Thursday, January 26, 2012

Bob Dole and other conservatives pile on Gingrich

Politico reports:

Newt Gingrich better hope voters who lapped up his delicious hits on the “elite media” and liberals don’t read the Drudge Report this morning.

Or the National Review. Or the American Spectator. Or Ann Coulter.

If they do, Gingrich comes off looking like a dangerous, anti-Reagan, Clintonian fraud.

It’s as if the conservative media over the past 24 hours decided Gingrich is for real, and they need to come clean about the man they really know before it’s too late.
Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay says:
He’s not really a conservative. I mean, he’ll tell you what you want to hear. He has an uncanny ability, sort of like Clinton, to feel your pain and know his audience and speak to his audience and fire them up.
An anonymous "conservative media leader" says:
All of us who were around and saw how he operated as speaker — there’s no one who’s not appalled by the prospect of what could happen. He thinks he embodies conservatism and if he wakes up one day and has a grandiose thought, he is going to expect all of us to fall in line behind him.

There’s just so much risk on so many levels . . . Everyone’s thinking, ‘It could really happen.’ He could win the presidency if there’s a way to win with 45 percent — a second recession or a third-party candidate.
Bob Dole, who led the Republicans in the Senate while Gingrich was Speaker of the House, released this statement to National Review:
I have not been critical of Newt Gingrich but it is now time to take a stand before it is too late. If Gingrich is the nominee it will have an adverse impact on Republican candidates running for county, state, and federal offices. Hardly anyone who served with Newt in Congress has endorsed him and that fact speaks for itself. He was a one-man-band who rarely took advice. It was his way or the highway.

Gingrich served as Speaker from 1995 to 1999 and had trouble within his own party. By 1997 a number of House Republican members wanted to throw him out as Speaker. But he hung on until after the 1998 elections when Newt could read the writing on the wall. His mounting ethics problems caused him to resign in early 1999. . . .

Gingrich had a new idea every minute and most of them were off the wall. He loved picking a fight with President Clinton because he knew this would get the attention of the press. This and a myriad of other specifics like shutting down the government helped to topple Gingrich in 1998. . . .

The Democrats are spending millions of dollars running negative ads against Romney as they are hoping that Gingrich will be the nominee which could result in a landslide victory for Obama and a crushing defeat for Republicans from the courthouse to the White House. . . .

In my opinion if we want to avoid a sweeping victory by Obama in November, Republicans should nominate Governor Romney as our standard bearer. He could win because he has the requisite experience in the public and private sectors. He would be a president in whom we could have confidence and he would make us proud.
Dole adds this strange detail:
Newt would show up at the campaign headquarters with an empty bucket in his hand — that was a symbol of some sort for him — and I never did know what he was doing or why he was doing it, and I’m not certain he knew either.

3 comments:

karen said...

Not being a regular, but liking your even tone- i wonder if you appreciate this pig-pile on of Newt? Does he really deserve this treatment, or is all fair in... war?

I like Newt because he's a dick. Sad to say, eh? I don't think he's overly pompous, although pompous enough, but i think he is contrite in the mistakes he's made. Also, tired of the spin of the msm. They suck.

I don't appreciate Coulter-- and her acid tongue which she earns a good amount of $$$$ w/- saying crap like Obama is better than Newt- i find that false for any Conservatively minded person to say, even if you hate his guts.

I'm no Philly lawyer(i milk cows for a living), but i'm w/the folk that fly the yellow/green flags of Gadsen, IIRC it's name. I'm sick of being a doormat for the reps that Nanny State(ie-VT)the hell outta us and expect us to be grateful for their maternalistic bent. Which the red, squiggly line says isn't a word, but i like all the same.

Care to share?

John Althouse Cohen said...

Thanks for the kind words. I'm going to defer to others in their assessment of Gingrich's behavior while he was Speaker of the House, since I was a teenager at the time. (I was 17 when he resigned.)

I do agree that this idea that he's full of brilliant ideas is absurdly overblown. I also think he's at least as much of a conservative heretic as Romney. (Not that there's anything wrong with that!)

I've drafted a long post about who I plan to vote for (in the primaries and general election), but I'm holding off on publishing it because I'm still undecided. I wouldn't vote for Gingrich.

karen said...

John-
i don't think i would vote for Newt-- i can't seem to forgive him on his infidelities against women he vowed to stay faithful to. It really bothers me that he can now talk of anyone else being dishonest when he lived that way emotionally and sexually.

However, i find his belligerence toward the media very refreshing- maybe because i would never act that way myself. I just really like him- he's a smart man. Of course, he may well find my abilities and IQ to be of such small consequence, he would not give me the time of day-- IOW- elitist. IDK.

I'll vote for Santorum- even if he won't win. I like his honesty and his passion(&his proLife stance). Romney may well take it all the way-- (Not that there's anything wrong with that!)-- because any of the 4 Conservative men are better grounded(even Paul)& more patriotically sincere than Obama.

Healthcare is a bigbig issue as people are already being discriminated against(i've seen it recently here)because of age or even contributing ability to society.

I hate bullies. Healthcare discrimination is another form of bullying, IMhumbleO.

ps- if i've duplicated a comment, please delete one-- i lost one somewhere in the space of the web.