Posted on 04/05/2013 8:38:51 AM PDT by Servant of the Cross
Gingrich lost, but he hasn’t retired.
After 69 years, Newt Gingrich is wealthy, a celebrity, and the owner of a tony home in Northern Virginia. His place in the history books, as the leader of the Republican revolution, has long been established.
But the former House speaker isn’t ready to fade away.
“I don’t rule it out,” he said on Thursday over breakfast, when asked about a future presidential run. He spoke excitedly about his company, Gingrich Productions, and his upcoming trip to South Carolina, where he won the Republican primary last year.
Gingrich’s unflagging energy isn’t surprising. We’ve all known people who have refused to retire. Richard Nixon used to tell friends about his drive to stay “in the arena,” long after his time on the center stage of American politics had passed.
Gingrich, for the most part, has followed the Nixon model for political winter. He keeps busy writing history books, making speeches, and making movies. (A film about Billy Graham is in the works.) He is also obsessed with technology and its implications for the future. He’s already signed up to get Google glasses, driverless cars fascinate him, and he constantly touts online teaching.
“My instinct is that there will be a new generation of ideas, and a new generation of candidates,” he says. “But, you know, I would like to be somebody who plays a role in developing a new generation.”
There has been time for fun, too. Gingrich and his wife, Callista, adore Downton Abbey, a British drama that airs in the States on PBS. “One night last week we were up until two in the morning, because we had to see the next one,” he says. “We’re well into season three now.” His favorite character is Lord Grantham, the show’s controversial and aging patriarch. “I like the old man,” he says with a chuckle. “I identify by age.”
Gingrich warns, however, that the GOP cannot become its own period drama. “Part of the Republican party’s problem is that it’s kind of a silent film, a black-and-white short, in an age when people are used to quadraphonic sound, jump cuts, full color, and HD,” he says.
Behind the scenes, Gingrich has encouraged congressional Republicans to visit majority-African-American districts and urged officials to be more diplomatic with Hispanics. “It’s important because when you go out, and you’re standing in a room and you’re looking people in the face, you begin to realize the limitations of what you can and can’t say, and you begin to realize how they hear it,” he explains.
Gingrich acknowledges that Republicans, especially Speaker John Boehner, face many challenges in the second term. But he doesn’t think all is lost for the GOP, in spite of its stumbles. “I think [Boehner] has actually gained ground,” he says. “I think he’s learned that dealing with Obama is very complicated, much more complicated than dealing with Clinton.”
“Of course, Boehner doesn’t have a Republican Senate, so his position is more complicated than mine was,” he adds. “But my sense is he has begun to figure out a pattern that enables him to minimize Obama’s effectiveness and allows him to consolidate Republicans in the House.”
Immigration is one issue where he thinks the House can gain the upper hand, even though Senate Democrats have taken the lead on that debate. “My guess is the House will pass a bill first,” he says. In such a scenario, he predicts the House GOP could end up significantly shaping the final package by making the first move.
A self-professed “creature of the House,” Gingrich believes that the current group of House Republican leaders, especially former vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan, should lift the spirits of weary conservatives. “Paul Ryan has the skill set to be a good speaker of the House,” he says. “Ryan can either be a really remarkable policy wonk or he can be a popular politician. He is one of the most popular people in politics.”
The compliment for Ryan was a blessing of sorts from one Republican visionary to another. Gingrich has left the campaign trail and Congress, but he keeps tabs on everything. And he’s glad that Republicans (and reporters) still keep tabs on him.
“Right after I stepped down as speaker, I was up here [near the Capitol] one day doing something,” he recalls. “This one reporter looked up and said: ‘We miss you so much. It was so much easier to figure out stories to write when you were here.’”
That aside made Gingrich’s day.
I “voted(with NOSE TIGHTLY held)” for “Mittens(as did Free Republic’s Mr Robinson)”...
I must admit, my reasons for wanting Newt as president were selfish. I was looking forward to repeated spankings of the White House press corps. I might have even watched the evening news for them. If cBS would have brought Dan Rather out of retirement to receive some drubbings, my joy would have been complete.
With that said, I can’t see how his candidacy kept any deserving Conservative from the Republican nomination in 2012.
I really like Newt in a lot of ways but he is toast in terms of political viability yet his ego never got the message. When he had the chance to help keep Romney out, he refused to go away. Enjoy your fat cat house Newt. Now go retire to it.
Yes, it would have been Santorum.
I think we can do better than this gay marriage supporting putz.
http://www.newnownext.com/newt-gingrich-finds-his-soul-supports-gay-marriage/12/2012/
I suppose I should remind you of, OHIO:
Mitt Romney Massachusetts Republican 460,831 37.96% 38
Rick Santorum Virginia Republican 448,580 36.95% 25 37.9%
Newt Gingrich Virginia Republican 177,183 14.60% 0 0.0%
and MICHIGAN:
Mitt Romney Massachusetts Republican 409,522 41.10% 16
Rick Santorum Virginia Republican 377,372 37.87% 14 46.7%
Newt Gingrich Virginia Republican 65,027 6.53% 0 0.0%
not to mention:
WYOMING
Mitt Romney Massachusetts Republican 822 38.99% 0 0.0%
Rick Santorum Virginia Republican 673 31.93% 0 0.0%
Ron Paul Texas Republican 439 20.83% 0 0.0%
Newt Gingrich Virginia Republican 165 7.83% 0 0.0%
and
ALASKA
Mitt Romney Massachusetts Republican 4,554 32.23% 8 29.6%
Rick Santorum Virginia Republican 4,254 30.11% 8 29.6%
Ron Paul Texas Republican 3,410 24.13% 6 22.2%
Newt Gingrich Virginia Republican 1,878 13.29% 2 7.4%
That’s four states where votesplitting with Newt cost Santorum wins. Newt also cost Santorum shots at WA, IL, WI, AZ.
Santorum still won 11 states, same as Romney did in 2004.
Full disclosure: I hoped for Newt during the primaries, voted for Santorum in our primary to strategically stop Romney even though I preferred Newt.
As did I, but I was in Texas, so it didn’t make much of a difference.
I think we had an obligation to run Santorum as an actual conservative candidate. It didn’t matter whom got in - Romney pushing Romneycare or Obama pushing Obamacare. At least now we have a conservative party.
Well, when you get that time-machine of yours working, you let me know.
You’re trying to suck all of the humor from my post over a lost election, and you still keep the results around to cut-and-paste. Santorum’s loss was painfull to you. I get it, but the way I saw his candidacy, he never really had a chance. See if he ever runs again.
I awakened as a Conservative watching Newt being savaged by the evening news, nightly. I would have found his payback enjoyable and beneficial to the nation.
Here is one for you...
THE ERA OF NEWT IS OVER
I voted for mittens and made certain that as many others did also... it did absolutley no good to do so and I will not vote for jeb bush. We are possibly going to see hildebeast and jeb run in 2016 and I will not vote in that election if it comes to pass.
LLS
I should have known US Navy Vet would not be a part of the problem. You had me going there for a minute.
““I don’t rule it out,” he said on Thursday over breakfast, when asked about a future presidential run.”
Nothing is bigger than Newt’s ego. Just great, get in there and screw up yet ANOTHER primary! This guy is pro amnesty, always has been. He gave Bill Clinton everything he wanted.
Newt writes books
Newt needs to sell books
Newt is a salesman
It seems like supporting fags is the thing to do these days. Everyone wants to get on the bandwagon.
Count me out.
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