There Are No Words

Once upon a time there was probably no politician in America I had more respect for or more energetically supported than Newt Gingrich.  It was 1995, Republicans had just won control of the House for the first time in 40 years, and I was starting college at Newt’s alma mater.  In the course of the first six months of college I’d see Newt talk twice, and was impressed both times by his incredible ability to speak extemporaneously and in depth about so many issues.

Needless to say my respect has diminished over the years.  Even four years ago Newt might have been my first choice for the GOP nomination, but now he is snugly at the bottom.

What’s even more disturbing about his latest gaffe is his continued tone deafness.  The following was written by his spokesman, but this is a sentiment that Newt himself has expressed and I’m sure he approves of it:

The literati sent out their minions to do their bidding. Washington cannot tolerate threats from outsiders who might disrupt their comfortable world. The firefight started when the cowardly sensed weakness. They fired timidly at first, then the sheep not wanting to be dropped from the establishment’s cocktail party invite list unloaded their entire clip, firing without taking aim their distortions and falsehoods. Now they are left exposed by their bylines and handles. But surely they had killed him off. This is the way it always worked. A lesser person could not have survived the first few minutes of the onslaught. But out of the billowing smoke and dust of tweets and trivia emerged Gingrich, once again ready to lead those who won’t be intimated by the political elite and are ready to take on the challenges America faces.

No, this was not written in the Onion.

Newt Gingrich said something which angered the entire conservative movement.  The only person who even mustered up a slight defense was his media toadie Sean Hannity, and even he couldn’t really offer much support.  He attacked the core fiscal plan that conservatives have rallied around for months, giving fodder to potential Democrat attack ads, and basically showing himself to be anything but a serious candidate for the Republican nomination.

And this is the campaign’s game plan?  Blame the “establishment?”  Really?  Was it the establishment that forced Newt to call Ryan’s plan “radical” and right wing social engineering?  Did the literati conspire to shoot mind control rays to make it sounds like Newt was essentially endorsing an individual mandate?

Yesterday Newt had the temerity to say that the establishment was frightened of him.  Yeah, he’s such an outsider that guy.  He spent four years as the Speaker of the House, appeared in television commercials with Nancy Pelosi, and spends his days walled up in a DC policy institute.  He’s such a sterling example of the rebellious outsider.

Newt and his spokesman are delusional.  At this point his presidential aspirations are completely shot.  He should quit now before he completely loses any credibility within the conservative movement, assuming that he hasn’t done so already.

Kudos to Dan Foster in the Corner.  I think this is an appropriate response.

Advertisement