Posted on 10/26/2009 8:43:38 AM PDT by jazusamo
As Dr. Carl Horowitz of our staff has documented in a Special Report released earlier this year, Sharpton has promoted fake hate crimes against blacks, and has inspired racial antagonism against whites and Jews. Indeed, this long-established pattern of behavior continues to the present.
Just last week, the purported victim of a 2007 racially-motivated attack in West Virginia recanted her story that she had been kidnapped and raped in a backwoods trailer by white men. Sharpton had championed her plight, descending on Charleston to lead an anti-hate rally, much as he rallied to the side of the accuser of the Duke lacrosse players in 2006.
Gingrich shares with Sharpton an affinity for the TV camera. Their relationship cannot be based on Sharpton’s sincerity for the cause of educational reform, because he doesn’t have any. As Horowitz meticulously details, each issue Sharpton has embraced, or incident on which he has seized, has resulted in some benefit for Sharpton, in terms of publicity, money, or both. Sharpton's gains have been at the expense of societal harmony and/or at the eventual expense of individual people he either has put up to making false accusations or falsely accused. Are we supposed to believe that such a destructive personality has now turned to the selfless advocacy on behalf of schoolchildren?
Because Barack Obama, Michael Bloomberg and a host of other politicians shamelessly consort with Sharpton, it doesn’t make it all right for Gingrich to do so. In fact, it is worse. Sharpton has achieved respectability because of a racial double standard that liberals honor and enforce, carried to its extreme. Gingrich knows it is wrong.
The Left sees society in terms of competing ethic and economic groups, rather than an aggregation of individuals. Of course, that is the rationale for restricting personal freedom and an expansion of state power. If a self-proclaimed “conservative leader” is not guided by this reality, he ceases to be either.
Our criticism of Gingrich is not the same as that being lodged by others for his endorsement of ACORN Republican Dede Scozzafava over Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman in the special election in New York’s 23rd Congressional District. Whereas Scozzafava may hold positions at odds with everything Gingrich claims to champion, she has never promoted a hate crime. The worst that can be said is that Gingirch is submitting to political expediency and/or his own bad judgment. His abetting of Sharpton’s legitimacy is simply immoral.
The image of Gingrich as Sharpton’s poodle, tagging along on his latest publicity stunt would be funny if the venue were not public schools. It is tragic that Sharpton is accorded the courtesy of a visiting dignitary in the presence of elementary school children. What message does it transmit to them? It is that America is a racist country, notwithstanding the election of black president, and therefore truth-telling, fair play, and fundamental human decency and can be thrown out the window. Why is Gingrich a party to this charade, the only result of which can be poisoned race relations for many years to come?
Gingrich undercuts our efforts to fight corruption in both the political and corporate worlds.
During the late Eighties, NLPC Ken Boehm and I helped Gingrich expose corruption by then-House Speaker Jim Wright, leading to Wright’s resignation. Indeed, one of the reasons NLPC was founded in 1991 was to continue this kind of work. Sharpton and his groups have been fined $285,000 and had to pay a separate settlement of $5,500, because of Complaints we have filed with the Federal Election Commission. Additionally, Sharpton’s presidential campaign had to return $100,000 in federal matching funds, and was denied $80,000 more for which it qualified.
Sharpton and his group, the National Action Network, have left a trail of unpaid bills, unpaid taxes and financial irregularities, including not one but two mysterious fires that Sharpton claimed consumed financial records. Is corruption now OK with Gingrich?
For several years, we have confronted Sharpton’s corporate supporters like Wal-Mart, PepsiCo, Colgate-Palmolive and Anheuser-Busch through shareholder proposals and public campaigns. We have argued that shakedowns take two parties and big companies should resist Sharpton. Most recently, we asked consumers to contact Sharpton’s supporters in the wake of his successful assault on Rush Limbaugh’s bid to buy the NFL’s St. Louis Rams. Is Gingrich willing to provide any more cover to the corporate cowards who bankroll Sharpton?
I’ve had that feeling for a while and things like this strengthen it.
If you think that’s messed up, wait until you find out he’s your dad, young Lazwalker. Oh, and your chick’s dad as well.
Newt is so 1999, he has ended any chance what so ever of him ever being a real voice in teh republican party again. It started with his sit down with Nany on Gorebull warming, and his most recent support of the leftist in NY-23rd.
Newt go home and shut up retard.
I’ve always wondered why Sean slobbers all over him and thought it was just for ratings.
If Newt was booted out in the 90’s because he was “polarizing”, what would make anyone think he is any better now. I don’t watch or listen to Hannity anymore either. Is Gingrich the only guest he can get on his show??
Good points and as time goes on with things like Hoffman and Sharpton it shows them to be true.
“I’ve always wondered why Sean slobbers all over him and thought it was just for ratings.”
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If so, then Sean’s committment to conservatism is secondary to Sean’s career.
Useless media elite.
Gingrich has long since become irrelevant to conservatives. He’s likely going for the RINO pick for 2012.
No, it’s over for Gingrich. Once he came out in support for Scuzzifaker, and attacked Hoffman, he showed himself to be a man without principles, and certainly no more than a feigner to conservative values, that he is obviouysly willing to toss in the dirt for the mere hope at the Pyrrhic victory a Scuzzifaker win would bring.
Why should Gingrich sever any of these ties?
It is good to know where he truly stands now. I am saddened he is so fallen, but content to know the facts. An open adversary is less disgusting than a false friend.
I wish more politicians would come out of their various closets so we actually know who and what we are dealing with. The results would probably be startling. We would probably lose some old friends, and gain new ones.
If you think about it, the overt decline in GOP assertiveness began when the FBI tendered dossiers of Republicans to the Clinton administration. One wonders what they fear. The backlash would probably be far less than they think, and let them operate in the open and to effect again. I really don’t care about their little peccadillos.
You pollies should come clean. It is good for the soul, and sometimes leads to a healthier and more positive career direction.
Those pics say a lot, he looks very comfortable with them.
Frankly, I was never comfortable with him, and the crowd that hovered on his every breath, when they did photo ops on the Capitol steps waving around pieces of paper that were supposed to be the Contract. Reminded of Mao Tse Tung and the Little Red Book his sycophants waved around during the “Cultural Revolution”.
I think he's been busy doing that already.
Newt has partaken of the Koolaid.
He’s even on the global warming flying carpet.
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