“I would have crawled over broken glass to vote for the Newt Gingrich of 1998. Yet as numerous posters have pointed out, he’s gone quite squishy since then.”
He did. I think he bought into the group think about ‘triangulation’ that was the fetish back in those days. Dick Morris had gotten Bill Clinton in with the triangulation stunt, which was later imitated by Rove et al. to barely squeak by to some paper thin margins of victory. But it was all the rage.
Triangulation worked for Clinton, who as a liberal looked better to more people by adopting portions of conservative policy or rhetoric. It backfires for conservatives, who look worse by adoption left wing policies. I really hope that Newt has jettisoned all or at least most of that stuff. Even at his worst though, he is better than Romney, and probably Santorum.
He hasn’t gone squishy. Haven’t you watched him as a FOX News commentator over the past 5-10 years? He was not brought on as a “liberal” voice. He was there to bash the likes of Alan Colmes over the head and he did so consistently and resoundingly. Try to find me one liberal, progressive or socialist anywhere who has put pen to paper to say that they believe Newt Gingrich is on their side. It’s a laughable notion. Him supposedly going “squishy” is a complete and total fabrication coming directly from the vast Romney-wing conspiracy.