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Showing posts with label NewtGingrich. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NewtGingrich. Show all posts
Newt Gingrich takes David Gregory to task for focusing questions on Rush Limbaugh

Newt Gingrich takes David Gregory to task for focusing questions on Rush Limbaugh

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From yesterday's Meet the Press transcript.

MR. GREGORY: Should be interesting. Chuck Todd, thank you very much.
Let's turn now to the Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Mr. Speaker, welcome back to the program.
FMR. REP. NEWT GINGRICH (R-GA): David, it's good to be with you.
MR. GREGORY: I want to talk about the campaign and the numbers that I just went through with Chuck Todd, but I have to ask you about access to contraception. I realize it's not at the, the core of your stump speech, but it is a debate that is certainly highly charged here in Washington and Congress...
FMR. REP. GINGRICH: No.
MR. GREGORY: ...and on the airwaves.
FMR. REP. GINGRICH: No, it's...
MR. GREGORY: But it is, Mr. Speaker. Let me just take you through Rush Limbaugh's commentary about this this week, about a young law student here who testified about access to contraception for health reasons, something that he's now apologized for. Let me play it.
(Videotape, Wednesday)
MR. RUSH LIMBAUGH: What does it say about the college coed Susan Fluke who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex. What does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex.
(End videotape)
MR. GREGORY: Limbaugh issued an apology yesterday, which many people may not know about, a portion of which reads as following, "In this instance I chose the wrong words in my analogy of the situation. I did not mean a personal attack on Ms. Fluke. My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices." How much damage has this done?
FMR. REP. GINGRICH: You know, David, I am astonished at the desperation of the elite media to avoid rising gas prices, to avoid the president's apology to religious fanatics in Afghanistan, to avoid a trillion dollar deficit, to avoid the longest period of unemployment since the Great Depression and to suddenly decide that Rush Limbaugh is the great national crisis of this week.
MR. GREGORY: Mm-hmm.
FMR. REP. GINGRICH: There's no debate about access to contraception. There is a debate, which Cardinal George of Chicago has pointed out, is a war against the Catholic Church. You do have this weird situation where President Obama apologizes to Islamic extremists while waging war against the Catholic Church. That's the language, by the way, of the Catholic bishops. You have an issue here of whether the government can coerce the Catholic Church, not just into a contraception, but into sterilization and abortion, something I don't find any reporter wants to talk about. You have a president who voted for infanticide as a, as a state senator, who represents the most extreme pro-abortion position in America. So if you want to have a dialogue about this, David...
MR. GREGORY: Mm-hmm.
FMR. REP. GINGRICH: ...let's set the record straight. Barack Obama, as a state senator, voted to allow doctors to kill babies if they survived the abortion. Barack Obama, as president, in the most radical anti-religious move made by a--by any president, is trying to coerce the Catholic Church at a time when he's been told by the bishops...
MR. GREGORY: Well, Mr. Speak...
FMR. REP. GINGRICH: ...that would have to give up every single hospital--wait a--let me finish. They would have--this is what they say.
MR. GREGORY: Right.
FMR. REP. GINGRICH: They would have to give up every single hospital, they would have to give up every single religious--every single university and college associated with the church because he is asking them to violate their religious beliefs. Now you want--if you want a debate...
MR. GREGORY: Mm-hmm.
FMR. REP. GINGRICH: ...over whether or not the president of the United States should be able to impose his views on a religious institution...
MR. GREGORY: All right. And what he...
FMR. REP. GINGRICH: ...and whether America's now a secular country, let's have that debate.
Newt's financial backer calls it quit?

Newt's financial backer calls it quit?

This shows that his campaign is in real trouble. From Business Insider:

While billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson may have rescued Newt Gingrich’s campaign in its early days, today, he may have just buried it.
Bloomberg News reports that Adelson, who has donated $11 million to Gingrich’s Super PAC, does not plan to send any more money Gingrich’s way. Bloomberg is citing an anonymous source “familiar with their deliberations,” though an Adelson spokesman declined to comment.
The move seems to be weeks in the making. After poor showings by Gingrich in the last several races and the re-resurgence of Rick Santorum, the former House speaker has once again been pushed to the back of the Republican field. And Adelson may be shifting his focus. According to CNN, Adelson met with Mitt Romney in Nevada last week and “assured Romney that he will be behind him 100 percent should he become the nominee.” . . . .

Bizarre Claims that Newt Gingrich was anti-Reagan?


Michael Reagan endorsed Newt.
Might there have been disagreements from time to time, sure. But to claim that Newt was rude to Reagan or anti-Reagan seems like a very strange claim. If this was believed, would Newt have been in the Republican House leadership in the early 1990s? Here is Newt on the subject on Hannity's show.
UPDATE: LIMBAUGH blasts coordinated attacks on Newt: "I first heard of Newt Gingrich when he was perhaps the premiere defender of Ronald Reagan. This was in the early 1980s of course, Reagan assumed office in 1981."
UPDATE: From Sarah Palin:

"Look at Newt Gingrich, what’s going on with him, via the establishment's attacks,” fmr. Gov. Sarah Palin said on FOX Business. They’re trying to crucify this man and rewrite history, and rewrite what it is that he has stood for all these years."
Romney just can't resist playing class warfare card against Newt

Romney just can't resist playing class warfare card against Newt

Romney won't explain the difference between income earned from capital gains and income earned from work. Throwing away the chance to explain why his 14 percent tax rate is "fair" Romney would rather win what seems like a short run political gain against Newt. From Politico:

. . . The moment came after Newt Gingrich joked about Romney’s 15 percent tax rate, saying: “I’m prepared to describe my flat tax as the Mitt Romney flat tax.”

Romney jumped in to ask: Do you tax capital gains at 15 percent or zero percent?

Gingrich’s answer: Zero.

“Under that plan, I’d have paid no taxes in the last two years,” Romney said, alluding to the fact that all his income is from investments. . . .

“The real question is not so much my taxes, but the taxes of the American people,” Romney said. “That’s why I put forward a plan to eliminate the tax on savings for middle-income Americans.”

He continued: “But I paid all the taxes that are legally required and not a dollar more. … I don’t think you want someone as the candidate for president who pays more taxes than he owes.” . . .

Newt would be just as strong against Obama as Romney, takes national lead in Republican race


Gallup has this poll.
Newt Gingrich Favorability/Unfavorability Nationally

Newt Gingrich Favorability/Unfavorability Nationally


Do I think that Newt would make a better president than Romney? Yes. Do I think that he would be a better debater against Obama? Yes. Do I worry that Newt may have huge negatives that will be hard to overcome? Yes. Can a strong campaign undo some of those negatives? Sure, but I am just not sure how much can be undone with these abilities.

UPDATE: So if the above is true, why are some Democrats so scared of Newt?

Pelosi: Let me just say this. That will never happen.

King: Why?

Pelosi: He's not going to be President of the United States. . .

King: Why are you so sure?

Pelosi: There is something that I know. . . .

Newt's answer on the marriage issue


I had problems with Newt's ex-wife's claims because her statement seemed to clearly contain other embellishments. For example, she claimed that Newt called her when he was in bed with Callista. How would she have known that he was in bed with Callista? Would any one call up and discuss such an issue as the ex-wife claimed when they were in bed with someone else?

Some Republicans jumping the shark on class warfare?


I don't see what Romney did with Bain as being remotely similar to what Obama did with GM. Still, I am very disappointed with Newt's and Perry's statements on this, but Romney is an idiot. This makes it look like what Obama did was alright.



Here is a Ted Kennedy ad about Romney and Bain capital. This is clearly a preview of Obama's campaign in the fall.

Here is Rush Limbaugh's comments on Romney comparing his experience with Bain to Obama's experience with GM.

A transcript is available here.
Are you sitting down? If you're driving, you might want to pull off to the side of the road here. "[S]peaking Wednesday on CBS, Romney said that what he did [with Bain Capital] was no different..." Are you sitting down? Are you paying very close attention? Look at me. Do I have you here? According to TheHill.com and Jonathan Easley. Today on CBS, "Romney said that what he did [with Bain Capital] was no different..." Dadelut dadelut dadelut! from what Barack Obama did bailing out the auto industry. Thud! Kerplunk! You've got to be kidding me. The next paragraph is a quote from Romney. Are you still sitting down?

"In the general election I'll be pointing out that the president took the reins at General Motors and Chrysler -- closed factories, closed dealerships, laid off thousands and thousands of workers -- he did it to try to save the business." So TheHill.com is reporting that Romney on CBS today said that what he did with Bain Capital is no different than what Obama did in taking over the auto companies. Obama had to lay people off; Obama had to streamline the place to make them profitable. So he's accepting the premise that Newt and Perry have put out there, apparently, that he has gone into these companies with a chainsaw -- and now he is using Obama and what he did at General Motors and Chrysler as: Hey, the president did it! Now, General Motors and Chrysler are not profitable, and... (sigh)

You just don't, if you are the leader in the race for the Republican nomination, come out and give tacit approval to the government takeover of General Motors and Chrysler and then compound that by saying: Hey, what I did is no different. I was trying to save the businesses. (interruption) I did leave the possibility that this is not accurate. Yes. It's in TheHill.com. I've not seen it anywhere else. So, yes, I've held out the possibility that this is inaccurate. For example, there was a story all day yesterday on Drudge that Newt is gonna go into South Carolina and meet with the former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucasians (Clyburn, James Clyburn, whose daughter is named Mignon Clyburn) and gonna have a joint press conference, appearance about the housing industry, that Newt is gonna meet with a Democrat -- a ranking Democrat -- member of the Congressional Black Caucasians. So I fired that off to some people I know who are dyed-in-the-wool, Newt-can't-do-anything-wrong supporters, and I said, "Can you explain this to me?" and a few hours later I had a reply. "Newt says this isn't true. He thinks Romney people are spreading this rumor. He's not got a meeting with Clyburn," but it's in The State newspaper in South Carolina. So I share with you this Hill.com story with the proviso that it might not be true, but there it is. Okay. . . .




Fact checking some of the attacks on Bain. The video focuses on four Bain-financed companies:

•The film talks about layoffs at DDi Corp. and discusses questionable manipulation of stock prices after the circuit board company went public. But Romney had left Bain Capital a year before any layoffs and a public stock offering that ultimately netted Bain and Romney a big payday. The company's subsequent bankruptcy filing came two years after Bain had largely divested from the company, and was the result of the dot-com bust. Moreover, the company emerged from bankruptcy, and its current CEO credits those early Bain investments for setting the foundation for the company's current success.
•The film claims Romney was involved in the acquisition, management and demise of the now-defunct KB Toys. He wasn't. Bain bought the toy company nearly two years after Romney left Bain.
•Likewise, the closing of UniMac's plant in Marianna, Fla., occurred seven years after Romney left Bain and nearly two years after Bain sold UniMac's parent company to another private equity house. . . .
the video presents a myopic view of Bain Capital, cherry-picking some of the worst Bain outcomes to portray Bain in the worst possible light. Romney's record at Bain Capital also includes some success stories . . . .
"Their overall performance was terrific," concurred Steven Neil Kaplan, a professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. "He's got lots of deals that worked." . . .
The Palins on the Republican Presidential Primary

The Palins on the Republican Presidential Primary

I think that Sarah Palin is right about Romney.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said the mainstream media and President Barack Obama “want to face Mitt Romney in the general election.” She made those comments on “Justice With Judge Jeanine” on FOX News on Saturday during the same time the Republican presidential candidates were debating in New Hampshire on ABC.

Palin said the mainstream media would take a hands-off approach to Romney “in order to bolster Romney’s chances” to “finally face Obama.”

According to Palin, the mainstream media and Obama would then portray Romney as someone who is out of touch with regular Americans in the general election.

“They are already gearing up to portray him, accurately or inaccurately … as being out of touch with the working class,” Palin said, noting that Romney’s wealth and perfect family may make it easy to paint him as someone “being a bit out of touch from working and middle class Americans and from the challenges we all face.”

Palin continued: “My opinion is that I can see what’s coming ... the media will try to bolster Romney so they can tear him down, and that is quite unfortunate.” . . .


Now this from ABC News:

Sarah Palin’s husband is endorsing Newt Gingrich for president, Todd Palin told ABC News today.
But Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and John McCain’s 2008 Republican running mate, has yet to decide “who is best able to go up against Barack Obama,” Todd Palin said.
Palin said he has not spoken to Gingrich or anyone from the former House speaker’s campaign. But he said he respects Gingrich for what he went through in the 1990s and compared that scrutiny in public life to what Sarah Palin went through during her run for the vice presidency.
Todd Palin said he believes that being in the political trenches and experiencing the highs and lows help prepare a candidate for the future and the job of president.
He did not criticize any of the other candidates and said his “hat is off to everyone” in the Republican race.
But Todd Palin did point to last summer, when a large portion of Gingrich’s staff resigned and the candidate was left, largely by himself, to run the campaign. . . .
Art Laffer endorses Newt Gingrich

Art Laffer endorses Newt Gingrich

If you liked George W. Bush on taxes, vote for Romney, who has basically recycled Bush's team of economic advisors. If you want to make America competitive on taxes, Laffer is right about Newt. From today's WSJ's Political Diary:

Newt Gingrich, who has been sliding in the polls in the run-up to the Iowa caucuses next week, won an enthusiastic endorsement Thursday from iconic supply-side economist Arthur Laffer.

"I think if Newt is president, you are going to see economic growth beyond what you have ever seen," said Mr. Laffer during a campaign appearance with the former House speaker in Storm Lake, Iowa. Mr. Laffer, an adviser to President Reagan, said that Mr. Gingrich understands "Reagan economics . . . the economics we did in the 1980s."

"This man does understand, fundamentally and deeply, that if you tax people who work, and you pay people who don't work, don't be surprised if you find a lot of people not working," said Mr. Laffer. "I have never heard of a poor person spending himself or herself to prosperity. It doesn't work." . . .
Newt and Romney display dramatically different responses to payroll tax debate in DC, or why Newt is a better presidential candidate

Newt and Romney display dramatically different responses to payroll tax debate in DC, or why Newt is a better presidential candidate

Romney is playing it safe. Newt is showing that he is a leader. From the Christian Science Monitor:

Mitt Romney refused to be pinned down Wednesday on how Congress should break an impasse that threatens to raise taxes for 160 million workers — the latest pressing policy debate the Republican presidential hopeful has sidestepped. Rival Newt Gingrich, in contrast, castigated Congress for "an absurd dereliction of duty." . . .
In Iowa, Gingrich called a two-month extension "insufficient" and scolded the Democratic-controlled Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid and President Barack Obama's administration for "lurching from failure to failure" and marveled: "They can't figure out how to pass a one-year extension, so the Senate leaves town?"
"It's game-playing," added the former House speaker, who stopped short of criticizing House Republicans and their leader Ohio Rep. John Boehner. Gingrich also did not criticize Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate leader from Kentucky who signed off on the short-term extension.
The different postures over the payroll tax extension played out against a backdrop of intensifying rancor - and a dispute over negative advertising - between Romney and Gingrich with the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses drawing close. . . .


BTW, I can't find any comments by Ron Paul on this issue.

On George Will claiming that Newt isn't a conservative

George Will consistently supported Gerald Ford over Ronald Reagan during the 1976 Republican Presidential primaries. Here are some examples of his writing and the discussions it engendered.

From the St. Petersburg Times January 21, 1976

Sarasota Herald-Tribune - Feb 1, 1976
Here is another piece by Will available here (Sarasota Herald-Tribune - Jan 23, 1976).

In 1979, Will was still critical of Reagan and happily taking Ford's statements about Reagan as accurate (Sarasota Herald-Tribune - Sep 4, 1979). Here is a piece where Will was relatively positive about Howard Baker as the 1980 Republican presidential candidate (Sarasota Herald-Tribune - Mar 10, 1979).

Will likes Romney, and (correctly) attacked Newt for going after Romney's business decisions to lay off workers. But I might also add that Mitt Romney attacking Newt over his wealth hardly seems like a conservative line of attack. From CBS News:

In the wake of his attempt to make a $10,000 bet with Rick Perry during Saturday's Republican presidential debate - a move that put a spotlight on Romney's $190 million-plus net worth and prompted critics to cast him as out of touch - the former Massachusetts governor told CBS News on Wednesday that his chief rival for the nomination is a "very wealthy man."

"Newt Gingrich has wealth from having worked in government," Romney told CBS News political correspondent Jan Crawford in an interview in New York. "He's a wealthy man, a very wealthy man. If you have a half a million dollar purchase from Tiffany's, you're not a middle class American." . . .
Newt at 40 percent in newest WSJ/NBC poll

Newt at 40 percent in newest WSJ/NBC poll

From the WSJ:

Republican voters now heavily favor Newt Gingrich over Mitt Romney as the party's nominee, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey, but the poll also found deep unease with Mr. Gingrich among independents and swing voters who normally decide presidential elections.

With less than three weeks before the first votes are cast in Iowa, Republicans give the former House speaker the most commanding lead of any candidate this year: He has 40% support among likely GOP voters, compared with 23% for Mr. Romney. All of the other Republican candidates fell short of 10% support in the poll. . . .
Newt the libertarian on technology issues?

Newt the libertarian on technology issues?

How would the world look differently today if Newt hadn't been there to stop many attempts to regulate technology? From Politico:

. . . Twenty years ago, Gingrich’s appreciation of technology was more novel among Republicans, showing that there was a conservative libertarian interest in preserving the burgeoning Internet from efforts to regulate it. The 1995 Wired magazine cover interview was headlined “Friend and Foe.” At the time, Gingrich talked up the transformative power of the Internet and a world where schools and hospitals would be wired.
Media in his home state dubbed him “Newt Skywalker.”
As House speaker, Gingrich marshaled forces on issues such as data scrambling technologies, freedom of speech on the Internet and securities litigation reform. He helped launch Thomas, the Library of Congress website that provides information about bills. He started the High Technology Working Group, now the Technology Working Group, composed of Republican leaders involved in a wide swath of tech issues.
Gingrich is "sensitive to innovation, to job creation, to startups and not having the government doing — but getting out of the away," said McNealy, who is now chairman of social media startup Wayin. Gingrich "is a spectacular idea guy."
Some of the early, libertarian-leaning views that won him fans in Silicon Valley were potential time bombs with the GOP faithful, but he stood his ground. In 1996, Gingrich — then the speaker of the House — resisted an attempt to fight porn on the Internet.
When the Senate began to push for the Communications Decency Act of 1996, Gingrich put up a road block that helped to undermine the act, which was later struck down by the Supreme Court. The act, introduced by then-Sen. Jim Exon (D-Neb.), would have made indecent materials on the Internet illegal and made intermediaries — such as Internet service providers — responsible for policing content on the Web. . . .

Despite getting himself into trouble by sometimes speaking off the cuff, Newt has a very conservative record

From the American Conservative Union, Newt has a lifetime average of 90. The Republican average at that time was 85.
From the NTU 1979-98, Gingrich's score averaged 61% (100% is a perfect score on supporting lower taxes and limited government). The average Republican scored 56%.

From the Club for Growth:

Voted YES on the Reagan tax cut of 1981
Voted YES on the Reagan tax reform bill of 1986
Voted NO on the George H.W. Bush “Read My Lips” tax hike in 1990.
Voted NO on the Clinton tax hike in 1993.
Voted YES on the capital gains tax cut in 1997.

Other positions:

an immediate and permanent repeal of the Death Tax;
elimination of all capital gains taxes;
reduction of the corporate tax rate to 12.5 percent;
a 50 percent payroll tax cut for both employers and employees;
a 100 percent tax write off for businesses’ equipment purchases.


A thought on Gingrich, Clinton and Adultery

A thought on Gingrich, Clinton and Adultery

Maureen Dowd and other commentators are trying to rewrite Gingrich's history.

[Gingrich] didn't get whiplash being a serial adulterer while impeaching another serial adulterer [Clinton] . . . .


Here is the problem. The impeachment wasn't about Clinton having an affair. It was about him lying under oath about it. Even worse, something that got very little attention, was that for me he was being forced to testify because of a law that Clinton had pushed for and signed. The hypocrisy here was that Clinton's defenders said that it wasn't a big deal that Clinton lied under oath because he was lying about sex. How many others dealing with sexual harassment complaints can simply justify lying because the action involved sex? My guess is that Clinton and his defenders would have cut these people no slack, but none of them have advocated that Democrats repeal their law.
It is amazing how distorted the attacks on Newt Gingrich have been over his first marriage

It is amazing how distorted the attacks on Newt Gingrich have been over his first marriage

The story was a horrible story about Newt telling his wife while she was dying of cancer in the hospital that he wanted a divorce. Only problem is that it is simply false on many, many counts. Much of the media has gotten this story wrong. This interesting piece here is from the Seattle Times:

. . . while the thrust of the story about his first divorce is not in dispute — Gingrich's first wife, Jackie Battley, has said previously that the couple discussed their divorce while she was in the hospital in 1980 — other aspects of it appear to have been distorted through constant retelling.

Most significantly, Battley wasn't dying at the time; she is alive today. Nor was the divorce discussion in the hospital "a surprise" to Battley, as many accounts have contended. Battley, not Gingrich, had requested a divorce months earlier, according to Jackie Gingrich Cushman, the couple's younger daughter. Further, Gingrich did not serve his wife with divorce papers on the day of his visit (unlike a subpoena, divorce papers typically aren't "served").

Gingrich's marriage to Battley had been troubled for years before it dissolved 31 years ago, both parties have said. Battley, seven years older than Gingrich, had been his high-school math teacher in Columbus, Ga. They began dating after he graduated and were married in 1962, when Gingrich was 19 and a freshman at Emory University in Atlanta.

The marriage grew contentious, and the couple spent years in counseling. In spring 1980, Gingrich left her, Battley told The Washington Post in 1985. Around this time, the couple told their children, then 16 and 13, they intended to divorce, Cushman wrote in a syndicated column in May (none of the family members nor Gingrich would comment for this article).

The hospital visit took place that summer, several months into their separation. Battley, then undergoing treatment for uterine cancer, had had two prior surgeries, and Gingrich's visit occurred a day after a third operation at Emory Hospital, in which doctors removed a benign tumor, according to Cushman. . . .
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