“Gingrich, the Cretin”
Those aren’t my words. Those are the words of the National Review online, the mainstream conservative journal. What spawned that?
Newt has been desperately trying to stuff his weasel words back in the bottle o’ weasel, but it’s not working. And he’s getting more and more weird about it, and at this point conservatives clearly don’t mind calling him on it.
Newt went on Fox News and warned Democrats not to use what he said in attack ads. He added, “Any ad which quotes what I said Sunday is a falsehood.”
Got that? If you use Newt’s exact words, it will be a lie.
Conservatives say “Get lost!”
More reaction:
Hot Air: Why would a guy like Newt whose brand has always been about Big Bold Solutions criticize Ryan for offering … a big bold solution?
Ross Douthat (NY Times): ..[Gingrich] first denounced Ryan for “right-wing social engineering” (for conservatives, them’s fighting words!) and then, when pressed about his own plan for entitlement reform, offered banalities about starting the proverbial “a national conversation” about Medicare and (inevitably) cutting waste, fraud and abuse.
Wall Street Journal: …the Georgian’s weakness as a candidate, and especially as a potential President—to wit, his odd combination of partisan, divisive rhetoric and poll-driven policy timidity.
In his recent campaign book, “To Save America,” he describes Mr. Obama as bent on leading a “secular–socialist machine” that “represents as great a threat to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union once did.” … Mr. Gingrich speaks loudly but shrinks from hard choices.
Bill Bennett: Gingrich “has taken himself out of serious consideration for the [2012] race.”
Steve Kornacki: …It also feels like something bigger is going on here — that Republican leaders and activists are using Newt’s flub as an opportunity to say something that’s been on their minds for a lot longer: Get lost! …Here, the comment from [Nikki] Haley, the 39-year-old South Carolina governor… seems telling: ”There was a place and time for him.” I’ll bet this attitude preceded the current controversy – and is fairly common among influential conservatives.
Salon: Sometime after he was told to drop out “before you make a bigger fool of yourself” and before we learned that he and his wife had racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt at Tiffany’s, Newt Gingrich convened a conference call Tuesday afternoon in an effort to put a good face on what has been an epically disastrous presidential campaign rollout.
NPR: Newt Gingrich May Have Set Political-Obit Speed Record
The Daily Telegraph: In short, the Gingrich candidacy does not match the mood of the contemporary conservative grassroots. The Tea Party ethic is anti-establishment and harbours little nostalgia about the pre-2008 Republican Party. Newt is in danger of looking like a cautious old man in an age that belongs to young fanatics.
Democrats say “Bring it on!”
And why is this awesome news for the Democrats?
Let’s let Republican pundit David Frum sum it up nicely:
[Gingrich's criticism] was actually a wise statement: a caution against committing the GOP to a huge rework of Medicare into a means-tested program that left more and more American seniors to pay more and more of their health insurance costs out of their own pockets.
…as Gingrich learned the hard way: the American public will not accept this kind of reform and will smash any politician who tries to force it upon them.
That’s why.
More Newt madness:
- Newt Gingrich: Eliminate the EPA
- This is Your Newt Gingrich (VIDEO)
- Odd Couples for Climate Change
- GOP Votes to Repeal Climate Science
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About Jeremy Bloom
[...] readers of Red Green and Blue are good wakeful of Newt Gingrich’s embarrassing flip-flops on all from climate change to a US oil supply. But for many in a ubiquitous open who are only [...]