Cloud so swift rain fallin in
Gonna see a movie called Gunga Din
Pack up your money, pull up your tent, Newt
You aint a goin no where.
adapted from Bob Dylan
On the implosion of the Gingrich campaign to be the Republican nominee for president in 2012: ole Newt wasn't going anywhere, no matter how squirrely his campaign discipline. GOP insiders were going to make sure of it. There is a whole new crop of young and telegenic conservatives. He needed to yield. Think Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan. What is interesting, however, is the extent to which the radical wing of the GOP owes Gingrich. The mid-term 1994 election that Gingrich engineered to swing Congress away from Bill Clinton was his political high point and the launching pad for the new conservatism. While Gingrich didn't invent the politics of destruction (credit Lee Atwater, for that), he did set the stage for booting moderates out of the Republican party. Gingrich paved the way for George W. Bush in 2000. He could rightly claim that he is owed top GOP support. But the new breed doesn't go out on a hundred limbs, like Newt, with independent ideas. It takes its marching orders from a political/corporate elite that demands loyalty to the program; tax cuts for the rich, no regulation for polluters, and prayer for the rest. Think John Boehner, golfer. Or Dick Armey, grass roots organizer. The political merger the GOP now represents, between corporate interests and the Christian Right, took flight during the Gingrich leadership. It was called the Contract With America and it came in a hymn book. After all this time, when the pulpits have been overtaken by GOP fundamentalists, Newt thought he could slide by the Jeb! Bush wing of the party. Not a chance. Not in a hundred years. Newt will stay on the stage; he's much in love with his own voice. He may even take swings at the nastiness he helped unleash. Funny though: Newt wasn't wrong to question the Ryan budget on "Meet the Press"; the event that infuriated conservatives. Newt meant to establish his gravitas for independent voters the GOP needs and was hoist by his own petard. To win the presidency, the GOP still needs those independents. But today's extremists leading the GOP don't want triangulation: they want strangulation.
10 comments:
In regard to Newt, I remember 1994 well and was a proud Republican at the time. Through the years, I've watched both party's lean too far to the right and too far to the left, I then became an Independent voter, free from the bondage of what I consider idiocy extremism on both sides.
I know and Independent cannot win anything - Jesse Ventura was a fluke, and Leiberman is really a Democrat, but that doesn't mean I will cow tow to a party line I'm sick of or demands me to take a position I don't agree with on both sides of the aisle.
When I look at the new "W" scandal as I call it, the ego on this A** just kills me. Pelosi has had way too much botox and has soon forgotten her "cleaning house" motto, but if it was a Republican, she's and Reid would be screaming from the top of the Hill for a resignation! What a bunch of hypocrites!
The next thing you know and they will be declaring a state day of prayer to carry us on through turbulent times.
Last anon, I shall pray for you! (I am joking by the way)
Why is reality in Florida turning in to a John Stewart opening monologue!
It's too scary.
new words: newtiny, de-newted, de-newting
Of course he was going somewhere it was Greece (Wish he would have styayed there).
Here are the elements of the 1994 Contract with America.
1) The Fiscal Responsibility Act
2) The Taking Back Our Streets Act
3) The Personal Responsibility Act
4) The American Dream Restoration Act
5) The National Security Restoration Act
6) The "Common Sense" Legal Reform Act
7) The Job Creation and Wage Enhancement Act
8) The Citizen Legislature Act
Radical ideas aren't they????
Number 1, 4 & 7 seem like they could apply today more than ever, but RADICAL & divisive, I tell you!
The Democrat alliance between, Secularist, Lawyers and Unions has absolutely no parallels to the evil GOP alliance with Christians and Corporations. (One of them being BP, who gave Obama $77,051 in Senate and POTUS campaign contributions - Nothing to see here, just move on).
Imagine he was railing against the Clinton machine which had us at the top of our game. Everyone who wanted a job had one. We had a huge budget surplus and were viewed well in the rest of the world. Well, they won, and eight years later, the biggest mess ever. Obama comes on the scene to clean up. He is still cleaning up the mess. Now they want to come back in control? Give me a break!
Ginrich isn't worth your time, or ours. keep it relevant.
Gingrich is absolutely worth our time.Good material here. Heard his lawn maintenance guy walked to day. So sad.
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