“Against Gingrich”: National Review Editorial Comes Out Against Newt Gingrich
The longtime conservative icon magazine National Review has now gone back to its William F. Buckley roots: in a scathing editorial it has come out against former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s candidacy for the 2012 Republican nomination. This should temper some of Gingrich’s polling support. Here is a chunk of it.
First, the magazine notes the opportunity at the GOP’s grasp in terms of the White House, Supreme Court, and Congress (factors that Democrats who continue to go on and on about how they won’t vote for Barack Obama due to his not supporting the “public option” seem to not know) in an excellent summary. Then on Gingrich it says this:
We fear that to nominate former Speaker Newt Gingrich, the frontrunner in the polls, would be to blow this opportunity. We say that mindful of his opponents’ imperfections — and of his own virtues, which have been on display during his amazing comeback. Very few people with a personal history like his — two divorces, two marriages to former mistresses — have ever tried running for president. Gingrich himself has never run for a statewide office, let alone a national one, and has not run for anything since 1998. That year he was kicked out by his colleagues, the most conservative ones especially, who had lost confidence in him. During his time as Speaker, he was one of the most unpopular figures in public life. Just a few months ago his campaign seemed dead after a series of gaffes and resignations. That Gingrich now tops the polls is a tribute to his perseverance, and to Republicans’ admiration for his intellectual fecundity.
Both qualities served conservatives well in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when Gingrich, nearly alone, saw the potential for a Republican takeover of Congress and worked tirelessly to bring it about. Even before the takeover, Gingrich helped to solidify the party’s opposition to tax increases and helped to defeat the Clinton health-care plan. The victory of 1994 enabled the passage of welfare reform, the most successful social policy of recent decades.
Gingrich’s colleagues were, however, right to bring his tenure to an end. His character flaws — his impulsiveness, his grandiosity, his weakness for half-baked (and not especially conservative) ideas — made him a poor Speaker of the House. Again and again he combined incendiary rhetoric with irresolute action, bringing Republicans all the political costs of a hardline position without actually taking one. Again and again he put his own interests above those of the causes he championed in public.
AND:
He says, and his defenders say, that time, reflection, and religious conversion have conquered his dark side. If he is the nominee, a campaign that should be about whether the country will continue on the path to social democracy would inevitably become to a large extent a referendum on Gingrich instead. And there is reason to doubt that he has changed. Each week we see the same traits that weakened Republicans from 1995 through 1998: [These are NR's italics] I’d vote for Paul Ryan’s Medicare reform; Paul Ryan’s Medicare reform is radical right-wing social engineering; I apologize for saying that, and no one should quote what I said because I was wrong; actually, what I said was right all along but nobody understood me. I helped defeat Communism; anyone who made money in the ’80s and ’90s owes me; I’m like Reagan and Thatcher. Local community boards should decide what to do with illegal immigrants. Freddie Mac paid me all that money to tell them how stupid they were. Enough. Gingrich has always said he wants to transform the country. He appears unable to transform, or even govern, himself. He should be an adviser to the Republican party, but not again its head.
Go to the link and read it in its entirety. I’ve only quoted a small part of it here.
6 Responses to ““Against Gingrich”: National Review Editorial Comes Out Against Newt Gingrich”
What the Republicans realize is they need a candidate that can obscure exactly how extreme the party and conservatives have become. Someone like Romney who would strike independents as being more moderate than any other candidate. This in spite of the fact that Romney has virtually the same platform as all of the other candidates; tax cuts for the wealthy, increased defense spending, another Middle East war this time in Iran, reductions in Social Security and Medicare, increased conversion of health care into a for profit business to increase the rate at which it bankrupts the entire country, an acceleration in the policies that caused the current recession – deregulation and increased freedom for the financial industry to profit from their Ponzi schemes, in general to double down on all of the dramatically unsuccessful policies of the W. Bush administration.
This platform will not seem as extreme if Romney is the nominee. He was a moderate so repeated references to how much he has had to move to the right will not be as likely to scare independents as references to how far right Gingrich has had to move since he was considered to be far right to begin with.
The problem for Republicans with Gingrich is that he has moved all over the political spectrum– from appearing in ads with Nancy Pelosi and Al Sharpton to his current far right persona who wants to nominate John Bolton as Sec State and give mops to ghetto kids. The base is eating it up like filet mignon, but he scares the heck out of everyone else. His entire biography provides fodder for the opposition, and their ability to create distractions with it will bring him down. Establishment Republicans are terrified that he will bring them down with him. Newt is a ticking bomb.
Romney could turn into the Bob Dole of 2012-
moderate, competent, a little boring. Lucky for Romney he will be facing a president that is less popular than Clinton was, but unluckily for him, there is still very low enthusiasm for him within the base and his Mormon religion sticks in the craw of many evangelicals.
Waiting in the wings is Ron Paul, who has a rabidly loyal base, but whose positions on foreign policy preclude him from getting the vote of many establishment conservatives.
It will be fascinating to see how this plays out.
Agree with merkin, the establishment R’s want to cloak their extremes, not flaunt them. Above all they want to win. If they thought for a moment that Gingrich could pull this off, they would likely be happy to grab a front row seat to the clown show.
“factors that Democrats who continue to go on and on about how they won’t vote for Barack Obama due to his not supporting the “public option” seem to not know”
I believe this is only an expression of frustration, similar to those who said they would move to Canada if Bush 2 got “elected”. Of course very few of those folks actually moved to Canada, and very few of those who are passionate about progressive goals are about to do anything that might help R’s get their grasping hands on the country again.
I think, if Newt is knocked out in the primary, he will run as an independant. Newt will stop at nothing. Mark my words.
Allen- are you sure you don’t have him confused with Trump?LOL
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