G
Gandalf Grey
Guest
Newt Gingrich's back door to the White House
By Bill Berkowitz
Created Mar 16 2007 - 9:30am
American Enterprise Institute 'Scholar' and former House Speaker blames
media for poll showing 64 percent of the American people wouldn't vote for
him under any circumstances
One day he's being gently quizzed on the radio program of Focus on the
Family's Dr. James Dobson and he's confessing to marital infidelity during
the Clinton impeachment brouhaha -- a reality that most political observers
already knew -- and another day he's bashing Hillary Clinton. One day he's
espousing populist rhetoric about the need to cut the costs of college
tuition and on another day he's talking World War III. One day he's claiming
that the "war on terror" may force the abridgement of fundamental first
amendment rights and then he's advancing a twenty-first century version of
his dastardly Contract with America.
At the same time he's publicly proclaiming how "stupid" it is that the race
for the presidency has already started you know that he's trying to figure
out how to out-finesse Rudy, McCain and Romney for the nomination. And last
week, when Fox News' Chris Wallace cited a poll showing that 64 percent of
the public would never vote for him, he was quick to blame those results on
how unfairly he was treated by the mainstream media back in the day.
Whatever it is that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has come to represent
in American politics, the guy is nothing less than fascinating.
These days, Gingrich, who is simultaneously a Senior Fellow at the American
Enterprise Institute and a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover
Institution, is making like your favorite uncle, fronting a YouTube video
contest offering "prizes" to whoever creates the best two-minute video on
why taxes suck. Although the prizes may not be particularly attractive to
the typical YouTuber, nevertheless Gingrich recently launched the "Winning
the Future, Goose that laid the Golden Egg, You Tube Contest." According to
Newt.org, participants are to "Create a 120 second video explaining why tax
increases will hurt the American economy, leading to less revenue for the
government, not more. Or in other words, explain why we shouldn't cook the
goose that laid the golden eggs (the American economy) by raising taxes."
Announcing the contest via a short video of his own, Gingrich advised
entrants they needed to explain the dangers of a tax increase in terms that
"a sixth grade class or a member of Congress" could understand.
The prizes? The winner will receive a signed copy of the Contract with
America and a signed leatherbound copy of Gingrich's book, "Winning the
Future: A 21st Century Contract with America," published by Regnery two
years ago.
Although the public hasn't yet flocked to take on Gingrich's challenge, one
conservative commentator expressed his delight: "I've got to give Newt
credit for using technology -- not just to get his message out -- but to
solicit input from all of us," Matt Lewis wrote at TownHall.com. "One of the
reasons we encourage comments on this blog is that you never know where the
next great idea will come from. By giving up a little control, you often get
a better product. That's one of the most amazing things about the internet.
Newt gets that."
And while he hasn't formally announced his candidacy -- and he probably
won't anytime soon -- Gingrich definitely has his eyes on the White House.
He's just still figuring out how he will get there. His public confession
appears to be one finely calculated step along the way.
Over the past several months Gingrich has been ubiquitous on the media and
political scenes:
# Late last year at an annual dinner in New Hampshire honoring individuals
who stand up for free speech, "Gingrich explained why he believes that the
First Amendment must be reconsidered in these trying times," he New York
Observer's Joe Conason reported. "This is a serious, long-term war, and it
will inevitably lead us to want to know what is said in every suspect place
in the country, that will lead us to learn how to close down every website
that is dangerous, and it will lead us to a very severe approach to people
who advocate the killing of Americans and advocate the use of nuclear or
biological weapons."
According to Conason, Gingrich "advocate[d] measures that 'use every
technology we can find to break up [the terrorists'] capacity to use the
Internet, to break up their capacity to use free speech, and to go after
people who want to kill us, to stop them from recruiting people before they
get to reach out and convince young people to destroy their lives while
destroying us.'"
During a follow-up appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," host Tim Russert
asked Gingrich how his plan to shut down suspect websites would work. Who
would decide what is "advocacy of terrorism" or "violent conduct"?
"You close down any Web site that is jihadist," he said.
"But who makes that judgment?" asked Russert.
"Look, I -- you can appoint three federal judges if you want to and say,
'Review this stuff and tell us which ones to close down.' I would just like
to have them be federal judges who've served in combat," replied Gingrich.
# Earlier this year, speaking via satellite to the annual Herzliya
Conference held by the Institute for Policy and Strategy, Gingrich warned
that nuclear weapons constitute the threat of a second Holocaust: "Israel is
facing the greatest danger for its survival since the 1967 victory... If two
or three cities are destroyed because of terrorism both the United States'
and Israel's democracy will be eroded and both will become greater
dictatorial societies... Three nuclear weapons constitute a second
Holocaust. Enemies are explicit in their desire to destroy us. We are
sleepwalking through this as if diplomatic engagement will create a fiesta
where we will all love one another."
Other conference speakers included Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert,
former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister
Shaul Mofaz, GOP presidential hopeful Republican Mitt Romney, and
neoconservative Richard Perle.
# During a February 18, appearance on the Fox News Channel's "Fox News
Sunday" Gingrich told host Chris Wallace that the Democrats in Congress were
"systematically undermining American foreign policy" by speaking out against
Bush's escalation of the war in Iraq.
Wallace quoted from one of Gingrich's own statements: "If Iraq matters as
much as the president says it does, then the United States must not design
and rely on a strategy which relies on the Iraqis to win. On the other hand,
if the war is so unimportant that the fate of Iraq can be allowed to rest
with the efforts of a new, weak, untested and inexperienced government, then
why are we risking American lives?"
"So question is," asked Wallace, "if the president isn't pursuing a plan for
victory, and you seem to say he isn't at this point, aren't Democrats
perfectly entitled to say we shouldn't be sending more troops after the ones
that are already there?"
Gingrich: "There's a different -- look, I can offer advice. The Senate can
offer advice. Any American can offer advice. There's a difference between
offering advice, which I think we should do, and legislating."
# Gingrich has also recently advocated legislation making English the
official U.S. language; continued putting forth ideas to transform America's
healthcare system using information technology; and prepared a "Contract
With America for the 21st Century."
Gingrich's new 527 built on gambling money
Gingrich recently formed a new IRS 527 political group called "American
Solutions for Winning the Future." According to longtime Gingrich friend and
colleague Matt Towery, the group "received its first significant early
contribution of $1 million" from Las Vegas Sands Corporation Chairman
Sheldon G. Adelson shortly after the November elections. Adelson's company
owns The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino and the Sands Expo and Convention
Center in Las Vegas, Nevada and the Sands Macao in The People's Republic of
China's Special Administrative Region of Macao, as well as Venetian Macao
Limited, a developer of additional multiple casino hotel resort properties
in Macao.
According to the Washington Post, "Adelson was listed by Forbes magazine in
2006 as America 's third-richest man, with assets of more than $20 billion.
His long list of political donations [1], primarily to Republicans, includes
$100,000 to the Republican National Committee in 1997 and 1998, when
Gingrich was speaker."
Adelson is a member [2] of the Board of Directors of the Washington,
D.C.-based Republican Jewish Coalition, an organization founded in 1985. He
shares that honor with several dozen prominent Jewish businessmen and
political figures including Ari Fleischer, former White House press
secretary; Lewis M. Eisenberg, a long-time Republican activist who has
raised millions of dollars for the Republican Party and Republican
candidates and was recently elected Finance Chairman of the Republican
National Committee; David Frum, a former Bush White House speechwriter and
currently a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and the
author of five books, including two New York Times bestsellers: "The Right
Man: The Surprise Presidency of George W. Bush," and co-author with Richard
Perle of "An End to Evil: What's Next in the War on Terror"; Ken Mehlman,
former chairman of the Republican National Committee from 2005-2007.
The RJC is headed by Matthew Brooks, who serves as Executive Director of
both the RJC and the Jewish Policy Center [3], "a think-tank that examines
public policy from a Jewish perspective."
According to its website, the RJC "is the sole voice of Jewish Republicans
to Republican decision makers and the Jewish community, expressing our
viewpoint on a wide variety of issues."
In early February, Israel News Agency reported that the Boston,
Massachusetts born Adelson -- the world's wealthiest Jew -- and his wife
Miriam -- a physician and Israeli native -- donated $25 million to the
Taglit-Birthright Israel program (BRI), which "will double to at least
20,000 the number of free summer trips to Israel offered by Birthright
Israel this summer." The Birthright program not only generates much needed
tourist dollars, it also encourages young Jews from around the world to
seriously consider settling in Israel. The Adelsons also recently donated
$25 million to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance
Authority.
In December of last year the Israeli daily Haaretz reported that a new
foundation to be established by Adelson "promises to change the face of
Jewish philanthropy. The new entity will be a major boon to American and
Israeli causes, with a pledge to dole out more than $200 million to Jewish
causes annually -- the largest-ever pledge by a Jewish foundation."
Opening for Gingrich?
On the home front, many Republicans appear disappointed with the current
crop of declared candidates for the party's presidential nomination.
Gingrich thinks the rush to the campaign trail is "stupid." In a
mid-February appearance promoting his latest book, Gingrich said "the
current process of spending an entire year running in order to spend an
entire year running in order to get sworn in in January 2009 is stupid."
All the thus-far declared candidates "suck" Erick Erickson, CEO of the
Republican blog RedState recently declared at his website. "Let's just admit
it. Every one of the thus far announced Republican candidates for President
sucks. From the lecherous adulterer [Rudy Giuliani] to the egomaniacal nut
job [Senator John McCain] to the flip-flopping opportunist with the perfect
hair [former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney] to the guy who hates brown
people [Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo] to the guy we've never heard of
[California Congressman Duncan Hunter] to the guy who has a better chance of
getting hit by a meteor while being consumed by a blue whale being struck by
lightening [Kansas Congressman Sam Brownback]."
Erickson does show some love for Brownback, who "doesn't suck at all, but"
he doesn't think his candidacy has "viability." And that's where Gingrich
comes in:
Part of me, frankly, wants Newt Gingrich to run. Don't get me wrong (or
divorced; my wife can't stand the guy). I don't want the former speaker to
actually win. I don't know that I'd trust him with that much power. He is
the most articulate, honest defender of conservatism out there. His ideas
are bold, they are conservative, and they are good. I don't agree with him
on everything, but it would really be nice for him to get out there and pull
everyone else to the right, to tell them why they are wrong, and why they
are cowards for standing on the shoulder of Reagan while acting like the
Manneken Pis [Wikipedia: "little man piss" in English; a Brussels
landmark -- a small bronze fountain sculpture depicting a naked little boy
urinating into the fountain's basin] on his legacy.
Gingrich has also suggested that the six Muslim scholars who were removed
from a plane in Minneapolis last year for praying in the airport "should
have been arrested and prosecuted for pretending to be terrorists." And
before the November elections, Gingrich counseled GOP candidates that they
could shake things up by using terms like "World War III" to get the
public's juices flowing in their favor.
On the same February 18 appearance on "Fox News Sunday," Wallace asked
Gingrich to respond to a Fox poll showing that 64 percent of voters wouldn't
vote for him under any circumstances and 44 percent of Republicans said the
same: Wallace: "Why do you think that so many voters say Newt Gingrich,
forget it?".
Gingrich: Well, there was a column written by Brent Bozell recently about
Nancy Pelosi becoming speaker and me becoming speaker. And he contrasted the
initial media coverage of the two of us.
And if you go back and look -- you know, I had a -- Time magazine savaged me
as Scrooge who stole Tiny Tim's broken crutch -- didn't just steal the
crutch; I broke it, on the cover of Time. Newsweek had me as the Grinch that
stole Christmas. I was a Dr. Seuss figure.
Then the Democrats -- I think correctly, strategically -- decided to run
121,000 ads in '95 and '96 attacking me. We adopted a totally different
strategy. We thought that instead of defending me, we would defend the
majority. And as a result, in 1996 we became the first reelected majority
since 1928 for Republicans.
In that process, I was badly damaged. I made some mistakes as speaker. And I
think the combination of all of that left me, you know, with a fairly high
negative.
Now, you know, one could argue that says I'm being very wise not to run. Or
it could mean that over time, as people get to see what we've done at the
Center for Health Transformation, what I've done in national security, what
we're doing -- we have a book coming out this fall called Contract With the
Earth. It's a conservative entrepreneurial science and technology
environmentalism.
You know, people may decide that, in fact, they want to take a second look.
I'm pretty comfortable relaxing and letting the American people decide, not
me.
If Gingrich thinks that the reason the vast majority of America voters
wouldn't cast their ballot for him under any circumstances is because the
liberal media has distorted his record, he needs to take a closer look at
his personal behavior, ethical mishaps and political maneuvering.
And he really doesn't have to look much further than to the time three days
before the polls opened in November 1994: In those heady days before the GOP
takeover of Congress, Gingrich jumped on the case of Susan Smith -- the
South Carolina woman who drowned her two young sons -- and equated her act
with the values of the Democratic Party. As reported by the Associated
Press, Gingrich said: "The mother killing her two children in South Carolina
vividly reminds every American how sick the society is getting and how much
we have to have change. I think people want to change and the only way you
get change is to vote Republican That's the message for the last three
days."
_______
--
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always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson
By Bill Berkowitz
Created Mar 16 2007 - 9:30am
American Enterprise Institute 'Scholar' and former House Speaker blames
media for poll showing 64 percent of the American people wouldn't vote for
him under any circumstances
One day he's being gently quizzed on the radio program of Focus on the
Family's Dr. James Dobson and he's confessing to marital infidelity during
the Clinton impeachment brouhaha -- a reality that most political observers
already knew -- and another day he's bashing Hillary Clinton. One day he's
espousing populist rhetoric about the need to cut the costs of college
tuition and on another day he's talking World War III. One day he's claiming
that the "war on terror" may force the abridgement of fundamental first
amendment rights and then he's advancing a twenty-first century version of
his dastardly Contract with America.
At the same time he's publicly proclaiming how "stupid" it is that the race
for the presidency has already started you know that he's trying to figure
out how to out-finesse Rudy, McCain and Romney for the nomination. And last
week, when Fox News' Chris Wallace cited a poll showing that 64 percent of
the public would never vote for him, he was quick to blame those results on
how unfairly he was treated by the mainstream media back in the day.
Whatever it is that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has come to represent
in American politics, the guy is nothing less than fascinating.
These days, Gingrich, who is simultaneously a Senior Fellow at the American
Enterprise Institute and a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover
Institution, is making like your favorite uncle, fronting a YouTube video
contest offering "prizes" to whoever creates the best two-minute video on
why taxes suck. Although the prizes may not be particularly attractive to
the typical YouTuber, nevertheless Gingrich recently launched the "Winning
the Future, Goose that laid the Golden Egg, You Tube Contest." According to
Newt.org, participants are to "Create a 120 second video explaining why tax
increases will hurt the American economy, leading to less revenue for the
government, not more. Or in other words, explain why we shouldn't cook the
goose that laid the golden eggs (the American economy) by raising taxes."
Announcing the contest via a short video of his own, Gingrich advised
entrants they needed to explain the dangers of a tax increase in terms that
"a sixth grade class or a member of Congress" could understand.
The prizes? The winner will receive a signed copy of the Contract with
America and a signed leatherbound copy of Gingrich's book, "Winning the
Future: A 21st Century Contract with America," published by Regnery two
years ago.
Although the public hasn't yet flocked to take on Gingrich's challenge, one
conservative commentator expressed his delight: "I've got to give Newt
credit for using technology -- not just to get his message out -- but to
solicit input from all of us," Matt Lewis wrote at TownHall.com. "One of the
reasons we encourage comments on this blog is that you never know where the
next great idea will come from. By giving up a little control, you often get
a better product. That's one of the most amazing things about the internet.
Newt gets that."
And while he hasn't formally announced his candidacy -- and he probably
won't anytime soon -- Gingrich definitely has his eyes on the White House.
He's just still figuring out how he will get there. His public confession
appears to be one finely calculated step along the way.
Over the past several months Gingrich has been ubiquitous on the media and
political scenes:
# Late last year at an annual dinner in New Hampshire honoring individuals
who stand up for free speech, "Gingrich explained why he believes that the
First Amendment must be reconsidered in these trying times," he New York
Observer's Joe Conason reported. "This is a serious, long-term war, and it
will inevitably lead us to want to know what is said in every suspect place
in the country, that will lead us to learn how to close down every website
that is dangerous, and it will lead us to a very severe approach to people
who advocate the killing of Americans and advocate the use of nuclear or
biological weapons."
According to Conason, Gingrich "advocate[d] measures that 'use every
technology we can find to break up [the terrorists'] capacity to use the
Internet, to break up their capacity to use free speech, and to go after
people who want to kill us, to stop them from recruiting people before they
get to reach out and convince young people to destroy their lives while
destroying us.'"
During a follow-up appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," host Tim Russert
asked Gingrich how his plan to shut down suspect websites would work. Who
would decide what is "advocacy of terrorism" or "violent conduct"?
"You close down any Web site that is jihadist," he said.
"But who makes that judgment?" asked Russert.
"Look, I -- you can appoint three federal judges if you want to and say,
'Review this stuff and tell us which ones to close down.' I would just like
to have them be federal judges who've served in combat," replied Gingrich.
# Earlier this year, speaking via satellite to the annual Herzliya
Conference held by the Institute for Policy and Strategy, Gingrich warned
that nuclear weapons constitute the threat of a second Holocaust: "Israel is
facing the greatest danger for its survival since the 1967 victory... If two
or three cities are destroyed because of terrorism both the United States'
and Israel's democracy will be eroded and both will become greater
dictatorial societies... Three nuclear weapons constitute a second
Holocaust. Enemies are explicit in their desire to destroy us. We are
sleepwalking through this as if diplomatic engagement will create a fiesta
where we will all love one another."
Other conference speakers included Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert,
former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister
Shaul Mofaz, GOP presidential hopeful Republican Mitt Romney, and
neoconservative Richard Perle.
# During a February 18, appearance on the Fox News Channel's "Fox News
Sunday" Gingrich told host Chris Wallace that the Democrats in Congress were
"systematically undermining American foreign policy" by speaking out against
Bush's escalation of the war in Iraq.
Wallace quoted from one of Gingrich's own statements: "If Iraq matters as
much as the president says it does, then the United States must not design
and rely on a strategy which relies on the Iraqis to win. On the other hand,
if the war is so unimportant that the fate of Iraq can be allowed to rest
with the efforts of a new, weak, untested and inexperienced government, then
why are we risking American lives?"
"So question is," asked Wallace, "if the president isn't pursuing a plan for
victory, and you seem to say he isn't at this point, aren't Democrats
perfectly entitled to say we shouldn't be sending more troops after the ones
that are already there?"
Gingrich: "There's a different -- look, I can offer advice. The Senate can
offer advice. Any American can offer advice. There's a difference between
offering advice, which I think we should do, and legislating."
# Gingrich has also recently advocated legislation making English the
official U.S. language; continued putting forth ideas to transform America's
healthcare system using information technology; and prepared a "Contract
With America for the 21st Century."
Gingrich's new 527 built on gambling money
Gingrich recently formed a new IRS 527 political group called "American
Solutions for Winning the Future." According to longtime Gingrich friend and
colleague Matt Towery, the group "received its first significant early
contribution of $1 million" from Las Vegas Sands Corporation Chairman
Sheldon G. Adelson shortly after the November elections. Adelson's company
owns The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino and the Sands Expo and Convention
Center in Las Vegas, Nevada and the Sands Macao in The People's Republic of
China's Special Administrative Region of Macao, as well as Venetian Macao
Limited, a developer of additional multiple casino hotel resort properties
in Macao.
According to the Washington Post, "Adelson was listed by Forbes magazine in
2006 as America 's third-richest man, with assets of more than $20 billion.
His long list of political donations [1], primarily to Republicans, includes
$100,000 to the Republican National Committee in 1997 and 1998, when
Gingrich was speaker."
Adelson is a member [2] of the Board of Directors of the Washington,
D.C.-based Republican Jewish Coalition, an organization founded in 1985. He
shares that honor with several dozen prominent Jewish businessmen and
political figures including Ari Fleischer, former White House press
secretary; Lewis M. Eisenberg, a long-time Republican activist who has
raised millions of dollars for the Republican Party and Republican
candidates and was recently elected Finance Chairman of the Republican
National Committee; David Frum, a former Bush White House speechwriter and
currently a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and the
author of five books, including two New York Times bestsellers: "The Right
Man: The Surprise Presidency of George W. Bush," and co-author with Richard
Perle of "An End to Evil: What's Next in the War on Terror"; Ken Mehlman,
former chairman of the Republican National Committee from 2005-2007.
The RJC is headed by Matthew Brooks, who serves as Executive Director of
both the RJC and the Jewish Policy Center [3], "a think-tank that examines
public policy from a Jewish perspective."
According to its website, the RJC "is the sole voice of Jewish Republicans
to Republican decision makers and the Jewish community, expressing our
viewpoint on a wide variety of issues."
In early February, Israel News Agency reported that the Boston,
Massachusetts born Adelson -- the world's wealthiest Jew -- and his wife
Miriam -- a physician and Israeli native -- donated $25 million to the
Taglit-Birthright Israel program (BRI), which "will double to at least
20,000 the number of free summer trips to Israel offered by Birthright
Israel this summer." The Birthright program not only generates much needed
tourist dollars, it also encourages young Jews from around the world to
seriously consider settling in Israel. The Adelsons also recently donated
$25 million to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance
Authority.
In December of last year the Israeli daily Haaretz reported that a new
foundation to be established by Adelson "promises to change the face of
Jewish philanthropy. The new entity will be a major boon to American and
Israeli causes, with a pledge to dole out more than $200 million to Jewish
causes annually -- the largest-ever pledge by a Jewish foundation."
Opening for Gingrich?
On the home front, many Republicans appear disappointed with the current
crop of declared candidates for the party's presidential nomination.
Gingrich thinks the rush to the campaign trail is "stupid." In a
mid-February appearance promoting his latest book, Gingrich said "the
current process of spending an entire year running in order to spend an
entire year running in order to get sworn in in January 2009 is stupid."
All the thus-far declared candidates "suck" Erick Erickson, CEO of the
Republican blog RedState recently declared at his website. "Let's just admit
it. Every one of the thus far announced Republican candidates for President
sucks. From the lecherous adulterer [Rudy Giuliani] to the egomaniacal nut
job [Senator John McCain] to the flip-flopping opportunist with the perfect
hair [former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney] to the guy who hates brown
people [Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo] to the guy we've never heard of
[California Congressman Duncan Hunter] to the guy who has a better chance of
getting hit by a meteor while being consumed by a blue whale being struck by
lightening [Kansas Congressman Sam Brownback]."
Erickson does show some love for Brownback, who "doesn't suck at all, but"
he doesn't think his candidacy has "viability." And that's where Gingrich
comes in:
Part of me, frankly, wants Newt Gingrich to run. Don't get me wrong (or
divorced; my wife can't stand the guy). I don't want the former speaker to
actually win. I don't know that I'd trust him with that much power. He is
the most articulate, honest defender of conservatism out there. His ideas
are bold, they are conservative, and they are good. I don't agree with him
on everything, but it would really be nice for him to get out there and pull
everyone else to the right, to tell them why they are wrong, and why they
are cowards for standing on the shoulder of Reagan while acting like the
Manneken Pis [Wikipedia: "little man piss" in English; a Brussels
landmark -- a small bronze fountain sculpture depicting a naked little boy
urinating into the fountain's basin] on his legacy.
Gingrich has also suggested that the six Muslim scholars who were removed
from a plane in Minneapolis last year for praying in the airport "should
have been arrested and prosecuted for pretending to be terrorists." And
before the November elections, Gingrich counseled GOP candidates that they
could shake things up by using terms like "World War III" to get the
public's juices flowing in their favor.
On the same February 18 appearance on "Fox News Sunday," Wallace asked
Gingrich to respond to a Fox poll showing that 64 percent of voters wouldn't
vote for him under any circumstances and 44 percent of Republicans said the
same: Wallace: "Why do you think that so many voters say Newt Gingrich,
forget it?".
Gingrich: Well, there was a column written by Brent Bozell recently about
Nancy Pelosi becoming speaker and me becoming speaker. And he contrasted the
initial media coverage of the two of us.
And if you go back and look -- you know, I had a -- Time magazine savaged me
as Scrooge who stole Tiny Tim's broken crutch -- didn't just steal the
crutch; I broke it, on the cover of Time. Newsweek had me as the Grinch that
stole Christmas. I was a Dr. Seuss figure.
Then the Democrats -- I think correctly, strategically -- decided to run
121,000 ads in '95 and '96 attacking me. We adopted a totally different
strategy. We thought that instead of defending me, we would defend the
majority. And as a result, in 1996 we became the first reelected majority
since 1928 for Republicans.
In that process, I was badly damaged. I made some mistakes as speaker. And I
think the combination of all of that left me, you know, with a fairly high
negative.
Now, you know, one could argue that says I'm being very wise not to run. Or
it could mean that over time, as people get to see what we've done at the
Center for Health Transformation, what I've done in national security, what
we're doing -- we have a book coming out this fall called Contract With the
Earth. It's a conservative entrepreneurial science and technology
environmentalism.
You know, people may decide that, in fact, they want to take a second look.
I'm pretty comfortable relaxing and letting the American people decide, not
me.
If Gingrich thinks that the reason the vast majority of America voters
wouldn't cast their ballot for him under any circumstances is because the
liberal media has distorted his record, he needs to take a closer look at
his personal behavior, ethical mishaps and political maneuvering.
And he really doesn't have to look much further than to the time three days
before the polls opened in November 1994: In those heady days before the GOP
takeover of Congress, Gingrich jumped on the case of Susan Smith -- the
South Carolina woman who drowned her two young sons -- and equated her act
with the values of the Democratic Party. As reported by the Associated
Press, Gingrich said: "The mother killing her two children in South Carolina
vividly reminds every American how sick the society is getting and how much
we have to have change. I think people want to change and the only way you
get change is to vote Republican That's the message for the last three
days."
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"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson