Gingrich for President

Newt Gingrich has serious character issues that should disqualify him from the Republican nomination, let alone the Presidency of the United States. He has minimal respect tor the truth, and doesn't hesitate to make misleading claims and statements.

He claims to have repented from his past adulterous liaisons including an affair with a member of his staff as Speaker of the House of Representatives during the period when he was scheming to have President Clinton impeached and removed from office over his affair with Monica Lewinsky. He asked his first wife for a divorce while she was in the hospital with cancer. He has explained his affair with his staffer as a result of his fatigue from working so hard as Speaker in the interest of the country. Now he claims to be a born again Christian.

Responsible citizens recognize that the extreme partisan deadlock which is paralyzing our national government and many state governments is not in the public interest. Greater comity, respect and willingness to cooperate and, when necessary, compromise on public policy issues is badly needed. New Gingrich's history of extreme partisanship is another reason, in addition to his character faults, for not electing him president.

There's already enough dirt on the public record to sink Gingrich's ship. He has serious moral issues. But those aren't his only problem.

Here's a comment from Peggy Noonan, Bush speech writer, in a recent WSJ op-ed:

"'He is a human hand grenade,' wrote Peggy Noonan, 'who walks around with his hand on the pin saying, "watch this!'"

"But it was Joe Scarborough, the morning talk-show host familiar with Gingrich as a fellow member of Congress n the 1990s, who found the simplest formulation: 'If Newt Gingrich is the smartest guy in the room, leave that room.'"

The New York Review of Books, February 9, 2012

Lately he (Gingrich) has been on less bloated behavior, and by lately I mean the few weeks since he emerged as the Republican frontrunner du jour. If you watched the debate Thursday, you could sense, from the clench of his jaw, that he wasn’t merely biting his tongue but making an unhappy meal of it.

Still, Gingrich the Grandiloquent sneaked through. Asked about his stated resolve to rein in federal courts, he said that “just like Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln and F.D.R., I would be prepared to take on the judiciary.” The company he keeps!

Over the years he has directly or indirectly compared himself to Moses, William Wallace (a k a “Braveheart,” thanks to Mel Gibson), the Duke of Wellington, Charles de Gaulle and, repeatedly, Ronald Reagan, as when he recently said, “Because I am much like Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, I’m such an unconventional political figure that you really need to design a unique campaign that fits the way I operate.”

All the way back in 1985, when he was just a foot soldier in the House, he told The Washington Post, “I want to shift the entire planet,” adding, “This is just the beginning of a 20- or 30-year movement. I’ll get credit for it.”

As Maureen Dowd recalled in The Times last year, he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 1994, “People like me are what stand between us and Auschwitz.” In a Vanity Fair profile in 1995, he referred to himself as “a mythical person” and was quoted saying, “I had a period of thinking that I would have been called ‘Newt the McPherson,’ as in ‘Robert the Bruce.’ ” His biological father’s surname was McPherson, and Robert the Bruce was a Scottish warrior of William Wallace’s era and ilk.

Gingrich also considered himself a “definer of civilization” and “teacher of the rules of civilization,” phrases he scribbled in House office notes that came to light in 1997.

He thinks a lot about himself and thinks of himself a lot. In 2007, talking about climate change, which he still believed in then, he singled out polar bears for concern, explaining that his name, Newt, “comes from the Danish ‘Knut,’ and there’s been a major crisis in Germany over a polar bear named Knut.’ ”

One of the great spectator sports of this political season has been watching one observer after another strive to trace the full contours of his ego, an arm’s race of arrogance assessments. “Modern-day Narcissus,” wrote Kirsten Powers in The Daily Beast. “Intellectual hubris distilled,” contributed George F. Will in The Washington Post. “A lead zeppelin with more baggage than the Hindenburg,” said Mark Steyn in The National Review, and while that’s not precisely about arrogance, it’s too funny to pass up.

A grandiose man, Gingrich speaks in grandiose ways, always characterizing situations too broadly and with too much needless heat, then losing chunks of valuable time, along with precious credibility, to the inevitable damage control.

He didn’t simply register disagreement with Paul Ryan’s entitlement reform proposals. He called them radical “right-wing social engineering.” He didn’t simply raise questions about child labor laws. He called them “truly stupid.” He didn’t simply contest the Palestinians’ claim to disputed land. He called the Palestinians an “invented” people.

That’s an intellectually intriguing, attention-commanding expression: Gingrich no doubt loved the nasty music of it tumbling from his lips. But it’s also gratuitously inflammatory. Mitt the Romney was right to call it that and call him out for it.

Newt's Surge

The pundits all can confidently sepak

Of Gingrich as the flavor of the week.

The people who want anyone but Mitt

Now say, in desperation, Newt is it.

Yes, Newt's astute--a crafty wheeler-dealer.

His baggage, though, would fill an eighteen-wheeler--

Affiars and ethics problems and, to boot,

His mouth is something often off he'll shoot.

And if he's scratched because he lacks decorum?

What happens then? Get ready Rick Santorum.

In her column in the NY Times today, 11-29-11 Maureen Dowd points out that now that Cain is fading from the GOP race for the nomination, the entire pro-adultery constituency will go to Newt Gingrich. She says "In many ways Newt is the perfect man. He knows how to buy good jewelry. He puts his wife ahead of his campaign. He’s so in touch with his feelings that he would rather close the entire federal government than keep his emotions bottled up. He’s confident enough to include a steamy sex scene in a novel."

"Mitt Romney is a phony with gobs of hair gel. Newt Gingrich is a phony with gobs of historical grandiosity."

Maureen Dowd is at her acidulous best when she's dealing with political or religious hypocrisy on the part of political figures like Newt Gingrich. Gingrich is an easy target for her.

This morning's (11-30-11) New York Times front page headline featured Gingrich's lucrative lobbying activities on behalf his firm's clients after he left the House of Representatives.

Previous articles have exposed the hypocrisy of his criticisms of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac despite the fact that he had been paid an estimated $1.6 million for his efforts on behalf of Freddie Mac. His assertion that his activities for Freddie Mac were not "lobbying" just don't wash. He charges $20,000 to $200, 000 for membership in his "Center for Health Transformation."