Posted on 12/18/2011 9:48:58 PM PST by Jim Robinson
It is one of the true delights of a bizarrely entertaining Republican presidential contest to watch the apoplectic fear and loathing of so many GOP establishmentarians toward Newt Gingrich. They treat him as an alien body whose approach to politics they have always rejected.
In fact, Gingrich’s rise is the revenge of a Republican base that takes seriously the intense hostility to President Obama, the incendiary accusations against liberals and the Manichaean division of the world between an “us” and a “them” that his party has been peddling in the interest of electoral success.
The right-wing faithful knows Gingrich pioneered this style of politics, and they laugh at efforts to cast the former House speaker as something other than a “true conservative.” They know better.
The establishment was happy to use Gingrich’s tactics to win elections, but it never expected to lose control of the party to the voters it rallied with such grandiose negativity. Now, the joke is on those who manipulated the base. The base is striking back, and Newt is their weapon.
~~snip~~
This quality endows Gingrich with a peculiar integrity, which I realize is a problematic word to apply to such a problematic figure. I use it in a very specific sense: He is who he is and always has been. The base knows this and loves him for it. But for Republican leaders, Gingrich has become inconvenient. He’s the loudmouthed uninvited guest who is trying to rejoin the country club. The effort to blackball Newt Gingrich will be the next drama in this fascinating train wreck of a campaign.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Can you imagine if someone like e.j. dionne were in charge of our defense or foreign policy? He would give our adversaries such a good lisp-lashing, then a hearty bitch slap and call it good.
Oh wait — someone like e.j. dionne IS in charge of our defense and foreign policy.
Yikes!
I care what EJ has to say like I care what a boil on my backside has to say.
It’s difficult to temperately judge any E.J. Dionne Jr column because he’s such a repulsive weasel.
The effort to blackball Newt Gingrich will be the next drama in this fascinating train wreck of a campaign
And you'll be there in the club car drinking to Newt's demise, won't you, EJ?
Well, he sure spotted the railroad job the GOP establishment is running on Newt.
If Santorum does not get a big win in Iowa, Gingrich will be the choice of all Christian conservatives like myself.
For those of you who think I am crazy, just watch.
I am in touch with more Evangelical Christians then most Freepers could imagine, and I guarantee you that If Sanatorium does not win, and win bug in Iowa, they will be supporting Gingrich.
My enemy’s enemy is my candidate. Go Newt!
How’s this gem from the article:
“And in truth, the party took his approach to heart. If discrediting John Kerry’s service in Southeast Asia through false attacks in 2004 was what it took to reelect a president who had avoided going to Vietnam, what the heck.”
Biased,much?
Newt was a tough conservative fighter in 1994. However after four years of unending attacks by the left, Newt became weak and compromising. So he resigned at the end of 1998 as he lost support on the right.
The fascinating thing is will the same thing happen again, or will the historian learn from his mistakes, not care what the left and the establishment GOP think, and not fold this time?
TBD.
“The effort to blackball Newt Gingrich will be the next drama in this fascinating train wreck of a campaign.”
I guess for the Washington ComPost, it’s far better to just be told by Soros who your nominee is. No need to ever “vet” your candidate, or even look at his BIRTH CIRTIFICATE or SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER.
He’s not trying to “re-join the country club”, he’s trying to bypass it entirely.
Is EJ Dionne available to scrub my “Mohammed”-themed toilet bowl?
OK, let's see if Sanatorium wins insect.
Spellcheck much? /grammar Nazi>
Cheers!
This article is inherently incohesive. If Gingrich is the revenge of the base, then he gets elected and so how would this be a “fascinating train wreck of a campaign.” If the base, on the hand thinks Gingrich is another Goldwater, then they may decline the suitor. Iowa will tell. Maybe they’d choose Santorum or Bachmann.
All I have to say is I want a choice not an echo. What I am hearing from Newt is a real choice, not Obama or Obama lite.
If he wins the nomination he has my vote, till then I am savoring every debate and praying that the Republic is restored.
That said I still can't get on board with Newt. That could change. It's wait and see.
This statement is downright laughable. E.J. Dionne? Please!
Well said. Gingrich or Perry - One’s probably smarter, the other’s probably steadier. They’re both pretty much career politicians but Newt is far more of an insider and wonk - Perry’s degree is in animal science, for petesake.
What worries many of us I think about Newt is that he’ll come up with some crazy crap that will just get blown all out of proportion and torpedo his campaign. On the other hand, he has a history of holding progressive views at times, but nothing as whacky as some of Ron Pauls stuff. And I suspect all of his dirty laundry has already been hauled out in the open.
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