Free Republic

Gingrich now appears to have picked up the support of shadowy evangelical activist David Lane, a major kingmaker for the Christian Right. Lane, who rarely gives interviews and generally stays out the spotlight, is widely credited with reenergizing the GOP's conservative Christian base after the 2008 election. Lane was instrumental in convincing Rick Perry get in the race earlier this year, and even helped orchestrate The Response prayer rally, the de facto launch of Perry's campaign. But sources who know Lane say he has been distancing himself from Perry as the Texas Governor slipped in the polls. Now Lane seems...

Newt Gingrich promises to revive the Gipper's economic plan -- and then some Newt Gingrich's economic plan is not Reaganesque. It is not, as so many of his Republican presidential rivals' claim their plans to be, inspired by Reaganomics. It is Reaganomics, cryogenically frozen in 1981, thawed 30 years later, and pumped full of Newt-style steroids in order to save the American people from slow growth. The plan features massive tax cuts (which would largely benefit businesses and the wealthy), less government spending (through the privatization of entitlement programs), interest-rate hikes, and rampant deregulation. The foundation is classic supply-side, trickle-down,...

Republican 2012 presidential candidates Newt Gingrich and Jon Huntsman met in a 90-minute Lincoln-Douglas style debate on national security and foreign policy. Video from yesterday's debate...

As I’ve interviewed several self-proclaimed Gingrich voters over the past few months, many of them cite Jackie Cushman’s “Setting the Record Straight” editorial piece.  Jackie Gingrich Cushman is Newt Gingrich’s daughter, from his first marriage. “His own daughter refutes the negativity in the media with her account of her parent’s divorce,” Jeremy Freeman, an Iowa State University student, told me in late November.Competing candidates and their campaigns have been tossing a good bit of negativity at Gingrich since he’s risen to the top of the polls, some of it about spacey ideas (colonizing the moon) Gingrich has proposed, or his past...

"How do we stop Newt?" I've now been asked that question by a lot of conservatives. It's not that I'm the go-to guy for that sort of question. Rather, one gets the sense that many "establishment" conservatives are asking everybody that question — in staff meetings, at the chiropodist, even at the McDonald's drive-through. The other night while having drinks with some prominent conservatives, I said I thought there was a significant chance that Gingrich will not only win the nomination but that he might be the next president. Going by their expressions, I might as well have said I...

Newt Gingrich’s rise to the top of the GOP polls is fueled, in part, by Republicans’ mistrust of Mitt Romney. Romney’s signature Massachusetts health-care law, the model for Obamacare, leads many to wonder whether Romney can challenge the president on this most important domestic issue. But any conservative who opposes Romney because of Romneycare should oppose Gingrich with thrice the intensity: Newt Gingrich is one of the principal abettors of the exploding health-care entitlement state we face today. Indeed, it’s not clear what would be worse for the cause of entitlement reform: Newt’s losing to Obama or Newt’s beating him.

Earlier this summer, Newt Gingrich passed on the opportunity to sign The Family Leader Marriage Vow, which asks political candidates to commit to take specific actions to support traditional marriage upon election. Gingrich didn’t object to the pledge so fiercely as Mitt Romney, whose campaign staffers called parts of the pledge “undignified and inappropriate,” but the former House Speaker did suggest he thought the pledge could use some tweaking. At the time, at least one pundit jokingly speculated that Gingrich didn’t like the inclusion of the phrase “personal fidelity to my spouse.”Turns out, he’s on board with that. The GOP...

Glenn Beck is very much not a fan of Newt Gingrich. If anyone didn’t yet know that from this interview, he made it very clear Saturday on Fox Business Network when he alleged that Gingrich was so similar to President Obama in his “progressive” ways, that the only reason Tea Partiers would like him over the President would be because of his race. Unsurprisingly, this has caused some anger. Even less surprisingly, one of those angry voices is Andrew Breitbart, a man who is very much not a fan of Glenn Beck. Breitbart appeared on the Victory Sessions podcast and...

Debate starting now; link to livestream posted above, and I'll post an additional live link below.

Last Friday, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, did something revolutionary. He told the truth about the Palestinians. In an interview with The Jewish Channel, Gingrich said that the Palestinians are an “invented” people, “who are in fact Arabs.” His statement about the Palestinians was entirely accurate. At the end of 1920, the “Palestinian people” was artificially carved out of the Arab population of “Greater Syria.” “Greater Syria” included present-day Syria, Lebanon, Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan. That is, the Palestinian people were invented 91 years ago. Moreover, as Gingrich noted,...

Conservative radio host Michael Savage is offering Republican presidential frontrunner Newt Gingrich $1 million if he drops out of the GOP race within the next 72 hours, according to a message on his website. “Newt Gingrich is unelectable. Mitt Romney is the only candidate with a chance of defeating Barack Obama, and there is nothing more important than that for the future health, safety, and security of the United States of America,” the statement read. “Therefore I am offering Newt Gingrich one million dollars to drop out of the presidential race for the sake of the nation.” Savage conceded that...

Glenn Beck said this morning on his radio show that if Newt Gingrich is the nominee and Ron Paul runs third party, he’d consider voting for Ron Paul over Newt Gingrich, and he hates Ron Paul’s policies on the Middle East: This is suicide and it doesn’t get any simpler this: voting third party on our side for whomever guarantees Obama a victory. That’s it. And if Newt’s the nominee and Beck wants to go that road, then I tell him what I tell others: enjoy the hell that will be a second Obama term. I’ve made my position clear...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Every Republican presidential hopeful has a plan to cut taxes. But one candidate's plan has been described as so aggressive that it would blow a hole in the federal budget, lead to huge deficits and give the richest Americans a gigantic tax break. That candidate is current frontrunner Newt Gingrich. According a new analysis, Gingrich's tax plan would reduce government revenue by a staggering $1.3 trillion -- or 35% -- in 2015, the first year the plan could be fully implemented. "It's mind boggling. It's a very large tax cut," said Roberton Williams, a senior fellow...

ATLANTA — Republican presidential candidate front-runner Newt Gingrich has scheduled an announcement inside the Georgia State Capitol on Tuesday, officials confirmed to Channel 2 Action News. Gov. Nathan Deal's office told Channel 2 political reporter Lori Geary that Gingrich is expected to hold a news conference in the north wing of the Capitol at 1 p.m. Deal is chairman of Gingrich's campaign in Georgia. The Gingrich campaign would not release the purpose of the trip to his home state, however an endorsement from fellow Georgian Herman Cain could be a huge boost to the Gingrich campaign. Cain suspended his presidential...

Newt takes no-adultery pledge By ALEXANDER BURNS | 12/12/11 1:09 PM EST When the Iowa social conservative group The Family Leader unveiled a sweeping pledge on marriage and abortion over the summer, Newt Gingrich was one of the candidates who passed on signing it. Now, Gingrich has answered the pledge with a lengthy written response, vowing to support a federal marriage amendment, reinstate the Mexico City policy -- and, per the stipulations of The Family Leader pledge, to be faithful to his wife: I also pledge to uphold the institution of marriage through personal fidelity to my spouse and respect...

Voters are evenly divided over whether Newt Gingrich or Mitt Romney would provide President Barack Obama with the strongest GOP challenge next November, according to a new Rasmussen Reports poll. But twice as many Republican voters feel that the former House speaker would have a better chance of beating Obama in the race for the White House. The national survey of 1,000 voters of all political persuasions gave Gingrich a mathematically negligible lead over Romney of 30 percent to 29 percent. None of the other GOP candidates polled in double figures. But when only likely Republican primary voters were asked...

when you're talking about Glenn Beck now he actually, the other day, called you a progressive on FOX Business channel. What do you say to that sort of claim?" Gingrich: "I don't know. It depends on what standard you're using, you know? The fact is I balanced the budget for four consecutive years. And we did so by cutting taxes and increasing employment so people went back to work, they left welfare, they left food stamps, they left unemployment, they left Medicaid. Who else has that record of achievement? I worked with Reagan in '79, '80. I worked with Reagan...

Iowa has the first in the nation caucus and many people place a lot of weight to the results. Sometimes I think they are important, like in the 2008 Democratic nomination race, when they had only 3 major candidates running. Barack Obama's stunning victory got cash to pour into his campaign and caused Hillary to take a major beating in the press as she and her campaign thought it was going to be a coronation instead of an actual fight. In the 2012 GOP race, where there are 7 candidates vying for votes, it is far less important. Right now...

Newt was RIGHT! - The Palestinians ARE an "invented" people! So, why is he backtracking on this issue? Palestinians is translated: "Philistines" or "to divide." Oh when it comes to the issue of "Palestinian" statehood, one would be hard pressed to find a more divisive issue since the dominant news media is so bent on giving the "Philistines" back their land. Ironically, Philistines are not Arabs and Arabs are not Philistines. So, when modern Arabs raise their angry fists and claim they have ancient roots to the land of Israel, it is a nonsensical demand. That would be like Rush...

Republican presidential frontrunner Newt Gingrich has hired U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio’s former campaign chief be his Florida director. Jose Mallea, who has ties to former Gov. Jeb Bush’s political machine as well as Miami City Hall, brings Gingrich’s campaign a wealth of connections to Florida Republicans and Miami-Dade’s Hispanic community. Mallea is also a co-owner of Local Craft Food & Drink in Coral Gables. Mallea’s hiring has an immediate benefit for Gingrich: The name “Rubio” winds up in the same headlines as “Gingrich.” Rubio, a vice presidential short-lister and conservative star, isn’t playing favorites in the race. And there is...