Posted on 01/08/2012 8:52:14 AM PST by Sub-Driver
Pelosi Fires Back at Gingrich
By Nell Henderson
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi fired back at fellow former Speaker Newt Gingrich Sunday morning for his disavowal of a TV ad calling for action on climate change that the pair filmed together.
Mr. Gingrich, chasing the Republican presidential nomination, has called the 2008 ad probably the dumbest single thing Ive done in recent years.
Ms. Pelosi, of California, asked about the comments on CNNs State of the Union, had a tart riposte: He has been fined $300,000 dollars by the ethics committee, youd think hed consider that a big mistake.
CNN Reporter Candy Crowley said after Ms. Pelosis comments that Mr. Gingrich has characterized the $300,000 payment as a reimbursement ordered by the House Ethics Committee, not a fine.
In 1997, Mr Gingrich was reprimanded in a 395-28 vote and ordered to pay the money for allowing a tax-exempt organization to be used for political purposes, as well as for misleading the Ethics Committee.
Since you brought up my name in association with him as the dumbest thing he ever did, I think theres plenty of stiff competition for that honor, as far as his activities go, Ms. Pelosi told Ms. Crowley.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...
All forces of the Establishment on the Left AND the Right are allied against Newt. Time for the people to REJECT the establishment and put Newton Leroy Churchhill in the White House.
Nancy Pelosio who called the whole CIA liars on a regular basis.
WSJ in the tank for Romney.
Your point makes no sense. Santorum destroyed his career in the senate because he stood by Arlen Spector when the conservatives begged him to support Pat Toomey. He got snookered and made deals with liberals. Romney made it clear he was a moderate, even liberal in his earlier days. He voted for Paul Tsongas. He did put liberal judges on the Mass. high courts because he had to make deals with liberals. We see his whole past clearing up before us.
I know Newt’s record as Speaker and Minority Whip back in Reagan’s day. It’s there clear as day. I can also trace what happened relative to the clean air initiative and what he was looking for and what he did when the liberals pushed their plan. It’s all in the record. He made a good faith effort to work together with the liberals and even sit with Pelosi but he when the truth came out of what they were pushing he made no deal. He got snookered to sit down with her but that was as far as it went. Can you say the same for Romney and Santorum?
I can see you don’t want Newt, but you might be better off looking at his entire record in governance and as a private citizen in comparison to the other candidates before trashing him.
BTTT
Yeah, all true, but my point still makes sense, and I didn't say any other candidate was better, you assumed that.
However, Newt is probably the brightest of 'em all, and has less excuse than any.
I know Newts record as Speaker and Minority Whip back in Reagans day.
As do I.
I can see you dont want Newt, but you might be better off looking at his entire record in governance and as a private citizen in comparison to the other candidates before trashing him.
It's not that I don't want Newt, he's got all the tools and refuses to use 'em properly, that really fries me.
He made a good faith effort to work together with the liberals and even sit with Pelosi but he when the truth came out...
See, here's the problem, the truth came out about the same time the Marxist political daughter from the Rat Machine in Baltimore came out West, and ya don't make good faith efforts with the worst of the worst Rats, ya make good faith prosecutions. Newt should know that. His excellent Reagan record is going in the wrong direction.
Lastly I did not say any of the generic RINO field was better or even as good as Newt, or that I would not vote for him.
I have predicted that he would not become President, and I have said I would vote for Bachman, and never for Romney, but that is all.
"If you have no enemies, you are not important enough to have made any" - Alexandre Dumas
Can you imagine political hue and cry by Democrats if just one ethics complaint were filed against Nancy Pelosi or other Democratic leader? Yet Republicans stood by or even joined Dems in cheering on the witch hunt. Despite all that he was cleared on 83 of them(!) and eventually on the last one, and only had to settle for "compensation of expenses" due to a mistake made by a junior level lawyer in filing one single document that could easily have been a typo.
Can you imagine political hue and cry if President Bush put Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the back of the plane on their way someplace and she would complain about it? Nancy would become new "white Catholic Rosa Parks" and Bush would be savaged. The press, Democrats would scream about indignity and disrespect and many Republicans would join them. Yet when Newt described his "treatment" at the back of the Clinton's plane and the press says he was "whining" and "complaining like a child"... and guess what, instead of screaming about Clinton's lack of minimum of dignity and respect, elite Republicans happily joined the Democrats in denouncing Newt.
When Newt decided that his job in implementing Contract with America was pretty much finished and it would be detrimental to the party if he stayed and kept being a lightning rod for Democrats, with little support from fellow Republicans, he decided it would be better to resign, and get his personal life in order by finally divorcing his second wife (from whom he was legally separated since 1987) and marrying Callista who he's been dating since 1993 (not quite as exciting as "chasing interns" meme, but his first wife was not "served divorce papers while dying of cancer in the hospital" either).
What did Speaker Hastert do with 8 years of Republicans in power in Congress, 6 of them along Republican President Bush, compared to 4 years of Gingrich with the Democratic President and Senators like John McCain and Bob Dole standing in his way because they saw him as competitor for Presidency?
Newt keeps trying to co-opt the "green movement" so it would become easier to promote more of real "alternative" sources of energy (like nuclear) instead of cap-and-trade and "carbon taxes." Co-opt the "green" movement and propose investing in cheaper and cleaner domestic sources of energy, contrast it with the pain of expense, scarcity and loss of mobility and freedom of Gore / Pelosi / Kerry liberal "solutions" and then the real goals of phony "green environmentalists" - money from taxes and expensive wind/solar energy - are gone ... and with the money, a movement itself will fail or join Republicans. Defunding by co-opting (instead of "cooperating" with them in their goals) was the real goal of Newt getting into the arena, and it's much better way of removing the army from the "green generals" than keep trying to fight it on the basis of "our science vs your science; my 20,000 scientists vs your 40,000 scientists".
This is very similar to Embrace, Extend, Extinguish strategy most famously used recently by Microsoft, it's an extension of:
"Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer" - Sun Tzu
"Never hate your enemies, it affects you judgment" - 'Michael Corleone'
And here's what really happened re the ad with Pelosi, it was all down to semantics. From Gingrich Accepting Gore Invite Lands on Love Seat With Pelosi - BL, by Julie Hirschfeld Davis, 2011 December 01
..... Gingrich did have reservations about pairing with Pelosi, who was viewed as a liberal icon by leaders of his party. In the e-mail about a month before the commercial was filmed, Gingrich told Gore that "appearing with Speaker Pelosi in the current political environment is simply too problematic," and suggested approaching Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, as an alternative. Meanwhile, Gingrich's staff balked at what Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection wanted the former speaker to say in the ad. They refused to clear the words "crisis" to describe climate change or for him to say -- "We need new laws" -- to address it ..... < snip > ..... "We rejected the initial script because it stated positions that we just didn't believe were true," said Tyler. "They wanted Newt to basically talk about global warming, which we would not do. At the time, 'climate change' was seen as a safe thing to say." ..... < snip > ..... About a month after the commercial began airing, Gingrich's now defunct political action group, American Solutions for Winning the Future, began its own advertising campaign -- a pro- oil "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less," mantra aimed at blocking legislation co-sponsored by Senators Joseph I. Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, and John Warner, a Virginia Republican, to combat climate change by curbing carbon emissions. ..... < snip > < snip > ..... While the climate-change ad is the highest-profile bipartisan event Gingrich engaged in between his 1999 retirement from Congress and his presidential campaign, it isn't the only one. He's also appeared with marquee Democrats, such as then- Senator Hillary Clinton, in gatherings highlighting health care, global warming and education. ..... < snip >
Hardly something to be worked up over.
#27 reads like a list of excuses. It certainly is not a list of post Contract With America successes.
As for post-Contract With America successes, please read
Gingrich's Secret Weapon: Newt Inc. - WSJ, by Neil King Jr. and Patrick O'Connor, 2011 May 09
FTA:
Now, as Mr. Gingrich prepares to launch a run for president as early as this week, this network of advocacy and for-profit groups is providing a publicity and policy machine without parallel among his likely Republican rivals, few of whom have stirred excitement among donors and activists. His network has amassed more than 1.7 million voter and donor contacts and raised $32 million between 2009 and 2010 -- more than all his potential 2012 rivals combined. Far less clear is whether these efforts, and the extent of his organizational infrastructure, will be enough to put him out front, should Mr. Gingrich decide to seek the presidential nomination. ..... < snip > In the 13 years since he suffered a string of political setbacks and quit the third most powerful job in Washington, Newt Gingrich has been busily laying the foundation for a comeback to an even grander perch. On any given day, the former Speaker of the House can be found on a chartered jet headed to Iowa to train future GOP candidates through his American Solutions group, or in Phoenix discussing ways to lower health-care costs with drug makers through his for-profit Center for Health Transformation. He might also be in Philadelphia, narrating a film produced by Gingrich Productions, or in Texas, reaching out to conservative Latino leaders through his bilingual news and commentary website, the Americano.
Pretty good credentials, in my opinion. What did Romney-Perry-Santorum-Bachmann-Huntsman or other "talkers" do for conservative causes and organizations during that post-Contract period that was of any tangible value?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.