Posts Tagged → Newt Gingrich
Pre-caucus poll: Gingrich by 4 points
He divorced a dying wife, has cheated on more than one spouse, has engaged in “strange bedfellows” relations with every prominent Democrat on Capitol Hill, and is a definitive flip-flopper on most issues. Yet Newt Gingrich is becoming the teflon candidate of the Iowa caucuses.
Following flirtations with Michelle Bachmann, Rick Perry and Herman Cain, the anti-Romney forces of the Iowa GOP have latched onto Newt Gingrich and refuse to be thrown off. The most recent Gallup Poll has him up by four percent over Romney, who can’t break past a 25-percent ceiling in his support.
Rick Santorum is looking better and better.
Early handicap of GOP 2012 Presidential Field: Newt Gingrich
When he’s not perusing Outer Banks vacation rentals, Newt Gingrich is flirting with a GOP presidential run. He has long been a favorite of mine, but he recently fell out of favor with me when he backed an ACORN-loving, liberal Republican in the New York Congressional race, rather than a true conservative, Doug Hoffman. The race was tight and Gingrich’s support might have made a difference.
But in all honestly, Gingrich has been slipping a lot since leaving office as Speaker of the House; he has cozied up to liberals and Democrats to push forward global warming solutions in an effort he calls “green Republicanism” when he ought to be shouting “swindle and fraud” from the rooftops against the cap-and-trade scam that global warming alarmism is a backdrop for.
While Gingrich has had solid conservative credentials in the past, there is now room for a reasonable amount of skepticism as to its authenticity. Too bad.
Gingrich calls for Paulson’s resignation
Speaking on This Week with George Stephanopolous, former GOP Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich called for the resignation of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
“You have the former Chairman of Goldman Sachs asking for 700 billion dollars, and in his initial request, asking for it in such an un-American way that I think he should have resigned. I think Paulson has terminally misunderstood the nature of the American system. Not just no review, no judicial review, no congressional accountability. Give me 700 billion dollars, 700 BILLION dollars! ‘I’ll be glad to spend it for you.’ That’s a centralization of power that is totally un-American.”
Perhaps Paulson could be let back into the community if he wore a magnetic bracelet that tracks his whereabouts.
Matthews’ political hopes not hardball
MSNBC commentator and talk show host Chris Matthews, who has made a name for himself hosting Hardball on the mini news net, is rumored to be considering a run in 2010 against GOP Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. Though he has not formally announced intentions to run, he’s certainly adding fuel to the speculation he may run, if for no other reason than to ensure high ratings.
Matthews, whose own memory is not quite as reliable as Dell memory, is a former White House staffer during the Carter Administration and also worked on the staff of then-Speaker of the House, Tip O’Neill. Short-spoken, acerbic and often humorless, Matthews left-leaning agenda has always been obvious on his MSNBC show, even though his brother ran for lieutenant governor a couple years ago as a Republican.
Ironically, Specter is an aging liberal Republican who the GOP wouldn’t mind eventually replacing with a more reliable conservative, so it’s not as if Matthews would be running against Newt Gingrich or Bobby Jindell here. The differences between Spector and Matthews is paper-thin, and if the GOP changes horses from Spector to an unknown, it could mean a switch from a reliable GOP seat to a Democratic one; the only thing that could overcome a Matthews candidacy is Spector has superior name recognition and political experience in Pennsylvania.
A Romneyic Victory
Mitt Romney won the Ames straw poll for presidential preference among Iowa Republicans this past weekend, proving nothing.
Well, at least he showed up. Absent were the real campaign heavyweights. Missing in action were RINO favorites like Rudy Guiliani and the candidate destined to hawk incontinence supplies on late-night TV ads, Sen. John McCain, as well as the still-not-quite-fully-declared faves, Fred Thompson and Newt Gingrich.
So, again, Mitt Romney won an Ames, IA, straw poll, proving nothing.
It’s like naming Sneezy the best of the Seven Dwarves. The only sane response to that is to say, “OK. Sure. So when do the REAL candidates get here?” Until he really goes up against Guiliani, Thompson and Gingrich, Romney’s becoming the new poster boy to have his name define a meaningless win. Forget Pyhrric victories; from now on, they ought to be known as Romneyic victories.
But hey… at least Romney’s win drove one other RINO candidate out of the race. That OTHER Thompson… Tommy, best known for his four terms as governor of Wisconsin… finally dropped out of the race when it became clear he couldn’t even beat Mitt Romney, let alone any of the big boys.
So at least there’s that.
For the hard-of-thinking: Mitt Romney won a presidential poll no other serious candidate showed up for, accomplishing nothing.
Bloomberg makes a more-honest man of himself
Current New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, the “favorite Republican” of all New York media types who can’t pair the words “favorite” and “Republican” together in a polite sentence, but of no one in the GOP, has dropped out of the GOP.
Well, at least he’s finally being honest with himself. Bloomberg, neither a conservative nor a real Republican, is halfway to being completely honest. He’s admitted he’s no longer in the GOP this week, filing in New York as an independent. Now he just needs to admit that his values have far more in common with MoveOn.org than the Cato Institute, and we’ll finally have the political breakthrough the world has been waiting for: a liberal Republican finally admitting he’s a sham artist out to win election under the GOP banner that he’d never win under more honest labeling.
Of course, don’t tell that to the New York Times, who is hoping Bloomberg can win as an independent if Hillary falls short. Either way, the entire drug-addled staff is readying their vans and their van racks for a return to the hippie hippie 70s, just as soon as Bush is either impeached for no reason at all (which they still believe is possible) or finally leaves office in favor of… anyone except a Republican.
Boy, are they gonna have a hangover when they wake up in November ’08 to President Newt Gingrich and Vice-President Mike Huckabee, or what? Heh-heh-heh.
Bloomberg a dangerous wildcard
Current New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg is a dangerous wild card in the upcoming 2008 presidential election. He is especially dangerous toward the hopes of GOP candidates for office, a danger made more real by a recent online report suggesting Bloomberg is willing to spend up to one billion of his $5.5B personal fortune in a third-party bid for the presidency.
The popular media take is that Bloomberg is a change of pace from far-left Democrats and far-right Republicans, because he is socially liberal, fiscally conservative and from the East Coast. Yet that holds no water as a viable difference from at least two, and possibly three, current top presidential contenders.
First of all, Bloomberg is a virtual carbon-copy of top GOP presidential contender Rudolph Giuliani, who has the benefit of running as a major party candidate. Their views are nearly identical and Giuliani has the benefit of receiving a lion’s share of the credit for post-9/11 leadership in New York City. It Giuliani secures the GOP nod, there would be no appreciable difference between the two that would make a Bloomberg run make any kind of sense, other than to split the vote and allow a Democratic presidential victory.
Second is GOP candidate Mitt Romney, currently battling with Arizona Senator John McCain for second place versus Giuliani for the Republican endorsement. Just like Bloomberg and Giuliani, Romney is of the exact same socially liberal, fiscally conservative, East Coast liberal type represented by Giuliani and Bloomberg. Again, a Romney candidacy would provide no contrast for Bloomberg to run against, other than to split the anti-Hillary/anti-Obama vote and ensure a Democratic win. And it should be noted that McCain, while not an East Coast candidate, fits in lock step positionally with Giuliani, Romney and Bloomberg.
In fact, the GOP field is so packed with East Coast social liberal/fiscal conservative candidates, one has to wonder if there’s any hope for the conservative movement in 2008.
But I mentioned a third candidate who – arguably – fits the same mold. I’m speaking, of course, about Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee. Despite being slightly more liberal than Giuliani, Romney and Bloomberg, some votes actually have Sen. Rodham as more conservative than McCain on select issues. Sen. Rodham-Clinton is basically Mayor Bloomberg on Phentermine.
What I think motivated Bloomberg more than any real, substantive “difference” from candidates like Giuliani, Romnet, Bloomberg and Rodham-Clinton is something far more provincial: a good ol’ New York pissing contest. For the last several election cycles, East Coast candidates – and specifically New Yorkers – have been nonfactors in presidential politics, much to the chagrin of the New York-centric liberal news media. New York has taken a back seat to the deep South as the most influential voting block, and New Yorkers are eager to get back into the game of presidential politics.
Think about it.
Bush II/Cheney: Texas and Wyoming
Clinton/Gore: Arkansas and Tennessee
Bush/Quayle: Texas/Maine and Indiana
Reagan/Bush: California and Texas/Maine
Carter/Mondale: Georgia and Minnesota
Ford/Rockefeller: Michigan and New York.
So, you have to go all the way back to 1974-1977, a brief stint as Ford’s vice president, to find the last time a New Yorker was in the White House. That’s at least a 30 year absence and it’s clear that one of the largest states in the nation is eager to be “back in the game.”
By the way, Rockefeller was, in his day, the leader of the liberal wing of the GOP, so even he fit with the ever-more-bloated socially liberal/fiscally conservative mold that is so well represented in this election cycle by Bloomberg, McCain, Giuliani, Romney and – arguably – Rodham-Clinton.
To be blunt, Bloomberg’s “change of pace” proposed candidacy is no “change of pace” at all – it simply litters the field with another sound-alike candidate designed to blot out any legitimate conservatives from getting a foothold in the 2008 election cycle.
The only real hopes for a legitimate change in rhetoric in this election cycle are Fred Thomspon, Newt Gingrich, or – arguably – a dark horse emergence from someone like Mike Huckabee. Bloomberg doesn’t represent change in any fashion; but a potential third-party run could doom the country to a Democratic presidential victory.
Pelosi should face censure
“Brave.”
“Bold.”
“Courageous.”
The praise for Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has been flooding in; but it’s not from the “usual suspects” like her Democratic colleagues or her willing accomplices in the press. No, the praise for Pelosi is coming, this time, from Islamic terrorists and state sponsors of terror. And she’s foolish enough to believe her own press.
Here are some samples from the WorldNetDaily.com article by Aaron Klein:
“Pelosi’s visit to Syria was very brave. She is a brave woman,” Jihad Jaara, a senior member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group and the infamous leader of the 2002 siege of Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity.
“Nancy Pelosi understands the area (Middle East) well, more than Bush and Dr. (Condoleeza) Rice,” said terror leader Khaled Al-Batch, a militant and spokesman for Islamic Jihad. “If the Democrats want to make negotiations with Syria, Hamas, and Hezbollah, this means the Democratic Party understands well what happens in this area and I think Pelosi will succeed. … I hope she wins the next elections.”
“The Americans know and understand they are losing in Iraq and the Middle East and that their only chance to survive is to reduce hostilities with Arab countries and with Islam. Islam is the new giant of the world.” said Abu Abdullah, a leader of Hamas’ military wing in the Gaza Strip.
I have some more appropriate descriptions for Pelosi.
“Useful idiot.”
“Neville Chamberlain of the 21st century.”
“Traitor.”
During a time of war, in defiance of her own country’s foreign policy, Pelosi goes overseas to score political points against Bush and allows herself to be used by the enemy, gives aid and comfort to them, while overseas. Nice. Straight out of the Jane Fonda Political Workout video.
Speaker Pelosi needs to learn that there’s a big difference between being president and being Speaker. Republican Newt Gingrich lost sight of that in 1994 when he was Speaker and look where it got him. And Newt never took it this far.
Of course, since Pelosi’s a Democrat and “the first woman Speaker in US history,” she’ll get a pass on this by the drive-by media, just like always. If the tables were reversed and it was a Republican in the folding chairs opposite the president of Syria in defiance of a Democratic president, you can bet the New York Times itself would be calling for the death penalty for the GOP traitors. For Pelosi, though, they’ll look the other way.
Bush won’t go nuclear over this. Pelosi’s lucky Wonderful Pessimist isn’t in the White House; I’d suspend her visa and refuse to let her back in the US.
Dobson disses Thompson
Focus on the Family’s Dr. James Dobson dissed a potential presidential run by former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson in a recent interview with US News and World Report. Going so far as to say the Church of Christ-baptized Thompson was not a Christian – or, at least, not the type of Christian that meets with Dobson’s approval – Dobson all but ruled out support for a Thompson candidacy from Focus On the Family. They won’t even donate some custom pens that say “Christians for Thompson ’08!”
Dr. Dobson has also recently suggested he’d be lukewarm to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s bid for the White House, due to Romney’s Mormonism. Wonderful Pessimist wonders exactly what kind of conservative it would take to please Dr. Dobson. Is an evangelical Christian faith all that matters? Current GOP President George W. Bush said all the right things about faith in both his campaign runs, yet has governed less conservatively than many on the Christian right anticipated.
Wonderful Pessimist isn’t bothered by looking at candidates’ religious background, but having it be the sole determining factor is a bit ridiculous. The reason not to support Mitt Romney is that he’s less conservative than George W. Bush, not that he’s a Mormon. As for Thompson, he’d be the leading conservative in the crowd, if he declares, so Wonderful Pessimist would welcome him into the GOP nomination fray.
Of course, Wonderful Pessimist is still holding out hope for a Newt Gingrich candidacy; there’s no sharper conservative thinker on the national stage right now, and while he was some character issues, I doubt they’d ultimately cripple his candidacy.
One of the 57 percent!
According to a CBS News/New York Times opinion poll, 57 percent of GOP voters would prefer having more choices to pick from in the upcoming presidential season. For once, CBS/NYT has a poll I can agree with, even though I still think that all polls are hokum.
Of course, the primary reason at least 57 percent of GOP voters want more choices is because the three main front-runners are moderates at best, and in the case of John McCain, full-blown RINOs. While current front-runner Rudy Giuliani is the least objectionable RINO candidate, it remains true that Giuliani and Mitt Romney are northeast liberals of the highest order, even if they do wear GOP clothing. And geography has nothing to do with McCain’s liberalism.
Of course, there are minor conservatives out there, but none that are sparking a fire under GOP voters’ butts. Sam Brownback: Who? Mike Huckabee: Another Arkansasan to the White House? Not likely. Umm… are there any other conservatives in the race? Maybe even via video conferencing?
Perhaps.
Over the weekend, former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson, a Reagan Republican of the highest order, tossed his hat into the ring. Thompson has name recognition because aside from his stint as senator, he’s been in the Die Hard movies with Bruce Willis and a regular on Law and Order. He’s a minor celebrity.
Now, no one is saying that Thompson’s the second coming of Ronald Reagan, and certainly if Georgia’s Newt Gingrich eventually tosses his hat in the ring, he has more name recognition, but Thompson’s the first decent conservative to enter the race this year. The real question is whether he can compete with the three RINO stooges, Giuliani, McCain and Romney.
I’m not sure he can, but I’d love to see him succeed. He possesses a higher profile than Huckabee, and people know who he is. That’s a plus. And Gingrich may never enter the race, for all we know. For now, Thompson is the default favored candidate of Wonderful Pessimist, but we’re still taking applications.
C’mon, conservatives! Pull your heads out of the sand and stand up for limited government, lower taxes, a free market economy and all the other values that made the GOP a majority party under Reagan-Bush and a congressional majority under Gingrich.
Conservatism works every time it’s embraced. Pulling back from it and governing like Democrats? That just makes folks want to vote for the real liberals.
Giuliani still playing coy
Rudolph Giuliani may not have declared his candidacy for a 2008 GOP presidential bid quite yet, but it sounds like he’s getting ready to print up the business cards and the campaign literature. According to a New York Times report, Giuliani was sounding all the right notes in New Hampshire this past weekend.
While Giuliani remains a favorite of many due to his 9-11 leadership of New York City, many are conveniently putting aside his social liberalism while waiting for him to declare his candidacy. Still, he’s talking like someone ready for a marathon, not a 100-yard dash.
“When I say to you that we should reduce taxes to stimulate the economy, I’ll say it to you because I did it and I saw it work,” he said. “When I say we have to bring peace and security as sort of the beginning of anything, whether it’s in Baghdad or in other parts of the world or here at home, I’ll say that to you because I saw that happen in New York, and I made it happen. I did it.”
My take? Giuliani is the best of the RINOs, but I’m still holding out for a true conservative to declare and capture the imagination. Whether it’s Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee or someone yet to surface, the GOP is looking mighty thin on genuine conservatives this time around.
