Posted on 02/25/2012 4:12:30 PM PST by OneLoyalAmerican
Newt Gingrich on Saturday, February 18th, 2012 in a campaign speech in Cobb County
Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich recently went gunnin’ for greenies.
Gingrich’s target is the Chevy Volt, an electric car that also can run on gas. During a recent Republican presidential campaign swing through Georgia, he revved up crowds by calling it the car that rich, liberal environmentalists think you ought to drive.
President Barack Obama would make you ditch your gas guzzler at the side of the road for the Volt, if he had his way, Gingrich warned.
"This is an administration that is deeply opposed to Americans having the right to choose the kind of car or truck they want to drive," the former Georgia congressman told a crowd in Cobb County on Saturday. "And I keep trying to get across to my liberal friends: You cannot put a gun rack in a Volt."
Slow down there, Mr. Speaker. You can’t put a gun rack in a Volt?
Is Gingrich taking us for a ride?
We realize this is not a pressing policy issue. And Gingrich was obviously trying to inject a little humor in what has been a demolition derby of a campaign.
But PolitiFact Georgia decided it was time for a little detour from our typical GOP primary coverage.
We set the Truth-O-Meter’s sights on Gingrich’s high-voltage claim.
We contacted the Gingrich campaign for a comment, but did not get a reply by the time this article went to press.
The Chevy Volt is a $40,000 electric car. The midsize sedan can travel about 35 miles on battery power alone, but if you need to go a few hundred miles farther, the gas tank kicks in.
To charge the Volt, you hook the battery to an orange cord stored under the trunk carpet. The other end plugs into an electrical outlet.
Chevy designed the Volt with so-called "early adapters" and green technology fans in mind, company spokesman Robert Peterson said. Owners tend to have high incomes and are concerned about the environment and U.S. energy dependence.
Chevy manufactures cargo nets, floor mats, a sunshade and an ashtray for the Volt, but nary a gun rack, Peterson said.
"It’s not something we normally consider," he said. He lent us a Volt for our fact check.
Car experts weren’t sure a gun rack would fit.
"You certainly CAN put a gun rack in a Volt, if you're talking about a tactical shotgun with a dash-mounted rack, as in a police cruiser," said Dan Neil, Pulitzer-winning car columnist and author of the "Rumble Seat" column in The Wall Street Journal. "A window rack, like in pickups? No, that would be difficult."
Gingrich took his gun rack quip on the road. He repeated it in Tulsa, Okla., on Monday before a crowd of 3,000 at Oral Roberts University.
We heard Gingrich say it again as we sat behind the wheel of a borrowed Chevy Volt, listening to the Sean Hannity radio show. We were hunting for a gun rack, and the Volt did its best to help. It started with the push of a button, and greeted us with a melody that sounded like a harp on Auto-Tune. A screen showed us the location of nearby stores.
The Volt’s pearly center console glowed under buttons lit up in cobalt blue. We felt as if R2-D2’s younger, sexier brother was our co-pilot.
Local gun store salesmen told us we could get a truck accessory store to customize a rack. We found a video online that showed a Volt owner rigging one up with plastic piping and plywood.
We don’t think these were what the former House speaker had in mind. PolitiFact Georgia opted to test products we could buy off the shelf. We returned to the newsroom parking lot with three gun racks and a stick as a gun stand-in.
The stick was a precaution. We didn’t want our co-workers to get the wrong idea. It was about 40 inches long, or roughly the length of a shorter shotgun.
The first contraption suspended guns on two racks behind the Volt’s seats. They hooked onto the car’s rear headrests and handily balanced the stick.
It was designed to fit two long guns.
The second used two camouflage neoprene slings to cradle up to two guns behind the car’s front seats. They fit, but not well. The slides of the Volt’s heated seats were in the way. We tied the slings’ bottom attachments to the front seat belt anchors instead.
That’s four long guns.
The third rack was designed to show off guns in the car’s rear window. The kit came with two plastic hooks with long adjustable bases. Each end was shaped like a wedge.
They fit snugly in the space between the upholstery and window, but were about 8 inches too short.
It was nothing that duct tape and PVC pipe couldn’t fix, but no self-respecting Georgian would display his guns that way. We checked online and found window racks that we think would work.
How do we rule?
Gingrich said you can’t put a gun rack in a Chevrolet Volt. We installed two gun racks that tote four guns combined.
Our own research shows Gingrich’s claim is a lemon. We give him a False. 
Greetings King Moonracer:
Did you ever notice how 0bama telegraphs an odd muscle movement each and every time he is about to tell a lie? Just watch for his lip movement.
Cheers,
OLA
I’m confident more beers were consumed at the car show in one day than Volts were sold since initial release.
I guess Gingrich should make a joke about Obama’s College Transcripts being sealed and see how the Liberals Fact Check that.
We live in a Bizarro World consisting of Liberal Wet Dreams.
Greetings Iron Munro:
Carry this Reporterette’s stupidity to the next level.
Suppose each hunter in the four seat Dolt, er Volt each bags a deer on opening day; after all 2nd Amendment is about hunting, don’cha know. Where do they haul the harvested deer? On the front bumper? Upon the hood? In the trunk? On the trunk? Rent a trailer?
Cheers,
OLA
The article’s ‘gun rack’ could probably hold my S&W Model 29. It would NOT hold any of the shotguns I’ve owned.
Why didn’t they just mount one on the roof outside the car? That would make as much sense...but then, honesty and logic aren’t parts of what pass for news these days, is it?
Good post. Thank you - I wouldn’t have seen it if you hadn’t posted a thread.
What’s that blue handled gizmo in the bottom position?
Looks like the GM accessory part #20121106: Dead-man-stick. For disconnecting the crony capitalists green energy scams following the November 2008 O.B.A.M.A. accident.
Cheers,
OLA
A stick rack fits perfectly in the Volt.
BWAAAHAAAHAAA
If we did that to libs, we could harvest them for organs. ;>)
Thanks for the article.
I am very happy with raising our own chickens, ducks and geese.
They all free ranged. We eat the eggs and if we had to, we would eat the birds. I WILL stay with my home grown stuff. ;>)
I started with 2 birds about 1 1/2 years ago. I now have 60 birds. LOL
We named a few of them. If we give them a good name, they will live a long life and probably die of old age.
Those that we think we may butcher someday, are given the names of politicians. I figure that should make it easier to cut off their heads and rip out their guts... just think it will feel natural and put a smile on my face.
Obama, Reid and Pelosi are popular names around here. Oh, I have a chicken that’s kinda goofy, so I named her Paul. ;>)
Yes, all of that really is the truth. LOL
LOL. Quick — give it a hard yank!
Ah! An explanation for why his lips flap so much... ‘-)
Greetings Mr. Rogers:
Thinking whichever GOP candidate wakes up and realizes they aren’t just running against 0bama, but against 0bama and the entire MSM (including FoxsNooze); wins 2012 in a landslide.
Cheers,
OLA
The Paultarded bird named “Paul” made us LOL.
Oddly enough, we’ve also been naming newborn goats kids after not-so-favorite politicians. Last summer we served Barak and Sherrod (Brown) ribs from the grille. And first time nannie Michelle gave birth to Sasha last month.
Just wondering, isn’t “free range chicken” just another way of saying easy coyote meal?
Cheers,
OLA
LOL
“Just wondering, isn’t “free range chicken” just another way of saying easy coyote meal?”
We have coyote and cougar, but they have never bothered the birds. We do lock the birds down at night and our German Shepherd puts his scent all over the property.
I watched an owl take off with one of the chickens and the raccoons have taken several, as well as a few ducks. I have set out a few traps, but all I seem to be able to catch are stray cats and once... I caught one of our chickens. LOL
I’ve given some thought to getting a couple of meat goats, but I haven’t decided yet.... and we have never eaten goat. Many years ago we raised cattle, but I can no longer bring in my own hay, so we won’t be doing that again.
Hello again Gator113:
Coyote and cougar? Almost like we could be neighbors.
We share three fencelines with a national forest. Before adding a third Great Pyreneese livestock guard dog last spring, we lost a pregnant doe. Then last summer our alpha male was likely mauled by a cougar encounter; the dog survived. Not sure about the cat. Since then, no fresh cougar signs nor lost livestock.
In my highly biased opinion as a Boer-cross producer; Boer and Boer-cross are the tastiest. Sweeter than other goat breeds. I describe caprine as a non-gamey young venison. Market wethers are slaughtered between 70-90 pounds hoof weight.
The ribs are best cuts, very difficult to find at retail. (Producers consume the best cuts!) So lean, when cooking ground caprine, one must add water or olive oil; otherwise caprine will stick to the teflon pan. The finest pepperoni is pure caprine, it doesn’t leave grease on the pizza. And because caprine so lean, it makes an excellent quality meat stock for jerky.
But no matter how you slice it, caprine t-bone steaks are not as tasty as a beef t-bone. That’s why we also keep cattle.
Cheers,
OLA
That’s interesting. I know it intellectually lazy, but I just can’t listen to that jackass in the White House as it’s all lies that dribbles from his purple lips.
Check out this NRA spectacular...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nbGbKbGZsGY#!
That’s interesting. I know it intellectually lazy, but I just can’t listen to that jackass in the White House as it’s all lies that dribbles from his purple lips.
Greetings GOPJ:
Thanks for sharing; Newt is a gifted public speaker.
Cheers,
OLA
Greetings King Moonracer:
Feel your pain. Having lead troops into harms way under the politically correct terms of 0bama’s inept policies was the day I resigned from the US Uniformed Services.
And I still refuse to accept the official retirement certificate signed by the Marxist usurper.
Cheers,
OLA
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