Posted on 03/26/2009 8:05:32 PM PDT by fkabuckeyesrule
Christopher Buckley, son of William, takes a non-too-gentle look at Newt Gingrich’s pending change of religion in the Daily Beast:
Brace yourselves for a tsunami of punditry this weekend, when the much-married Newt Gingrich is received into the Catholic Church.
This would ordinarily be a private occasion, but Newt Gingrich is not ordinary. He is (I hedge) probably the most interesting putative candidate person on the Right at this point. Google “Gingrich” and “2012” your hard drive will melt under a trillion hits. So attention to this event must and will be paid.
Buckley goes into some unkind detail about Gingrich’s personal life, but finally strikes on this weird but strangely satisfying assessment of the former House speaker:
His website’s motto—“Real Change Requires Real Change”—seems quite apt to the present occasion, even if it sounds like it was lifted from Peter Sellers’ Chance The Gardener in Being There. Gingrich is a protean fellow—continually evolving and re-inventing himself. He’s like another of his fellow Catholics—Madonna, only, well, different.
Who cares what little Chrissy thinks about anything?
Newt, oui hartly new ya!
Why should we listen to this dumb@$$?
Has he come out of the closet yet?
Good. Hopefully it will tame his urges to dash into political lala land again.
Yeah I really could not care less what this Buckley thinks but I thought it was interesting that Newt became Catholic.
It’s starting to look like the Catholic Renaissance in England in the late nineteenth century...Cardinal Newman, and all those other intellectual converts.
We have Tony Blair, Newt, even guys like Dick Morris.
I think I spot a trend—back to basic Christianity.
And here I thought Newt was intelligent. My bad.
Newt is as phony as they come.
If I were Catholic I'd be bragging about Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham and Bill Bennett
Hopefully Newt's not referring to his marital history.
Don’t forget Tony Snow, the one that really inspired me to pay more attention to my Catholicism, and Laura Ingraham.
Smartest thing he’s done in ages.
Chris is a Catholic himself.
Ann Coulter too, huh? I hadn’t heard that. One of her parents is/was Catholic. I know her father passed away recently. Perhaps he was Catholic. Bill Bennett also? I like this crowd.
Yes, they are great examples. It’s late and I can’t think of all the other great minds that have recently joined the Catholic Church.
Maybe others of you can add to the list.
This trend is very heartening to me. It could presage a great rebuilding of the Church.
Christopher Buckley is the guy who has an illegitimate son by a former mistress whom he supports (not very generously considering how many millions Buckley has) but has absolutely no contact with. William F. Buckley, Jr.'s will, presumably at Chris' urging, gave absolutely nothing to the illegitimate grandson. I wouldn't make Christopher Buckley the arbiter of how well other people are living up to their moral codes.
Bill Buckley was Catholic, and so is Chris. But he ought to worry about the mote in his own eye before worrying about Newt’s.
What exactly do you mean by that?
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