Posted on 01/27/2012 3:18:48 PM PST by Timber Rattler
We have witnessed something very disturbing this week. The Republican establishment which fought Ronald Reagan in the 1970s and which continues to fight the grassroots Tea Party movement today has adopted the tactics of the left in using the media and the politics of personal destruction to attack an opponent.
We will look back on this week and realize that something changed. I have given numerous interviews wherein I espoused the benefits of thorough vetting during aggressive contested primary elections, but this week’s tactics aren’t what I meant. Those who claim allegiance to Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment should stop and think about where we are today. Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater, the fathers of the modern conservative movement, would be ashamed of us in this primary. Let me make clear that I have no problem with the routine rough and tumble of a heated campaign. As I said at the first Tea Party convention two years ago, I am in favor of contested primaries and healthy, pointed debate. They help focus candidates and the electorate. I have fought in tough and heated contested primaries myself. But what we have seen in Florida this week is beyond the pale. It was unprecedented in GOP primaries. I’ve seen it before – heck, I lived it before – but not in a GOP primary race.
I am sadly too familiar with these tactics because they were used against the GOP ticket in 2008. The left seeks to single someone out and destroy his or her record and reputation and family using the media as a channel to dump handpicked and half-baked campaign opposition research on the public. The difference in 2008 was that I was largely unknown to the American public, so they had no way of differentiating between the lies and the truth. All of it came at them at once as “facts” about me. But Newt Gingrich is known to us – both the good and the bad.
We know that Newt fought in the trenches during the Reagan Revolution. As Rush Limbaugh pointed out, Newt was among a handful of Republican Congressman who would regularly take to the House floor to defend Reagan at a time when conservatives didn’t have Fox News or talk radio or conservative blogs to give any balance to the liberal mainstream media. Newt actually came at Reagan’s administration “from the right” to remind Americans that freer markets and tougher national defense would win our future. But this week a few handpicked and selectively edited comments which Newt made during his 40-year career were used to claim that Newt was somehow anti-Reagan, and isn’t conservative enough to go against the accepted moderate in the primary race. (I know, it makes no sense, and the GOP establishment hopes you won’t stop and think about this nonsense. Mark Levin and others have shown the ridiculousness of this.) To add insult to injury, this “anti-Reagan” claim was made by a candidate who admitted to not even supporting or voting for Reagan. He actually was against the Reagan movement, donated to liberal candidates, and said he didn’t want to go back to the Reagan days. You can’t change history. We know that Newt Gingrich brought the Reagan Revolution into the 1990s. We know it because none other than Nancy Reagan herself announced this when she presented Newt with an award, telling us, “The dramatic movement of 1995 is an outgrowth of a much earlier crusade that goes back half a century. Barry Goldwater handed the torch to Ronnie, and in turn Ronnie turned that torch over to Newt and the Republican members of Congress to keep that dream alive.” As Rush and others pointed out, if Nancy Reagan had ever thought that Newt was in any way an opponent of her beloved husband, she would never have even appeared on a stage with him, let alone presented him with an award and said such kind things about him. Nor would Reagan’s son, Michael Reagan, have chosen to endorse Newt in this primary race. There are no two greater keepers of the Reagan legacy than Nancy and Michael Reagan. What we saw with this ridiculous opposition dump on Newt was nothing short of Stanlin-esque re-writing of history. It was Alinsky tactics at their worst.
But this whole thing isn’t really about Newt Gingrich vs. Mitt Romney. It is about the GOP establishment vs. the Tea Party grassroots and independent Americans who are sick of the politics of personal destruction used now by both parties’ operatives with a complicit media egging it on. In fact, the establishment has been just as dismissive of Ron Paul and Rick Santorum. Newt is an imperfect vessel for Tea Party support, but in South Carolina the Tea Party chose to get behind him instead of the old guard’s choice. In response, the GOP establishment voices denounced South Carolinian voters with the same vitriol we usually see from the left when they spew hatred at everyday Americans “bitterly clinging” to their faith and their Second Amendment rights. The Tea Party was once again told to sit down and shut up and listen to the “wisdom” of their betters. We were reminded of the litany of Tea Party endorsed candidates in 2010 that didn’t win. Well, here’s a little newsflash to the establishment: without the Tea Party there would have been no historic 2010 victory at all.
I spoke up before the South Carolina primary to urge voters there to keep this primary going because I have great concern about the GOP establishment trying to anoint a candidate without the blessing of the grassroots and all the needed energy and resources we as commonsense constitutional conservatives could bring to the general election in order to defeat President Obama. Now, I respect Governor Romney and his success. But there are serious concerns about his record and whether as a politician he consistently applied conservative principles and how this impacts the agenda moving forward. The questions need answers now. That is why this primary should not be rushed to an end. We need to vet this. Pundits in the Beltway are gleefully proclaiming that this primary race is over after Florida, despite 46 states still not having chimed in. Well, perhaps it’s possible that it will come to a speedy end in just four days; but with these questions left unanswered, it will not have come to a satisfactory conclusion. Without this necessary vetting process, the unanswered question of Governor Romney’s conservative bona fides and the unanswered and false attacks on Newt Gingrich will hang in the air to demoralize many in the electorate. The Tea Party grassroots will certainly feel disenfranchised and disenchanted with the perceived orchestrated outcome from self-proclaimed movers and shakers trying to sew this all up. And, trust me, during the general election, Governor Romney’s statements and record in the private sector will be relentlessly parsed over by the opposition in excruciating detail to frighten off swing voters. This is why we need a fair primary that is not prematurely cut short by the GOP establishment using Alinsky tactics to kneecap Governor Romney’s chief rival.
As I said in my speech in Iowa last September, the challenge of this election is not simply to replace President Obama. The real challenge is who and what we will replace him with. It’s not enough to just change up the uniform. If we don’t change the team and the game plan, we won’t save our country. We truly need sudden and relentless reform in Washington to defend our republic, though it’s becoming clearer that the old guard wants anything but that. That is why we should all be concerned by the tactics employed by the establishment this week. We will not save our country by becoming like the left. And I question whether the GOP establishment would ever employ the same harsh tactics they used on Newt against Obama. I didn’t see it in 2008. Many of these same characters sat on their thumbs in ‘08 and let Obama escape unvetted. Oddly, they’re now using every available microscope and endoscope – along with rewriting history – in attempts to character assassinate anyone challenging their chosen one in their own party’s primary. So, one must ask, who are they really running against?
- Sarah Palin
Well, that would be pretty darn scary if I were, because I'm not trying to convince anyone to vote for and support Mitt Romney.
And I don't agree that "red meat" would be the element of choice for converting voters to Romney anyway.
But those who want to go on dreaming that, at this point, some explosive new dirt is going to do in Romney, have at it.
That's an observation, not an endorsement. (I know you conflate those two.)
I hope you’re right, but, OTOH, this may be her Rubicon.
We’ll just have to see how this rolls out.
If Newt loses Florida, it won’t be because Drudge linked to stories against him.
On this thread, to this audience, you have been knocking Gingrich and pushing Romney.
On this thread you merely want us and the world to lay off Romney, and your badgering us to do that is getting tiresome.
Switching to whiny concern troll mode, is only making it worse,
Wow, a knock on Palin, and a defense for Drudge, your devotion to Mitt is creepy.
We'll have to fix that part—for her.
<<I hope that you were with us in the 2008 cycle as we hard core anti-Romney posters were fighting a losing battle, about the fact that Rush was supporting Romney.
‘’I think the one candidate of the three still out there on our side that matter... in saying who more closely embodies all three legs of this conservative stool, you’d have to say that it’s Mitt Romney. There’s actually no choice in the matter.’’ (Monday, Feb 4, 2008)
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_020408/content/01125109.guest.html.guest.html<<
Maybe this should have it’s own thread for all the naysayers! This makes things more clear with Rush...I know I wasn’t aware of this in 2008.
You sir are delusional...all your double speak and who can beat Obama and claiming Newt is not on the Michigan ballot makes it plain to see you are for someone besides him. Given that you are advocating picking someone who can beat Obama, I would hazard to guess that makes you a Mitt fan.
Stop the fake philosophy and double speak...as far as a tough hill to climb...come on we are on our 4th state...
February 4, 2012 Nevada (caucus)
February 4–11, 2012 Maine (caucus)
February 7, 2012 Colorado (caucus)
Minnesota (caucus)
Missouri (primary)
February 28, 2012 Arizona (primary)
Michigan (primary)
Next contest is Nevada, where the last poll in December only had Mitt up by 4. And in Maine he was also up by 4...
Not much up hill struggle there...
Lets check Minnesota...yeah...Gingrich is up 18 there...
Nationwide...yep...he is up there
Try somewhere else with your lame arguments.
Thanks, I sometimes wrongly think that everyone remembers all that from the past.
If you want to post a thread, then please do, I would post on it, but I don’t feel like hosting one myself.
He was ONLY for Romney when the choice was between McCain & Romney. The kinds of half truths you’re spouting is exactly what this article is all about. The establishment’s trying to do this to Newt as well. But if you really think Rush is establishment stop listening because you’re not any more successful at rewriting history as the RINO establishment.
Cindie
When Rush hit Newt over the Bain Capital issue that Newt was using against Romney that caused a lot of damage.
Rush has backed away from attacking Newt after his audience got angry.
While Rush has now issued a defense of Newt the best I can say about El Rushbo is that “he’s gone both ways.”
A third party was launched in Canada twenty some years ago that led to 13 years of Liberal Party Government but eventually the Conservative Party of Canada came along to replace the former Progressive Conservative Party.
Canada still exists today in spite of having the third party.
indeed my wife teared up at perry’s valor and informed me we would be donating if he ran in TX again
indeed my wife teared up at perry’s valor and informed me we would be donating if he ran in TX again
Yep.
Being attacked by open declared enemies can be dealt with.
Being attacked by the media, unions, academia, and even enemy agents can be dealt with.
But being stabbed in the back by supposed allies, as Newt is now by Coulter, et al is so similar to Palin being sabotaged by McCain campaign managers.
Yep. She saw it coming.
very well done moorings
very well done moorings
amen gurl!
before....
Your half truth is in faulting me for pointing out that Rush was a Romney man in 2008, Huckabee and McCain were both in the race when Rush took the unusual step of announcing his feelings for Mitt Romney. This time Newt is in his way, and Rush hit him hard, when it hurt the most.
Did you read post 242, that and Drudge, is why it will always be known as Bloody Thursday.
‘’I think the one candidate of the three still out there on our side that matter... in saying who more closely embodies all three legs of this conservative stool, you’d have to say that it’s Mitt Romney. There’s actually no choice in the matter.’’ (Monday, Feb 4, 2008)
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_020408/content/01125109.guest.html.guest.html
“...national radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, who endorsed Romney on Tuesday [February 5, 2008]”
Newsmax - Feb 6, 2008
(archived page — original link expired)
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