...

Not often do you see a candidate clouded in total darkness as was Newt Gingrich in June of this year. With Gingrich’s lead campaign staff scurrying to find a new home as the abandoned the ex-Speaker of the House, it appeared that Newt Gingrich's presidential aspirations were little more than pie-in-the-sky. Imagine how the rats that ran from the sinking Gingrichship feel now that he finds himself well ahead in Iowa, closing in on Mitt Romney in New Hampshire and holding a commanding lead in South Carolina. It wouldn’t be overstated to say that the buzzards were circling the Newt...

The Newt Gingrich campaign finally deigned to respond to the Mitt Romney campaign's frantic aggression on Friday. To the Romney camp's charge that Gingrich is too undisciplined to be president, two top Iowa Gingrich supporters noted that Gingrich had maintained a staunchly disciplined insistence on not taking the bait. And they generously provided Romney with some free campaign advice: Iowans, they said, do not take kindly to negative campaigning. "I think it's a bad way to go. I think he ought to reconsider that tactic," Linda Upmeyer, the majority leader of the Iowa House of Representatives and a Gingrich supporter,...

The media can’t wrap their heads around Newt Gingrich. His recent rise to the top of the polls contradicts everything they profess to know about the political world. He has taken just enough unorthodox positions to make conservatives squirm. His reputation from the ’90s makes it unlikely that independents will see him as a centrist candidate. He is far from being the new kid on the block for whom the anti-politician, anti-Washington demographic yearns. Yet Newt continues to surge. Those in the media who are baffled by the rise of Newt Gingrich are overlooking one of the most valuable qualities...

Newt Gingrich, the senior Republican statesman and conservative dynamo slams the media, slams ObamaCare, slams Obama. Says all Republican presidential candidates are committed as a team to defeat Obama, repeal ObamaCare!! Worth watching again when doubters try to convince you that Newt is for the personal mandate. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DdrMBSI5Xk