Posted on 01/25/2012 9:52:02 AM PST by T. Jefferson
In the increasingly rough Republican campaign, no candidate has wrapped himself in the mantle of Ronald Reagan more often than Newt Gingrich. “I worked with President Reagan to change things in Washington,” “we helped defeat the Soviet empire,” and “I helped lead the effort to defeat Communism in the Congress” are typical claims by the former speaker of the House.
The claims are misleading at best. In the Reagan years I was an assistant secretary of state — Mr. Gingrich voted with the president regularly, but equally often spewed insulting rhetoric at Reagan, his top aides, and his policies to defeat Communism. Gingrich was voluble and certain in predicting that Reagan’s policies would fail, and in all of this he was dead wrong.
President Reagan is clearly failing.” Why? This was due partly to “his administration’s weak policies, which are inadequate and will ultimately fail”; partly to CIA, State, and Defense, which “have no strategies to defeat the empire.” “The burden of this failure frankly must be placed first on President Reagan.” Our efforts against the Communists in the Third World were “pathetically incompetent.”
Gingrich’s called Reagan’s meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev “the most dangerous summit for the West since Adolf Hitler met with Neville Chamberlain in Munich.”
Far from becoming a reliable voice for Reagan policy and the struggle against the Soviets, Gingrich took on Reagan and his administration. It appears to be a habit: He did the same to George W. Bush when Bush was making the toughest and most controversial decision of his presidency — the surge in Iraq. Here again Gingrich provided no support for his party’s embattled president, testifying as a private citizen in 2007 that the strategy was “inadequate,” contained “breathtaking” gaps, lacked “synergism” (whatever that means), and was “very disappointing.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Hey, do you remember when the National Review as a conservative publication? Neither do I.
“Hey, do you remember when the National Review as a conservative publication? Neither do I.”
Hahahaha. That was so long ago that is is now ancient history. It has certainly moved to the left. GO NEWT GO!
NRO is in the tank for Romney. I don’t really know what the author’s agenda is here. Newt, in my opinion, has the energy and clear headed thinking of a conservative similar to REagan when he campaigned against FORD. He was at the top of his game then. He still was four years later, but his energy decreased in the second term.
It’s more than funny, that Romney is non stop attack mode against Newt. Not one iota of comment against Obama. Newt is focused on Obama, Romney is focused on Romney.
A real eye opener. I’m shocked that he has the endorsement of McCain. Surprised that Huckabee hasn’t come out for Newt yet.
Anyway, next Tuesday can’t come fast enough.
PS-Hey, Rick Santorum. Tell us WHY? WHY are you still in this?
Gee, I guess we better vote for ROmney then, huh?
NOT!
Nice History re-write, Elliott you hack, establishment whore!
Eliot Abrams??? How many moldy oldies from the Establishment GOP will come out against Newt this week? Santorum is my candidate, but the way the EGOP is hyperventilating, I’m reconsidering.
Because so far every anti-Romney candidate who has taken a lead has imploded. And Newt has a history of impulsive behavior and decisions.
Early yearsAbrams was born into a Jewish family in New York. His father was an immigration lawyer. He attended Harvard College in the late 1960s and was a roommate of Steven Kelman, founder of the Young People’s Socialist League campus chapter. Together they penned an article on the 1969 Harvard strike for The New Leader, “The Contented Revolutionists.”.[9] Abrams received his bachelor of arts from Harvard College in 1969, a master’s degree in international relations from the London School of Economics in 1970, and his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1973.
He practiced law in New York in the summers for his father, and then at Breed, Abbott and Morgan from 1973 to 1975 and with Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard and McPherson from 1979 to 1981.
Abrams worked as an assistant counsel on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in 1975, then worked as a staffer on Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson’s brief campaign for the 1976 Democratic Party presidential nomination. From 1977 through 1979, he served as special counsel and ultimately as chief of staff for the then-new senator Daniel Moynihan.
Through Senator Moynihan, Abrams was introduced to Rachel Decter, the stepdaughter of Moynihan’s friend Norman Podhoretz, editor of Commentary. They were married in 1980. The couple has three children: Jacob, Sarah, and Joseph.[10
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_Abrams
Has East Coast HACK written ALL over HIM!
“I’m shocked that he has the endorsement of McCain.”
Really? Why?
National Review seems to be about knee deep in RINO excrement. Now, all decisions of Reagan are sacrosanct? Newt was right to question and indeed force the vetting of untested plans.
The problem NRO, Talk Radio hosts, and many others in the GOP have is they worship a Reagan that never existed.
In his 2nd term Reagan did a bunch of stuff that pissed off Conservatives. Tax hikes, Spending increases, Amnesty etc. What Gingrich was saying about him was mild compared to what most on the Right were saying about him in 1986-89.
I would love to see what NRO’s editorial board was writing about Reagan in 1986-1987-1988.
I am betting it a lot harsher then anything Newt ever said about Reagan.
IATZ
Don’t remember who keeps the ZOT ping list.
bttt
WLS Radio’s John Dempsey Reports
CHICAGO (WLS) - Indiana U.S. Senator Dan Coats says the Republican party could lose to President Obama this fall, because of the weaknesses of the leading Republican Presidential candidates.
Coats made this statement during his appearance on WLS Radio’s Don Wade and Roma Show, “I think there’s some names out there that maybe we ought to give second thought to, just given the fact that the vulnerabilities of some of our leading candidates here might cause us to lose the election in November.”
LISTEN: U.S. Senator Dan Coats With Don Wade and Roma - Click Here
Coats also says the Republican Party should have an open convention where other candidates can present their credentials.
“And I’m beginning to wonder if maybe we shouldn’t take a second look at a convention process that will at least give us the opportunity to weigh some other alternatives.”
http://www.wlsam.com/Article.asp?id=2380328&spid=
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