Posted on 11/30/2011 2:13:19 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
I am now officially a self-declared member of the “Not Romney” camp. I will absolutely, positively support Mitt Romney should he win the GOP nomination, but I believe the GOP would meet certain doom if he is the nominee. Therefore, should Gingrich be the only other choice, I’d side with Gingrich over Romney.
But I think in the next few weeks conservatives must ask themselves if they are ready to forgive Newt his sins. I’m not talking about his adultery and wives. I’m not really even talking about his ego. What I am talking about is only tangentially related to his sitting on a couch with Nancy Pelosi.
It was, after all, Newt Gingrich who advocated for an individual mandate long before Mitt Romney ever did. Gingrich has, like Clinton before him, been a “third way” fan of new fangled ways to do things. The conservative warrior people tend to think Gingrich is, often is not. Newt has a fascination with the shiny in policy and technology, hence the latest oppo drop on Newt that he once praised Donald Berwick, the Obama appointee chosen to oversee the death panels and shoving of grandparents over the medical cost savings cliff.
To be fair to Gingrich, he was offering legitimate praise to Berwick way back when and Berwick’s own writings that Newt praised would be damning to Obamacare. But it is the first of many attacks.
The real issue for Gingrich is that he is the Great American Sisyphus, always rolling his political rock up a hill only to see it go tumbling back down. And unfortunately for many, when Newt reaches the top of the hill and his political career starts its roll back down the hill, many others get rolled over in the process.
Gingrich is going to need to convince people he has changed. Conservatives must be ready to forgive him his sins. And as conservatives come to terms with Gingrich’s sins, they are going to be confronted by a man named Tom Coburn who wrote a book called Breach of Trust and a man named Robert Novak who wrote the foreword to that book. One excerpt will be particularly troubling to conservative activists currently enamored with Newt’s debating skills.
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Gingrich either felt that he could not use his office to control spending or was not willing to lose his office to control spending. This goes to the heart of the matter: If your decisions are based on not losing a position, you cannot effectively serve the best long-term interests of the country.
Sen. Tom A. Coburn M.D.; John Hart. Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders (Kindle Locations 1283-1285). Kindle Edition.
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If Newt can withstand the rehashing of Tom Coburn’s book — a book that portrays Gingrich as talking the talk, but betraying the talk once in office — we may have our anti-Romney. If not, I think Rick Perry may yet have a second coming if he is ready. I say that having asked many callers to my radio show who are Cain supporters where they would go. Most say Newt. The others Perry. And if Newt implodes? They almost always say they’d go to Perry — Romney is rarely their choice.
Some excerpts from Breach of Trust below the fold.
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Coburn made his presence felt immediately. It became clear to him that Speaker Gingrich, House Majority Leader Armey and the rest of the Republican leadership were not what they pretended to be. They were revolutionaries in name only, content to take possession from the Democrats of the machinery of government and then run it virtually unchanged. That froze in place the system of pork barrel spending that young Woodrow Wilson described in Congressional Government more than 130 years ago.
Sen. Tom A. Coburn M.D.;John Hart. Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders (Kindle Locations 55-58). Kindle Edition.
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Gingrich talked a lot about the importance of listening, but he was often not interested in discussing our ideas. He had a saying on his wall in the Speaker’s office that he quoted often: “Listen, learn, help, and lead.” The freshmen later developed our own quote about Gingrich: “Fire, Ready, Aim.”
Sen. Tom A. Coburn M.D.;John Hart. Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders (Kindle Locations 849-850). Kindle Edition.
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Gingrich would receive our input, but he rarely took it seriously. He usually made us feel as if we didn’t have much value because we didn’t know anything about the political game in Washington. We were from the outside and wet behind the ears in terms of politics, and we obviously didn’t know as much about history as he did. It would not take long for us to become “the conservatives” to him.
Sen. Tom A. Coburn M.D.;John Hart. Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders (Kindle Locations 850-853). Kindle Edition.
We are at such critical mass in this country, does anyone really understand the situation we are in? Personally, I don’t think there is going to be an election, something will be manufactured to suspend. But in the meantime, let’s pretend, we better stop worrying about, blondes, pictures with Pelosi, RINOS, and start to find the positives in EACH Republican candidate or we are done.
No RINOs not now not ever!
It ain't over til it's votered.
It doesn’t matter who the nominee is for the Republicans, if they Nominate Elmer Fudd, he’d win against the “present” president that is a statistically-proven total failure and now is clocked at a “popularity” rating BELOW Jimmy Carter. No matter who “our guy” is ... and s/he won’t be perfect ... s/he’ll be 100% better than the jerk we have pretending to run things now.
Gingrich is McCain with a trainload of baggage.
Both tug on the conservative strings, then slam the conservatives to the curb whenever possible.
Gingrich will probably do about as good in the 2012 General as McCain did in the 2008 General.
And, the MSM/Dems still have almost a whole year to rehabilitate/resurrect the Obama brand.
As for Gingrich and debates, yes, he is great in debates. No, he won’t slaughter Obama. Any good used car salesman, given some preparation time, can be a good debater. It is what would come AFTER the debates — holding office — where the concern lies with Gingrich. Will he be Gingrich-on-the-Couch-with Nancy? Or will he be Fold-and-Run-Gingrich who resigned his Speakership and basically walked out on his House seat? With Gingrich, you never really know what you got.
As a Christian I must forgive (after all, I have been forgiven) and I hope. I hope that Speaker Gingrich has indeed begun to learn new lessons of humility and faithfulness. If he becomes the nominee, I will pray for him like crazy.(I will pray for whomever is the nominee against Obama.)
As a Christian, I also pray that we will be granted the blessing of the right leader for this nation at such a crucial time. I will trust God more than I trust man for this.
What we all see these days more clearly than before is an intense battle between good and evil. We would do well to pay a lot more attention to that in each of our own individual lives ... as well as the battle between good and evil for this nation.
“...we better stop worrying about, blondes, pictures with Pelosi, RINOS, and start to find the positives in EACH Republican candidate or we are done.”
I SO agree.
Been totally swamped at work for a couple of weeks. What in the world happened with your Perry love affair?
Thank you! The world is on fire right now, in every aspect. The ME is ready to explode, the world is crumbling financially, Israel is in great peril, terrorism could again strike the US at any moment, our government is infiltrated with liars, theives, socialism and the list goes on. Yet, there are those who want to focus on a “pure” right wing candidate that is non-existent and couldn’t win anyway. As an example, IF Palin thought for one minute she could have won the nomination, she would have thrown her hat in the ring, she didn’t and that tells me all I need to know. There are life and death issues here folks and personally, I could care less what color Newts’ wife’s hair color is, his weight, or photo ops, I just want a nation where my grandchildren can live safely.
Newt is an experienced navigator of these dangerous waters with vast knowledge and I stand firmly behind him to lead us out of this crisis.
I think Newt Gingrich is the guy we need for this time in history. He’s not afraid to try something new and he will look out for the best interest of America not the rest of the world.
Right. Why should I vote for someone who betrayed my trust seemingly brazenly. To me there's a certain contriteness missing here.
And if that's what it means to be an insider, then throw all the bums out.
But in the 90's he showed us that once he's out in the water, he gets tangled up. He has not shown himself to be trustworthy. And once back on shore, hasn't shown a certain contriteness about his serious misdeeds and betrayals. Therefore, I don't trust him.
Is he the best of the remaining bunch (assuming that "glug, glug, glug" is Cain)? No, I think I trust Perry before Newt.
Between Newt and Romney? Close call because I don't trust Romney either.
How can our two best candidates be gone (one actually, the other constructively)? Either Sarah or Jesus need to come back soon.
In 1994 Newt Gingrich was a fantastic Speaker. He drug Clinton kicking and screaming to welfare reform. 4 balanced budgets. He played chicken with Clinton and let the govt shutdown. I was cheering him. His reward was that the same bunch of spineless RINO’s led by Tammy Faye Boehner threw Newt to the wolves because they couldn’t take the heat. Some things never change. Look where we are now.
Newt Gingrich will be a fine president. Any of the candidates on that debate stage would be 1000% better than the red diaper baby we have in the White House now.
He was cleared of charges and he says he has made his peace with God. I am more interested in what he will do as President. The 21st Century Contract For America is a good start.
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