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WASHINGTON -- There is a grisly pallor that has beset former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Then, too, there is a lumpiness: to his face, to his features, to his – well -- to his lump. When he walks into a room I feel rather sorry for him, but then I feel rather sorry for Bill Clinton too and for Hillary. No longer do I call her "Bill's lovely wife, Bruno." She looks grandmotherly rather than tough. I guess maybe her coeval from the 1960s generation of student government goody-goodies, Newt, looks grandfatherly rather than brainy. What does Al...

But even if her poll numbers are bad, Coulter argued, “no conservatives will criticize Palin because they don’t want to deal with the hate mail.” She explained that Palin’s supporters made a vice of their loyalty, so much so that “you say her voice is a few octaves too high… and you’ll be inundated with letters.” She later noted that while “we used to all love Sarah Palin for her enemies, I’m starting to dislike her because of her fans.” Ingraham switched gears a bit on what was wrong with Palin as a presidential candidate, suggesting that voters were “hungry...

Open letter to O`newt Mr. Gingrich you had my vote . Right up to your jumping the shark moment.

ONLY ONE CANDIDATE IS RIGHT ON THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT ISSUES December 28, 2011In the upcoming presidential election, two issues are more important than any others: repealing Obamacare and halting illegal immigration. If we fail at either one, the country will be changed permanently. Taxes can be raised and lowered. Regulations can be removed (though they rarely are). Attorneys general and Cabinet members can be fired. Laws can be repealed. Even Supreme Court justices eventually die. But capitulate on illegal immigration, and the entire country will have the electorate of California. There will be no turning back. Similarly, if...

DECEMBER 12, 2011 Newt Is the Problem On health-care entitlements, Newt has moved left. 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...

I've been wondering why they brought these allegations against Cain out during the Primary and not the General Election. After reading about a poll showing most of Cain's supporters will go to Newt it came to me. First of all they gambled that Cain will not win the primary (even without the allegations). Obama and the MSM fear that Romney would have the best chance against Obama. With Cain's voters going more to Newt this is their way of getting a candidate who is easier to beat (notice too how Cain initially suspected Newt and not Romney).

Howie thread for the week starting with his Sunday Boston Herald column

People have been asking me all week if conservatives will stick with Herman Cain, but I think he's got a bigger problem than the conservative vote. A lot more women than conservatives vote, and the women I've talked to are finished with him. There's a new CBS poll which says that 38 percent of female Republican primary voters are "less likely to back him" now that more accusers have come forward. Among all registered voters, CBS reports that Cain has lost support among women since last month—from 28 percent in October to 15 percent now. My sense is that 15...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has apparently learned the hard way that in a high-stakes presidential campaign, you’re not just accountable for what you and your campaign staff say, you’re also accountable for what your supporters say. According to Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, Perry should address an emerging media frenzy about one of his supporters, Rev. Robert Jeffress, who at the Values Voter Summit on Friday denounced former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s candidacy due to his adherence to Mormonism, which he called “a cult.” Krauthammer expects to hear questions about Romney’s religion at Tuesday night’s GOP debate. ...more (w/video)...

Two new sets of Republicans are feeling deflated today -- the Chris Christie hopefuls and the Sarah Palin stalwarts. The Christie decision didn't surprise me, perhaps because I grew up in Jersey. In fact, Christie and I attended the same high school! Anyway, Jerseyans are many things (not all of them nice), but slick dissemblers we are not. When Christie said, repeatedly, and in ever more colorful terms, that he wasn't running, I believed him. And, while I understand the boomlet for him, I'm also a little relieved to see that he is indeed a truthful guy. Sarah Palin, by...

Other GOPers likely to follow Gingrich’s lead in criticizing Ryan’s budget plan, say political analysts 12:04 AM 05/17/2011 Though former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has been skewered by conservative opinion makers since criticizing House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget plan on “Meet the Press” Sunday, political prognosticators expect that other Republican candidates will soon follow Gingrich’s lead. Popular entitlement programs like Medicare, which would be drastically altered in Ryan’s budget proposal, have historically been the third rails of American politics, issues which politicians on both sides of the aisle are reluctant to target for change. While cutting spending is the...

Offering a sneak peak of the 2012 Republican primary, a spokesman for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney on Thursday defended the sweeping health insurance overhaul that Romney helped enact in Massachusetts in response to criticism from former and possibly future presidential rival Mike Huckabee. “Mitt Romney is proud of what he accomplished for Massachusetts in getting everyone covered,’’ said Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom. “What's important now is to return to the states the power to determine their own health care solutions by repealing Obamacare. A one-size-fits-all plan for the entire nation just doesn't work.''

Sarah Palin used to pronounce Mitt Romney's name "M-I-L-T." In one of the many embarrassing anecdotes about the former Alaska governor, former aide Frank Bailey writes in a leaked manuscript that Palin actually argued with some of her staffers about how to correctly pronounce Romney's name. During her own 2006 campaign for governor, when Romney was chairman of the Republican Governors Association, Bailey writes that Palin didn't seem to know much about the then-Massachusetts governor. “During the campaign for governor, when Romney was in the background of our Republican Governors’ mess, Sarah didn’t even have a clear idea who he...

Barely a year ago, Scott Brown stunned state and national pundits with his leap to stardom as a poster-boy for the Tea Party, and against all expectations, ended up taking the People’s Seat as Senator Brown (R-MA). So he’s had almost a year of grace to prove that he is, in fact, a Massachusetts Republican, which is far better than a Massachusetts Democrat, by any stretch of the imagination. And now, not yet even into 2011, the campaign against Sen. Brown has begun. The Huffington Post reports on the first salvo, which was fired by The Agenda Project, the selfsame...

By telling Barbara Walters that she thinks she can defeat President Obama, Sarah Palin has dimmed hopes cherished by sensible Republicans that she might decide against a run for the White House in 2012. Here are just some of the reasons she should not run. The Republican nominee should be someone with a vast and impressive record in government and the private sector. Voters chose a novice with plenty of star power in 2008 and will be inclined to swing strongly in the other direction in 2012. Americans will be looking for sober competence, managerial skill, and maturity — not...

Despite its considerable gains in the midterm elections, the GOP has a problem looming in the margins named Sarah Palin. She who can rouse the base like none other is now She to Whom Respect Must Be Paid. Like it or not. Many within the so-called party establishment don't quite know what to do about Palin. She's adored by Tea Partyers, to whom she conveniently attached herself as soon as she sensed a shift in the air. A rogue like Palin isn't going to let a rogue movement fill a stadium - or a desert - without her. She also...

Howie thread for the week starting with his Sunday Herald column

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama Republican governor candidate Robert Bentley has turned down an offered endorsement from former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, expected to be a candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 2012. Romney on Thursday endorsed a list of 24 Alabama Republicans, including U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, state treasurer Kay Ivey in her race for lieutenant governor and Birmingham lawyer Luther Strange, who is running for attorney general. The Birmingham News reported that Bentley turned down the endorsement. A spokeswoman for Bentley, Rebekah Mason, said Friday that Bentley wanted to concentrate on the race for governor and did...

The Ruling Class Hits Christine O'Donnell By Jeffrey Lord on 9.10.10 @ 6:09AM Breathes there a soul who doesn't love the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal? Who has not been delighted by National Review and its National Review Online? Well, yes, actually. Lots of souls, undoubtedly the finest of liberals and left-wingers in America. So to disagree with our friends at the WSJ or NRO is something we do in this space with some care. The Journal has lifted the editorial lamp to shine it on Delaware's Republican Congressman Mike Castle, engaged in what was once thought to...

Former Bush speechwriter David Frum says it’s hard to exaggerate the magnitude of the GOP disaster. And he blames this “most crushing legislative defeat since the 1960s” on conservatives and Republicans: At the beginning of this process we made a strategic decision: unlike, say, Democrats in 2001 when President Bush proposed his first tax cut, we would make no deal with the administration. No negotiations, no compromise, nothing. We were going for all the marbles. This would be Obama’s Waterloo – just as healthcare was Clinton’s in 1994. Only, the hardliners overlooked a few key facts: Obama was elected with...