DON'T LET THAT HAPPEN.
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Posted on 01/27/2012 1:24:57 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The circling of wagons against former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has been quite a spectacle. Establishment dinosaurs like former Sen. Bob Dole, the Reaganite grande dame Peggy Noonan, the moderate agoniste David Frum, the reclusive Web guerrilla Matt Drudge, even the flame-throwing Ann Coulter—rarely do you see such a diverse array of establishment and movement conservatives in such united opposition to someone who's at least nominally conservative.
Myself, I'd rather see former Gov. Mitt Romney crushed under those wagon wheels.
And so, apparently, does former Gov. Sarah Palin. In an interview with Fox News Business Network, Palin opined:
"Look at Newt Gingrich, what's going on with him, via the establishment's attacks. They're trying to crucify this man and rewrite history, rewrite what it is that he has stood for all these years. So it's not just Ron Paul. I believe it's also Newt Gingrich that the establishment, that the liberal media, certainly that the progressives and Democrats don't like."
There's little doubt that, in her tiptoeing characterization of the opposition to Gingrich, she meant to include everyone I included above.
So it came as quite a shock to my system when I found myself saying, "Go Sarah!"
And then I mentally slapped myself across the cheeks.
Of course Sarah Palin is taking this tack. It's in her long-term political interest to see Mitt Romney bloodied and defeated in November. Palin and Rush Limbaugh are the figureheads of a subset of movement conservatives who scorn tactical pragmatism. And if President Obama wins, it will have been a sweet vindication for Palin and Limbaugh and the principled Romney doubters like RedState.com's Erick Erickson who believe that Republicans' failings—either in office or in the failure to win office—are almost always a retribution for the betrayal of conservative values.
It's hard to take totally seriously Palin's defense of Gingrich; if she had chosen to run, I imagine she'd have taken the same line against Gingrich that her congressional counterpart Rep. Michele Bachmann took (and which Romney is now taking to great effect): that the former speaker is a sleazy influence-peddler. It's easy to imagine because it's the truth.
But since she can't stop Romney directly, she undermines him indirectly—which is why she intervened in the South Carolina to help deliver the state to Gingrich and why she's speaking out on his behalf now. It's not out of love for Gingrich; it's simply to keep the race going, and thereby damage Romney.
As a short-term tactic, Palin's magic worked brilliantly. But only briefly.
I should note that I don't think Palin is acting purely from a position of calculation. She's more in touch with the conservative id than anyone in Washington; she knows Romney is a weak candidate precisely because of his utter fraudulence.
It's going to be interesting to see what how just how tightly she ultimately chooses to embrace the Romney candidacy in the coming months.
My takeaway as well. Oyvey!
Dear Sarah,
ENDORSE Newt now. THEN fly to FL with Todd for Sat-Tues!
Thanks.
MAYBE not the place to stand. Florida is a hybrid state. The North is South, the South is Cuban/Jewish, Orlando is California, and the West Coast is the Midwest,
Let's see now. Where exactly has "tactical pragmatism" gotten us so far? John McCain? Bob Dole? Gerald Ford? Yeah, that's the ticket. You could add GHW Bush if you want. He only won in the afterglow of Reagan and then couldn't hold on to it for a second term.
Paraphrasing, “Electability” gave us Ford, Bush I, Dole, McCain. Voting for the crazy right-winger gave us Ronald Reagan!!
So who does Galupo like? ... apparently not Mitt, or Newt, or Palin. Perhaps he just enjoys trashing all Republicans.
So lets make Sarah the bad guy, not the establishment? Anyone believes that should join a cult.
Bingo! As I recall, RR wasn't too popular with the Rockefeller wing either.
I think everyone should now understand that it was Romney behind the attacks on Sarah, and I mean all of them. Just look at his attacks on Newt and Cain.
Check your local listings for time. And make sure you sign up for gretawire early to get any message through.
Well, seeing as Crybaby Boehner is a Democrat plant, he probably likes Obama.
IMHO - It was Romeny and his ilk that have been behind all of the attacks to last 3 years against Sarah, all one needs to do is look at how they are attacking Newt and how he attacked Sarah and it points to Romney.
ATTENTION FLORIDA FREEPERS
How is this line from Romney playing in Florida?
“If a manager at a company of mine recommended that we start a lunar colony, I’d fire him.”
Romeny must have disliked:
Christopher Columbus
Magellan
Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project
that whole jet airplan thingy
JFK and the moon landing effort
Moore’s law
those crazy computer kids in that garage...
I was hoping for pictures.
Remember Coulter last year saying she didn’t think Palin should run because “she’s more powerful where she is, doing what she’s doing?” Now we can see that was a message from a forked tongue with ulterior motives.
oops forgot to state “nobody knows about it”
it is like santorum abandoning FL, the MSM is attaking big time. Heavy flack.
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