WASHINGTON – Sarah Palin rose to power in Alaska by taking on Republicans in her own state on ethics, something I cover in my new book The Hillary Effect. It’s the very thing Tom Brokaw is talking about regarding Newt Gingrich in the Romney ad above, though Brokaw, and NBC are protesting. The Romney hashtag for it is #Newtorious.
You don’t need partisan rhetoric or his scandals to fillet Newt Gingrich. The other problem he has is the rising scrutiny of his billionaire banker. Ryan Lizza tweeted this over the weekend: “Newt warning Iranians could easily blow up Jacksonville with nuclear weapon (via boat).” Newt today: “[Mitt Romney] eliminated serving kosher food for elderly Jewish residents under Medicare.” These types of gems have brought Sheldon Adelson’s foreign policy views and his influence on Newt Gingrich into the limelight. Who doesn’t remember Newt saying Palestinians were an “invented” people?
None of this distracts Sarah Palin:
“They, thinking that by trotting out this old Gingrich divorce interview that’s old news — and it does feature a disgruntled ex, claiming that it would destroy his campaign — all this does, Sean, is incentivize conservatives and independents who are so sick of the politics of personal destruction because it’s played so selectively by the media…” – Sarah Palin: Newt Gingrich’s secret weapon
If Sarah Palin were backing Rick Santorum, as Michelle Malkin has done today, she’d have some credibility, but by defending Newt Gingrich she reveals the hypocrisy at her core.
Stop and print the section in bold above. Sarah Palin is correct on this one point. But hearing Palin whine about the “politics of personal destruction” when she’s a master of it is a bit much.
Sarah Palin’s shift to propping up an ethics-challenged hypocrite like Newt Gingrich directly relates to her ineffectiveness with the wider public and why she can’t wage a successful run for president. After amassing incredible power in 2010, she’s squandered it with anyone but her faithful.
Newt’s problem is that Independents won’t go near him.
One reason Romney has been outperforming Gingrich in hypothetical match-ups against President Obama is due to independents. Now, both main Republicans are at a disadvantage. […] For his part, Gingrich runs solidly the other way among these middle-of-the-roaders, at 20 percent positive, 58 percent negative. Romney, whom moderates rated about evenly throughout the fall and into early January, are now about 2 to 1 negative: 27 percent hold favorable views, 52 percent negative ones. – Washington Post
There are a lot of things that can be said and argued about Mitt Romney, starting with his austerity message, which is a killer for our economy. He’s been an awful candidate so far and is as unlikable as any candidate in recent memory, Democratic or Republican. His wealth in an Occupy era makes him a perfect whipping boy for Pres. Obama and the Democrats. However, there is absolutely no evidence anywhere in his long business or political careers that points to ethics violations or that he was ineffective in his endeavors, both of which dog Newt Gingrich.
Sarah Palin has chosen to play defender of Newt Gingrich, the exact type of Republican she would have railed against once upon a time in Alaska, all so she can toot her Tea Party horn in the hopes of regaining relevancy and keeping the cash rolling in.
Hey, nothing wrong with that at all. Ann Coulter’s been doing successfully for years.
What’s convenient is the thousands of Palin fans who continue to help her, because she wouldn’t be newsworthy without them. She owes them everything, but she owes Newt, too.
Without Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin couldn’t stoke up the audience for her keynote CPAC speech in early February.
Taylor Marsh is the author of the new book, The Hillary Effect – Politics, Sexism and the Destiny of Loss, which is now available in print on Amazon. Marsh is a veteran political analyst and commentator. She has been profiled in the Washington Post, The New Republic, and has been seen on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, CNN, MSNBC, Al Jazeera English and Al Jazeera Arabic, as well as on radio across the dial and on satellite, including the BBC. Marsh lives in the Washington, D.C. area. This column is cross posted from her new media blog.