GO GREEN
GORE GINGRICH 2008
Posted on 04/10/2007 1:19:25 PM PDT by xjcsa
In a heavily hyped debate – one that environmentalist Democrats hoped would be a “smack down” on Republicans -- former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich disappointed them and conservatives alike when he declared that human activity was causing the Earth to warm.
The concession was made in a debate on global warming with Sen. John Kerry (D.-Mass.) today on Capitol Hill that was sponsored by the Brookings Institution and the RAND Corporation.
In his first portion of allotted time Gingrich said there were two undisputed areas of scientific consensus on global warming: that the earth is getting hotter and the warming had been caused by human activity.
At one point, Kerry asked Gingrich what he would say to conservatives like Sen. James Inhofe (R.-Okla.) who do not believe global warming is caused by human activity. Gingrich said, "The evidence is sufficient that we should move to the most effective possible steps to reduce carbon."
“We should be moving to develop all kinds of new green technology,” Gingrich said. He challenged Kerry to find market-based solutions to reduce carbon emission instead of increasing environmental regulations.
“Regulation and litigation are the least effective ways of getting solutions,” the former Speaker said. “Reshaping markets with incentives are the fastest way.”
Kerry argued that environment laws drafted with help from the United Nations have been successful.
Kerry said the laws were “needed to create the leverage and the market so they would go out and invest in the technology because they don’t invest without it.” Government regulation, he said “is the only way to invite people to make that investment.”
“We are not arguing bureaucracy and regulation. We are arguing whether putting a price on carbon is bureaucracy.”
Kerry said it was not. “This is not bureaucracy. You set the standard the market will set the price,” he said. “We all live in a world where we don’t pay for the cost. We don’t pay for the loss of fish, we don’t pay for the lost of these species. None of that is priced into the goods today.”
Before launching into his initial speech, Gingrich endorsed the book Kerry had co-authored with his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry "This Moment on Earth.".
“This is excellent, this is a very good book,” he said. “I would commend this book to anyone who wants to see local leadership make a difference.” Gingrich said he didn’t agree with “about 60% of it” but would urge others to “read it because it’s an example of individual local leadership against the odds.”
Gingrich’s concession was expected in many news circles as part of his long-shot strategy to run for President in 2008. He has said since last year that he would make a decision to run or not sometime in the fall of this year. He is planning to release a new book, "Contract with the Earth" this November that he co-wrote with conservationist Terry Maples.
Yesterday, in his weekly email newsletter “Winning the Future” Gingrich said that September 27 would be “Solutions Day.” This is to honor the 13th anniversary of his 1994 “Contract with America.”
Last week, Gingrich called the Spanish language a “ghetto language.” Immediately after the mishap, he recorded an extensive apology, in Spanish, directed to the Hispanic community that made available on YouTube. Last month, he revealed to Focus on the Family’s James Dobson that he had an extramarital affair on Dobson’s radio show.
In January, Gingrich appeared at a hearing conducted by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to talk about how to stabilize Iraq.
Better yet, Gore/Gringrich as the Green candidates for President/VP 2008, 2012 until both of them become carbon dust footprints.
I’ve never been a big Newt fan but I never realized he was such a dullard. He was unarmed scientinifically, economically and logically. A pitiful performance punctuated with his “market forces” mantra. Actually, quite funny. Kerry kicked his behind.
Of course it is a wuss remark. He didn't have the cojones to say that CO2 is a pollutant and that the Earth has been warming and cooling for centuries before the invention of the SUV... and despite global growth the Earth cooled from the 1940-70s.
There's some company eager to market "carbon credits". Enron was gearing up that and repeatedly urged the US to sign Kyoto.
Market based solutions are good only if there is a problem in the first place.
It really shouldn't come out as a surprise that Gingrich is a sellout idiot. I haven't liked him in years. If a man can't be faithful to his wife (he actually cheated on two wives) then what principles can he be faithful to?
Some people will excuse it saying "oh it's his personal life." But think about how he made a vow to his wife before God. He ignored her potential hurt or sadness if she found out, and he carried on the affair anyway. So that means he will do whatever serves his immediate best interest, and ignore principle.
I watched Newt this morning on the news blabbering all this stuff.
I was highly disappointed.
A short 2 minutes of listening erased most everything nice I had to say about the man.
Newt would be a great Green VP candidate with the Goron. They could push Gorebull Warming BS as their platform.
I’ve gotten a lot of grief on FR for saying that he’s not a conservative, he’s really a BIG GOV’T conservative, which is a different animal (i.e., it’s another name for ‘liberal’).
I’ve been Gingrich’s defender. This is a bit disappointing. I see what he’s doing, he’s doing what he’s good at, he is trying to redefine an issue and steal it back from the Democrats.
The problem is that I consider it to be a bogus issue. I would prefer to defeat them on the issue. I don’t want us to come up with market-based solutions for a problem that doesn’t need to be solved.
The second problem is that the “market-based solution” for global warming is carbon credit trading, which is tantamount to money laundering, in fact its beyond that, its printing counterfeit money and then laundering that.
Its not exactly a deal breaker, Gingrich was already my number three pick, behind Hunter and Thompson. His number three slot is just slipping a little further back into the pack, and I’ll be a little less inclined to go to bat for him in a public forum.
I guess I can now officially scratch Newt off my list of prospective Presidential candidates.
Anybody that doesn’t understand that “consensus” is irrelevant in science is unfit to speak on any scientific issue.
In “science” we have theories and proofs. AGW hasn’t been proven, therefor it is only a theory. Even CO2 greenhouse warming as a theory falls flat — measurements of temperature changes in upper atmosphere vs. surface go the wrong way.
Bye, Newt. Enjoy your lunch with the Marxists at the NYT.
I like it.
The Green G&G boys. There is probably about a quarter ton of carbon between these two greenies.
Newt Gingrich
Off my list
Next hopeful step up
Has-been desperate for political traction.
He lost me long ago however.
Newt just joined a large group of folks I pray don’t run for President as leader of the Republican Party.
Alot of us predicted it, including yours truly :-) :
My prediction of nutty newt:
The Great Global Warming Debate-
John Kerrry: “ GW is real. It is man-made and we must adopt Kyoto and all other treaties crafted by the UN.”
Newt Gingrich: “ I totally agree. GW is real and IS Man-Made. Except we should adopt made in America solutions. Apart from that man is evil, and is destroying the planet, species will die, our skin will bubble...”
21 posted on 04/08/2007 12:35:28 PM EDT by Para-Ord.45
Important safety tip: a man who can betray his own wife can betray anyone.
Then this “debate” was a fraud - instead of a real debate it was a staged fraud meant to support the Gore/Kerry position that there is nothing to debate.
What say you now Mr. Dobson?
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