Gingrich is freaking out over the fact that the Republicans have now lost two special elections for congressional seats. First, watch him freak, then see what he prescribes.
The freak:
Former GOP Speaker Newt Gingrich sounds the alarm after Republicans lost a second-straight special election in a GOP-held seat. "The Republican loss in the special election for Louisiana's Sixth Congressional District last Saturday should be a sharp wake up call for Republicans: Either Congressional Republicans are going to chart a bold course of real change or they are going to suffer decisive losses this November."
"The facts are clear and compelling. Saturday's loss was in a district that President Bush carried by 19 percentage points in 2004 and that the Republicans have held since 1975. This defeat follows on the loss of Speaker Hastert's seat in Illinois. That seat had been held by a Republican for 76 years with the single exception of the 1974 Watergate election when the Democrats held it for one term. That same seat had been carried by President Bush 55-44% in 2004."
Now check out what Gingrich thinks congressional Republicans should push policy-wise. Keep in mind we are in the middle of a recession in a war without end:
Gingrich offers some suggestions for the GOP leadership -- like repealing the gas tax and paying for it by cutting discretionary spending; overhauling the Census Bureau (?); establishing a one-year moratorium on earmarks; and making English the official language of the US government...
1. Nothing about the war. 2. Nothing about terrorism or Osama. 3. The Hillary/McCain cute-but-no-impact gas tax repeal. 4. Overhauling the census bureau? Yeah that'll help us buy milk. 5. Earmark reform? Again, this helps the economy and the war how? 6. English as the official language? Regardless of the merits, it won't impact any of our daily lives.
So, Gingrich, the Republican who actually has ideas, offers us three feel-good reforms that do nothing to help real Americans (gas tax repeal, English language, and earmark reform), and one that's simply bizarre (census). The Republicans simply have no ideas left. (How long before Hillary adopts each of Gingrich's ideas?)
I rest my case. Newt Gingrich is on TV presenting pro-Hillary talking points, that are lies, in order to push her candidacy. He just told ABC's audience that Hillary actually has more votes than Obama (which is absolutely untrue, though it is a new lie the Clintons came up with last week), and then suggested that we hold a revote in Michigan at the beginning of August. Yeah, he'd like that, wouldn't he - prolong our civil warn until August. So now Gingrich joins Limbaugh and all the rest of the nutjobs in being a Hillary fan. Tell you anything?
The big tease. Yesterday, Newt was leading the Republicans to believe he was going to run for president. The GOPers are desperate because the presidential field is so pathetic. Newt was their next big hope. But, Newt's campaign is already over:
Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Saturday decided against running for president in 2008, less than a day after the Republican indicated publicly that he would spend the next month exploring the viability of a White House bid.
Gingrich said the last-minute change of heart, which came as aides readied the newtnow.org website and prepared to file campaign papers, was the result of legal advice that running for president would require stepping down as chairman of his non-profit organization, American Solutions.
That group is the latest vehicle for Gingrich's musings about politics and policy, and opened its first-annual "ideas summit" Saturday at a Georgia college an hour west of Atlanta and with webcasts on the internet.
Yes, American Solutions is apparently bigger platform for Newt than running to be the American President.
I think Newt is exactly what the GOP needs in this presidential campaign. It's just not crazy enough or far-right enough nor has it properly alienated enough people so it's about time they find a serious divider who can push the party over the edge and into a ravine. With all of the leading candidates doing their best to talk about the successful war in Iraq, Gingrich would spice up the debates with his criticism, dividing the party faithful even more. Run, Newt, run.
Republican Newt Gingrich is so unimpressed with his own party's 'chaotic' line-up of candidates to replace President Bush in the 2008 elections that he has threatened to make a dramatic late entry into the race.
The 64-year-old former Speaker of the House spent last week making speeches attacking Bush's handling of Iraq and the 'war on terror' and calling for 'big ideas' that would unite a disillusioned America behind a strong rival to Clinton.
He called General David Petraeus's report to Congress on the military surge in Iraq 'wholly inadequate', adding: 'The gap between where we are and where we should be is so large it seems almost impossible to explain.'
Wow. When John Edwards said basically the same thing, he got fried. So does Gingrich think 3500 US troops gave their lives for a "phony" war, or just a phony president?
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Thursday the Bush administration is waging a "phony war" on terrorism, warning that the country is losing ground against the kind of Islamic radicals who attacked the country on Sept. 11, 2001.
A more effective approach, said Gingrich, would begin with a national energy strategy aimed at weaning the country from its reliance on imported oil and some of the regimes that petro-dollars support.
"None of you should believe we are winning this war. There is no evidence that we are winning this war," the ex-Georgian told a group of about 300 students attending a conference for collegiate conservatives....
"We were in charge for six years," he said, referring to the period between 2001 and early 2007, when the GOP controlled the White House and both houses of Congress. "I don't think you can look and say that was a great success."
There are values and there are values. The only thinking at his think tank is when will the check clear.
Potential GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has promoted public policy positions that closely track the financial interests of companies that underwrite a think tank he founded.
During his days in Congress, Gingrich also played a major role in chopping food inspections down to their current pathetic state, while receiving significant campaign contributions from the big winners of those actions. What a visionary.
Because there is never a shortage of hypocrisy among GOP leaders, Newt spoke about values this weekend at Falwell's college. Gingrich accused those who disagree with the theocrats of doing just what the theocrats are doing. Gingrich claimed that religious people were discriminated against in America. He said that at an institution whose leader, Jerry Falwell, took the lead in discriminating against other Americans. That's a strategic device used by the right wingers. They accuse others of doing exactly what they do. In reality, the theocrats are among the worst haters in America:
"In hostility to American history, the radical secularists insist that religious belief is inherently divisive," Gingrich said, deriding what he called the "contorted logic" and "false principles" of advocates of secularism in American society.
"Basic fairness demands that religious beliefs deserve a chance to be heard," he said during his 26-minute speech. "It is wrong to single out those who believe in God for discrimination. Yet, today, it is impossible to miss the discrimination against religious believers."
Basic fairness demands that religion not be used as a weapon against other Americans. And, it is wrong to single out anyone for discrimination. But that's what Falwell, Pat Robertson, James Dobson and Newt all do. Frank Rich summed up Falwell's legacy of hate in one well-written sentence:
In his best John McCain imitation, disgraced former House Speaker, FOX News analyst and potential GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich went on ABC's This Week morning to talk about the Virginia Tech massacre. Gingrich, like many far-right conservatives, suggested that the solution to massacres like Virginia Tech is to have all the students and their teachers packing heat.
Apparently having 30 (or 300, depending on the lecture) hormone-drenched kids, with next to no experience aiming a gun, firing weapons at each other simultaneously, and during a high-stakes emotional crises, in class is a good thing. Then again, watch the clip below and you'll see how Gingrich first says that the fact that VA Tech is a "gun-free zone" led to the mass death because students and teachers couldn't take each other out with their concealed weapons. But then, oddly, and very McCain like, at the end of the clip note how Gingrich does a 180 and says it would be okay for schools to make themselves gun-free zones. Uh, so the problem is that schools are gun-free zones and Gingrich's solution is to pass laws letting schools be gun-free zones.
Methinks someone is still trying to convince the soccer moms that he's not the far-right extremist he really is. But to so blatantly contradict himself in the same sentence - perhaps I should be comparing Gingrich not to McCain but to Mitt "I was for gays, gun control, abortion, and the environment before I was against them" Romney.
Gingrich is running for president. Gingrich obviously thinks this is what the American people want. Gingrich even thinks that this is what the Republican voters want. That's how bad the US Attorneys scandal has gotten. More from AP.
Do any of these people believe at all in what they preach? I mean, seriously. Now adultery isn't a problem for the religious right. Not to mention, Gingrich is divorced - twice - and now on his THIRD wife. And he asked his first wife to sign divorce papers while she was recovering from cancer surgery.
Seriously, do Christan conservatives believe in anything at all? Because they sure put on a great act of trying to force their views on the rest of us, while not living by the same values themselves.
I can't wait for 2008. Between Newt, McCain, and Giuliani alone it will be tough to keep count of the marriages and affairs. The religious right needs to face it - none of these guys gives a damn about their family values. The age of the religious right candidate is dead.
