Gingrich's thin skin has pushed him out of the race

multiple media | 1/7/2012 | self

[sheikdetailfeather]

CLINTON IS THE ONE WHO SHUT THE GOVT. DOWN IN THE 90’S:

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19951116&slug=2152925

“Both of us (he and Dole) got on that airplane expecting to spend several hours talking about the budget and how do we avoid the shutdown.”

[sheikdetailfeather]

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=48142

— Apparently, these reporters will cling to their “Gingrich shut the government down” propaganda as long as they live. That’s not true. Technically, it was Clinton who shut it down. — It’s another media myth that the shutdown was some personal tantrum over airplane seating.

[sheikdetailfeather]

http://giwersworld.org/mgiwer/sdown3.html

(excerpt)

After months of blaming the Republicans for shutting down the US Government twice in two months the story has now been carried in the Washington Times. With little surprise to many not only did Bill Clinton shut down the government but he had help in doing so. That help came from the AFGE union, the American Federation of Government Employees.
Yes, folks, the secret is out. The unions were part of shutting down the US Government. Those same people who were out there whining every day about how irresponsible it was to shut down the government were in fact a party to it.
But of course it must have been the fault of those young upstart Republicans in the House lead by the evil Newt Gingrich. After all, they were the ones who forced Clinton and the government employees union to conspire to shut down the government. Why they promised each other they would work together to blame Republicans for their own private agreement to shut down the government.
So after four months of lying and finger pointing the Clinton and the union we discover that they in fact planned and plotted to shut down the government. Now this might not be so bad if the AFGE represented a majority of government employees. It might not be so bad if the employees who were cold-heartedly and callously put on furlough by the union were informed of the strategy. But of course they were not.

[Sea Parrot]

Right, Newt should never respond in kind to the lies and vicious attack on him. He should not go on the offensive, but just keep his mouth shut and let the opposition destroy him.

I want a fighter, not some spoon fed mush mouthed wimp.

[wardaddy]

after the way Romney’s PAC acted in Iowa

you got a lot of gall to whine about Newt fighting back

geez

[wardaddy]

Inability to control his schlong.

I'm 54. Newt is I think 68

I can declare that with reasonable certainty that at his age if he cannot conrol his johnson then it will do it for him.

[americanophile]

He's extremely knowledgeable, there's no doubt. I wish he was electable. I would be fascinated and happy to see him, a strong Constitutional conservative, as president.

[sheikdetailfeather]

http://blog.heritage.org/2011/02/25/government-unions-play-key-role-in-shutdown-fight/

As reported by The Washington Times in March, 1996:

President Clinton’s close ties with federal employee unions enabled him to weather two record government shutdowns and an unprecedented $80 billion raid on federal retirement funds while laying the blame on Republicans.

Internal documents from both the administration and unions reveal close coordination between the unions and Mr. Clinton in developing a strategy of confrontation with Republicans over the spending bills needed to keep the government open and prevent hundreds of thousands of government employees from being furloughed.

The unions not only took the administration’s side in the confrontation, but the largest union – the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) – urged Mr. Clinton to veto the bills and shut the government down for weeks rather than compromise with Republicans.

Meanwhile, the unions provided critical political cover for the administration and Democrats on Capitol Hill by waging an extensive public relations campaign designed to blame the confrontation and shutdowns entirely on the Republicans, particularly on the House’s 73 freshmen.
…
Leaders of the union, which says it represents 700,000 of the government’s 2 million employees, deduced that throwing employees out of work for a few weeks with no guarantee of pay would be better than the higher federal pension contributions and large agency cuts the GOP was planning, which might force extensive layoffs.

[shoedog]

I actually felt Gingrich was the best candidate, have never had Romney at the top of my list. Right now I would probably feel best with Sanatorum. I had really wanted Pence, Ryan or Mitch Daniels in the race. At the end of the day I will vote for whoever comes out on top of the Republican race. My point with Newt is that he likes the love and when he is challenged or doesn’t get it, he whines. He sucked up with Hillary, to an extent on global warming, and other “causes of the moment” once he was out of the house.

[shoedog]

I actually felt Gingrich was the best candidate, have never had Romney at the top of my list. Right now I would probably feel best with Sanatorum. I had really wanted Pence, Ryan or Mitch Daniels in the race. At the end of the day I will vote for whoever comes out on top of the Republican race. My point with Newt is that he likes the love and when he is challenged or doesn’t get it, he whines. He sucked up with Hillary, to an extent on global warming, and other “causes of the moment” once he was out of the house.

[shoedog]

The press didn’t make Newt make stupid comments about “I am not wealthy like Romney”, that was Newt speaking out of anger. I was a huge fan of Newt initially as speaker, and absolutely agreed with his show down with Clinton on government. As many have stated on this thread, it was in fact Clinton who made the choice to actually shut it down.

[donna]

It goes back to his complaining of having to get off the back of the plane

That's like believing the story that Bush Sr. never saw a grocery store price scanner before.

Newt was making the point that the 3-branches of government are equal and that Clinton was intentionally disrespecting the Speaker of the House. It wasn't personal.

Newt knows he can't win the Presidency, but he can do his best to keep Romney from it. More power to Newt.

[leapfrog0202]

[skeeter]

Coming from ANYONE else that is an innocuous statement. Coming from Newt, however, only because of the media narrative it is significant (to some).

That is how the media works and I ain't playing.

[sushiman]

I agree , too . Add to that he would have troubke with the female vote .

[onyx]

Whack! You are spot on, dead bang right!

[shoedog]

for the record, I have Gingrich’s book with him personally autographing it. I am just telling you how I feel about Newt’s recent commentary. I am not an Romney tron. It is amazing how making a comment that is negative to somebody’s favorite candidate automatically turns you into a liberal, moderate or Romney fan. As I have said, I don’t especially love any of our current candidates, I was hoping Pence, Ryan or Mitch Daniels was going to get in the race. With the exception of Ron Paul, Romney is probably my least desireable. At the end of the day , I will vote Republican in October. My point about Newt is that his latest choices for pushing back on Romney, I think, were poor judgement. As I said in the initial post, Newt has a right to fight back, and quite frankly you can attack Romney in a number areas, choosing to attack his “rich” status is just plain stupid. Any yes Gingrich can be stupid at times, just like every other candidate.

[shoedog]

Thank you for sharing the note from Jim Rob, I had not seen it. By the way I do send money into FR. What is also amazing is how we all attack anyone that has a negative comment about a Republican. I really felt my post was rather innocuous and was out of frustration on Gingric, in my opinion, hurting his cause with his choice of attacks on Romney. Attacking a Republican candidate for being rich is just plain stupid, and literally makes him sound like an Obama supporter. The wrath from my posting is fine, but that fact that people react so over the top to anyone that opposes there candidate is just as bad as ridiculing a candidate. I am not a Romney supporter, with the exception of Ron Paul, he was probably at the bottom of my list of viable candidates I would support. At the end of the day, I will vote for whoever wins the Republican ticket since it will be infinitely better then Obama.

[shoedog]

Thank you for sharing the note from Jim Rob, I had not seen it. By the way I do send money into FR. What is also amazing is how we all attack anyone that has a negative comment about a Republican. I really felt my post was rather innocuous and was out of frustration on Gingrich, in my opinion, hurting his cause with his choice of attacks on Romney. Attacking a Republican candidate for being rich is just plain stupid, and literally makes him sound like an Obama supporter. The wrath from my posting is fine, but that fact that people react so over the top to anyone that opposes there candidate is just as bad as ridiculing a candidate. I am not a Romney supporter, with the exception of Ron Paul, he was probably at the bottom of my list of viable candidates I would support. At the end of the day, I will vote for whoever wins the Republican ticket since it will be infinitely better then Obama.