No one can ever accuse me of not being an equal opportunity basher in my Know Your Candidates series.
Music to read by:
I Melt with You - Modern English
Scaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyy!!!!!!
- Newt Gingrich, to David Mariniss and Michael Weisskopf
“It’s not a point of view libertarians would embrace, but I am more in the Alexander Hamilton-Teddy Roosevelt tradition of conservatism. I recognize that there are times when you need government to help spur private enterprise and economic development.”
- Newt Gingrich, Window of Opportunity, 1984
“The government provided railroad land grants to encourage widespread adoption of what was then the most modern form of transportation to develop our country. The Homestead Act essentially gave away land to those willing to live on it and develop it. We used what were in effect public-private partnerships to bring telephone service and electricity to every community in our nation. All of these are examples of government bringing about public purposes without creating massive taxpayer-funded bureaucracies.”
- Newt Gingrich, Window of Opportunity, 1984
"Gingrich—primary mission: advocate of civilization, definer of civilization, teacher of the rules of civilization, arouser of those who fan civilization, organizer of the pro-civilization activists, leader (possibly) of the civilizing forces.”
- Newt Gingrich
“I told somebody at one point [of my presidential campaign], ‘This is like watching Walton or Kroc develop Walmart and McDonald’s.’”
- So said Newt Gingrich, whose presidential campaign boasts roughly 40 staff members.
“So, we’re gonna help the poor? Truth is, we don’t know how
to help the poor. We’re gonna experiment and experiment and experiment
until we break through. It
makes me, in some ways, like the two Roosevelts.”
- Newt Gingrich, Newsweek, December 2011
"If you truly believe in representative self-government, you can never study Franklin Delano Roosevelt too much. HE DID BRING US OUT OF THE DEPRESSION. (No he didn't, as Christina Romer as shown). He did lead the Allied movement in World War II. (He did, but, unfortunately, we are dealing with the fallout of his paternalism in the ME). HE WAS CLEARLY, I THINK, AS A POLITICAL LEADER, THE GREATEST FIGURE OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. (A Georgia Reagan Republican?) And I think his concept that we have nothing to fear but fear itself, THAT WE'LL TAKE AN EXPERIMENT, AND IF IT FAILS, WE'LL DO ANOTHER ONE -- AND IF YOU GO BACK AND READ THE NEW DEAL, THEY TRIED AGAIN AND AGAIN. (How is this self-government? Further, if Newt had bothered to read the private writings of FDR's own cabinet members and advisers, he would know that the spaghetti theory of government was a disaster in practise). They didn't always get it right, and we would have voted against much of it, BUT THE TRUTH IS WE WOULD HAVE VOTED FOR MUCH OF IT. (Considering the fact that FDR Brain Trust member, Rexford Tugwell, credited Herbert Hoover as the real father of the New Deal, I guess we can say that Newt is a lot like Hoover, too)."
- Speaker Newt Gingrich, 4 January 1995
“I am going to be the nominee."
- So sayeth the modern-day Narcissus as he gazed at his reflection in the polls.
- So sayeth the modern-day Narcissus as he gazed at his reflection in the polls.
“I am much like [Ronald] Reagan and
Margaret Thatcher.”
- So sayeth the man who was run out of Congress in disgrace and is despised by nearly every conservative who has ever worked with him recently mused to CNN.
- So sayeth the man who was run out of Congress in disgrace and is despised by nearly every conservative who has ever worked with him recently mused to CNN.
Newt Gingrich: "I supported Rockefeller over Goldwater"
“I don’t want my country to collapse. I don’t want my daughter and wife raped and killed.”
- So then-Congressman Newt Gingrich told a stunned Atlanta Journal-Constitution
reporter in 1994 in explaining why America, nay, the world, needed him.
After all, he told her:
“People like me are what stand between us and
Auschwitz.”
“People need to hear what I have to say. There’s no one else who can say
what I can say. It doesn’t matter what I live.”
- So explained Gingrich to
Wife #2, who was confused that he was dumping her for his mistress the day after giving a speech on family values.
"It's petty, but I think it's human.”
- So
said Gingrich, with no sense of embarrassment, to the press when
Gingrich forcing a government shutdown because Bill Clinton didn’t talk
to him on Air Force One while they were flying back from a funeral.
“I melt when I am around (President Clinton)."
- So bubbled the then-Speaker of the House of Representatives to the White House Chief of Staff, Leon Panetta
"I’ll go for five and six: F.D.R. and Reagan."
- So opined Gingrich when asked who should be the 5th president on Mount Rushmore.
- So opined Gingrich when asked who should be the 5th president on Mount Rushmore.
Newt Gingrich is NOT a Conservative - He Loves FDR
"Conservatives cannot cheer unions overseas and then be blindly anti-union here at home. There are legitimate historic reasons for workers to organize together, and there is a strong need for a healthy, competitive, union, movement that helps improve the lives of its members and the competitiveness of our country.
Andy Stern, the head of the Service Employees International Union, is the union leader who probably best understands the challenge of the world market
and the need to make American union members productive in the face of
world competition. Sadly, he is a distinct minority among union leaders."
"I am a "Realpolitick Wilsonian."
- So sayeth the "Conservative" Newt Gingrich, who loves Woodrow Wilson -- a nightmare of a Progressive
"I’m An Eisenhower Republican."
- So sayeth the "Reagan Republican," who will soon be fighting with Obama over who gets to be Millard Filmore
"I am Teddy Roosevelt."
- So sayeth the "Conservative" that believes the Federal government should subsidize solar
Newt Gingrich: "I am a Teddy Roosevelt..."
"Your campaign has been brilliant. It has given you more
support and more momentum than most analysts expected a year ago.
Keeping things simple and vague has worked so far, and it might work all
the way to the White House. “Change you can believe in” is a great
all-purpose slogan. It allows every person to fill in his or her own
interpretation of what it means. In some ways, it’s reminiscent of Jimmy
Carter’s 1976 promise to run “a government as good as the American
people.
The challenge you will face in the next few months is stark.
Do you want to remain vague? You might win—but you might find that, in
winning, you have a “victory of personality” with no real policy
consequences. Or do you want to provide specifics? If so, your victory
could be a clarion call from the American people to Congress to join you
in achieving your goals."
- So advised -- unsolicited -- Gingrich to Candidate Obama about a month before he
wrapped up his race, even though his entire agenda was designed to
expand the federal government.
He has called for “a massive new program to build a permanent lunar colony to exploit the Moon’s resources.” He has suggested that “a mirror system in space could provide the light equivalent of many full moons so that there would be no need for nighttime lighting of the highways.”
Newt Gingrich: Government can control diet & exercise
"I'm willing to lead but I'm not willing to preside over people who are cannibal... . Frankly, Marianne andI could use a break."
- So he whined on a conference call with a few party confidants following the 1998 election
Newt Gingrich: We must engage in Nation Building
"None of the Founding Fathers would have said that George Washington, owning Mount Vernon as the largest landowner, should pay the same tax as somebody who was a cobbler."
- So responded the Philosopher King to a man in the audience of the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, who said that "we should just end the goddamn income tax already."
"There's a large part of me that's four year old. I wake up in the morning and I know that somewhere there's a cookie. I don't know where it is but I know it's mine and I have to go find it. That's how I live my life. My life is amazingly filled with fun."
- So Gingrich said as he described his cookie theory of life
Newt Gingrich: We should subsidize Solar, Wind & Biofuels [2007]
"When you try and change your history too much, you lose touch with who you really are. You lose your way."
"I see myself as a citizen leader
trying to understand three things: 1) What the country has to do to be
successful? 2) How you would communicate that to the American people
so they would let you do it? 3) And then how you'd actually implement
it if they gave you permission to do it?"
- So sayeth Citizen Leader Gingrich, but probably not when he was acting Historian for Freddie Mac
- So sayeth New Newt ... much to the surprise of Art Laffer
Newt Gingrich: Constitution doesn't apply in GWOT
- So sayeth Speaker America!
"I've always said you should have a choice between either having insurance or posting a bond, but that every American should provide for their medical future."
- So said Gingrich in response to questions about his previous support of even compulsory health insurance.
"People who come here overwhelmingly come to work. They come from a culture where work is important."
- So replied Gingrich to a man at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans in response to a question about illegal immigration.
Gingrich—Primary Mission
—Advocate of civilization
—definer of civilization
—Teacher of the rules of civilization
—arouser of those who form civilization
—Organizer of the pro-civilization activists
—leader (possibly) of the civilizing forces.
"[Current wife] Callista and I kid that I'm four and she's five and therefore she gets to be in charge, because the difference between four and five is a lot."
- Ex wife, Marianne, says, "You know where that line came from? Me. That's my line. That's what I told him. I'm sorry. That's so freaky."
"He was impressed
easily by position, status, money. He grew
up poor and always wanted to be somebody, to make a difference, to
prove himself, you know. He has to be historic to justify his life. He
could have been president. But when you try and change your history
too much, and try and recolor it because you don't like the way it was
or you want it to be different to prove something new ... you lose touch
with who you really are. You lose your way. He believes that what he
says in public and how he lives don't have to
be connected. If you believe that, then yeah, you can run
for president."
"Newt always wanted to be somebody. That was his
vulnerability, do you understand? Being treated important. Which means
he was gonna associate with people who would stroke him, and were
important themselves. And in that vulnerability, once you go down that
path and it goes unchecked, you add to it. Like, 'Oh, I'm drinking, who
cares?' Then you start being a little whore, 'cause that comes with
drinking. That's what corruption is — when you're too exhausted, you're
gonna go with your weakness. So when we see corruption, we shouldn't
say, 'They're all corrupt.' Rather, we should say, 'At what point did
you decide that? And why? Why were you vulnerable?' "
All he wanted was to be accepted into the country club. And he arrives at the country club and he's just not welcome. 'Yeah,
but I belong here,' he said. 'I earned my way to this. I earned it.' "
- Marianne Gingrich, wife #2
Krauthammer: Newt’s Attack On Romney ‘What You’d Expect From A Socialist’
"I've known Newt now for thirty years almost. But I wouldn't be able to describe what his real principles are. I never felt that he had any sort of a real compass about what he believed except for the pursuit of power."
- Former American Conservative Union Chairman & Former Congressman, Mickey Edwards
"The underlying thematics are beginning to be universalizable in a way that has taken years of work."
- So sayeth Gingrich, who argues that the failure of the Republican leadership under George W. Bush created an opening for him, as did Obama's "radicalism" made that opening wider, in response to the question that "a lot of Republicans are starting to ask, What Would Newt Do?"
This doodle shows Gingrich (the “system designer”) at the hub of
concentric circles featuring his staff, key supporters, the media,
constituents, and the public.
“I helped Ronald Reagan and Jack Kemp develop supply-side economics.”
- So sayeth New Newt ... much to the surprise of Art Laffer.
“I helped lead the effort to defeat communism in the Congress.”
- So sayeth Speaker America!
- So said Gingrich in response to questions about his previous support of even compulsory health insurance.
"People who come here overwhelmingly come to work. They come from a culture where work is important."
Indeed, Gingrich has had a long fascination with ideas that most Americans would probably consider science fiction. Here are some of Gingrich’s top five science fiction ideas, beyond moon bases:
Space mirrors: Gingrich has proposed a:
Space lasers: Gingrich has flirted with several variations of orbiting death rays. For example, in 2002 he called for:
Geo-engineering: Gingrich has suggested that instead of actually stopping global warming from happening (this was when he believed in global warming), we should use geoengineering to ameliorate its impact.
Geo-engineering is the process of artificially altering the climate in fundamental ways and is considered so dangerous that it faced a ban from the U.N.
A better life through video games: Gingrich made a political speech to Second Life in 2007 in which he said that the “3-D Internet in all of its various forms” will help create a better “parallel country.”
Second Life has basically failed.
Gingrich’s “futuristic proselytizing” even earned him the nickname “Newt Skywalker” among the local press in his home state of Georgia in the 1980s and ’90s, Politico notes.
But Gingrich’s fascination with science fiction goes far deeper than gadgets and to his core motivations as a politician. Ray Smock was the historian of the U. S. House of Representatives from 1983 to 1995 until Gingrich fired him as one of Gingrich’s first acts as Speaker. As Smock wrote last week for the History News Network, Gingrich’s “hero and role model” was the protagonist of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series, who invents a new field of history — Gingrich is himself a historian — and fundamentally changes the course of history for thousands of planets in the process. A tagline of the series is, “In a future century the Galactic Empire dies and one man creates a new force for civilized life.” As Smock writes:
Indeed, Gingrich has spoken often about his galatic inspiration. For example, as he wrote in his 1996 memoir, To Renew America:
Gingrich, of course, is not the only prominent policy thinker who imagines himself in the Hari Seldon mode: Indeed, he sounds rather like economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, who in 2009 wrote, "I went into economics because I read Isaac Asimov's Foundation novels, in which social scientists save galactic civilization, and that's what I wanted to be."
Gingrich’s sense of grandiosity is by now famous, but his reverence for Seldon underscores the planet-sized ambitions Gingrich held, as helps elucidate his fascination with grand, futuristic projects. In a doodle of Gingrich’s recently published in Slate, the then-Speaker wrote that his two primary missions were to be an “Advocate of civilization” and “definer of civilization.” Another doodle “shows Gingrich (the “system designer”) at the hub of concentric circles featuring his staff, key supporters, the media, constituents, and the public.”
From Wired:
It's been a long, looooong time since anyone in the Pentagon took seriously the idea of ringing the Earth with a series of anti-missiles. Not only is the technology far-fetched, the costs are prohibitive (hundreds of orbiting interceptors ain't cheap, after all). There are serious questions about everything from space debris to the command-and-control of the space weapons.
Questions for some. Not for Newt Gingrich. Way after the fantastical Star Wars era of missile defense was over, Gingrich was still enthusiastically promoting the idea of shooting down ballistic missiles from space.
"If you go to a space-based system, we can almost certainly build a workable system," he told the Woodrow Wilson Center in 2009. "Not for a Soviet first strike. But there is no Soviet first strike any more. So, when — but for a thin strike by a country that has war — 10 ICBMs, I think we could frankly build a pretty good system in depth."
In 2002, Gingrich went even further. Forget the traditional interceptors, he said. Bust out the lasers. "If in the next five or eight years you have directed energy weapons and laser pulsing systems that could actually do that from space. It's very possible that you're going to get anti-boost-phase systems in the next five or 10 years that are virtually instantaneous, that move at the speed of light."
Wait, his PBS interlocutor asked: lasers deployed in space?
"They'd be deployed in space," Gingrich affirmed. "If I could have a satellite in space that guaranteed that you could stop a missile in the boost phase, and as a result you didn't lose Los Angeles or Atlanta or Washington, I would think that was a pretty good trade."
Somehow, Gingrich has yet to convince the Pentagon to make that deal.
The text above reads:
Newt might know where "the bodies are," but he is still a Progressive and just as dangerous. If elected, he would be the second President with a PhD. The first was Woodrow Wilson.
"I've always said you should have a choice between either having
insurance or posting a bond, but that every American should provide for
their medical future."
- So said Gingrich in response to questions about his previous support of even compulsory health insurance.
"People who come here overwhelmingly come to work. They come from a culture where work is important."
- So replied
Gingrich to a man at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in
New Orleans in response to a question about illegal immigration.
- Ex-wife Marriane says, "You know where that line came from? Me.
That's my line. That's what I told him. I'm sorry, that's so freaky."
Great analysis of Nancy Pelosi’s threatened blackmail of Newt Gingrich, from Bill Quick of Daily Pundit (via The Other McCain). It sure does feel good to read and imagine:
Newt Gingrich - Flip Flop Collection
"[Current wife] Callista and I kid that I'm four and she's five
and therefore she gets to be in charge, because the difference between
four and five is a lot."
“They fear him with a great fear, and with extremely good reason”
Great analysis of Nancy Pelosi’s threatened blackmail of Newt Gingrich, from Bill Quick of Daily Pundit (via The Other McCain). It sure does feel good to read and imagine:
You know what, though? She’s got bupkus that will make any difference. The Dems are absolutely terrified of Newt Gingrich in the White House. He’s got their numbers, knows where all their bodies, living and dead, are buried, and has a history of doing more damage to their power than any single man since the advent of the FDR era. Remember, it was Newt who broke their half-century stranglehold on the House of Representatives, the wellspring of legislation, a stranglehold they’ve never since really regained. They fear him with a great fear, and with extremely good reason.
The last time a master legislator like Newt was in the White House, his name was Lyndon Baines Johnson, and he rammed through Congress the enabling legislation of the Great Society, a morass that continues to drown us to this day. It’s going to take somebody of Newt’s caliber and understanding of the inner workings of the legislature to kill Obamacare once and for all, and to begin to unravel the wounds the Dems have inflicted on the republic and on liberty over the past eighty years.
Chris Matthews kinda proves the point made above:
Moon Bases And Beyond: Newt Gingrich’s Top Sci-Fi Policy Proposals
It’s
not often that moon bases play a key role in presidential politics, but
when Mitt Romney sought to draw a contrast with front-runner Newt
Gingrich during Saturday’s ABC debate, he explained:
“We could start
with his idea to have a lunar colony that would mine minerals from the moon.” The comment drew laughter from the audience, but Gingrich is serious. “I’m proud” of the idea, Gingrich said. “I grew up in a generation where the space program was real, where it was important.”
Indeed, Gingrich has had a long fascination with ideas that most Americans would probably consider science fiction. Here are some of Gingrich’s top five science fiction ideas, beyond moon bases:
Space mirrors: Gingrich has proposed a:
“a mirror system in space
[that] could provide the light equivalent of many full moons so that
there would be no need for nighttime lighting of the highways.”
Space lasers: Gingrich has flirted with several variations of orbiting death rays. For example, in 2002 he called for:
“...directed energy weapons and laser pulsing systems that could actually [shoot down missiles] from space.”
“If you go to a space-based system, we can almost certainly build a workable system,” (2009).
Geo-engineering: Gingrich has suggested that instead of actually stopping global warming from happening (this was when he believed in global warming), we should use geoengineering to ameliorate its impact.
“Geo-engineering holds forth the promise of
addressing global warming concerns for just a few billion dollars a
year.” (2008).
Geo-engineering is the process of artificially altering the climate in fundamental ways and is considered so dangerous that it faced a ban from the U.N.
A better life through video games: Gingrich made a political speech to Second Life in 2007 in which he said that the “3-D Internet in all of its various forms” will help create a better “parallel country.”
“It’s a parallel
that enables us to do things that would be much more difficult to do in
the real world.. [It's a] world that works.”
Second Life has basically failed.
Gingrich testing virtual reality goggles in 1996
Gingrich’s “futuristic proselytizing” even earned him the nickname “Newt Skywalker” among the local press in his home state of Georgia in the 1980s and ’90s, Politico notes.
But Gingrich’s fascination with science fiction goes far deeper than gadgets and to his core motivations as a politician. Ray Smock was the historian of the U. S. House of Representatives from 1983 to 1995 until Gingrich fired him as one of Gingrich’s first acts as Speaker. As Smock wrote last week for the History News Network, Gingrich’s “hero and role model” was the protagonist of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series, who invents a new field of history — Gingrich is himself a historian — and fundamentally changes the course of history for thousands of planets in the process. A tagline of the series is, “In a future century the Galactic Empire dies and one man creates a new force for civilized life.” As Smock writes:
“Newt liked the idea of one man
shaping the destiny of entire civilizations.”
Indeed, Gingrich has spoken often about his galatic inspiration. For example, as he wrote in his 1996 memoir, To Renew America:
"Isaac Asimov was shaping my view of the future in equally profound ways. …For a high school student who loved history, Asimov’s most exhilarating invention was the ‘psychohistorian’ Hari Seldon. The term does not refer to Freudian analysis but to a kind of probabilistic forecasting of the future of whole civilizations. The premise was that, while you cannot predict individual behavior, you can develop a pretty accurate sense of mass behavior."
Gingrich, of course, is not the only prominent policy thinker who imagines himself in the Hari Seldon mode: Indeed, he sounds rather like economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, who in 2009 wrote, "I went into economics because I read Isaac Asimov's Foundation novels, in which social scientists save galactic civilization, and that's what I wanted to be."
Gingrich’s sense of grandiosity is by now famous, but his reverence for Seldon underscores the planet-sized ambitions Gingrich held, as helps elucidate his fascination with grand, futuristic projects. In a doodle of Gingrich’s recently published in Slate, the then-Speaker wrote that his two primary missions were to be an “Advocate of civilization” and “definer of civilization.” Another doodle “shows Gingrich (the “system designer”) at the hub of concentric circles featuring his staff, key supporters, the media, constituents, and the public.”
NEWT GINGRICH, BOY GENIUS
From Wired:
It's been a long, looooong time since anyone in the Pentagon took seriously the idea of ringing the Earth with a series of anti-missiles. Not only is the technology far-fetched, the costs are prohibitive (hundreds of orbiting interceptors ain't cheap, after all). There are serious questions about everything from space debris to the command-and-control of the space weapons.
Questions for some. Not for Newt Gingrich. Way after the fantastical Star Wars era of missile defense was over, Gingrich was still enthusiastically promoting the idea of shooting down ballistic missiles from space.
"If you go to a space-based system, we can almost certainly build a workable system," he told the Woodrow Wilson Center in 2009. "Not for a Soviet first strike. But there is no Soviet first strike any more. So, when — but for a thin strike by a country that has war — 10 ICBMs, I think we could frankly build a pretty good system in depth."
In 2002, Gingrich went even further. Forget the traditional interceptors, he said. Bust out the lasers. "If in the next five or eight years you have directed energy weapons and laser pulsing systems that could actually do that from space. It's very possible that you're going to get anti-boost-phase systems in the next five or 10 years that are virtually instantaneous, that move at the speed of light."
Wait, his PBS interlocutor asked: lasers deployed in space?
"They'd be deployed in space," Gingrich affirmed. "If I could have a satellite in space that guaranteed that you could stop a missile in the boost phase, and as a result you didn't lose Los Angeles or Atlanta or Washington, I would think that was a pretty good trade."
Somehow, Gingrich has yet to convince the Pentagon to make that deal.
The text above reads:
“Renewing American Civilization”
Vision Statement
March 19, 1993
In order to renew American civilization we need new language to explain our new vision to arouse new human and financial resolves to create a new party system so we can defeat the Democratic machine and Transform American society into a more productive, responsible, safe country by replacing the welfare state with an opportunity society.
In the absence of a great crisis (the Civil War, the Great Depression) the 4 best examples of this kind of popular effort to renew America are:
1. The Jefferson-Madison-Burr invention of the Democratic Party to replace the Federalists;
2. The Jacksonian coalition to replace John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and the National Bank, and;
3. The McKinley business—progressive-urban coalition to defeat the threat to modern industrialism
Any effort smaller than this is doomed to fail.
Vision Statement
March 19, 1993
In order to renew American civilization we need new language to explain our new vision to arouse new human and financial resolves to create a new party system so we can defeat the Democratic machine and Transform American society into a more productive, responsible, safe country by replacing the welfare state with an opportunity society.
In the absence of a great crisis (the Civil War, the Great Depression) the 4 best examples of this kind of popular effort to renew America are:
1. The Jefferson-Madison-Burr invention of the Democratic Party to replace the Federalists;
2. The Jacksonian coalition to replace John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and the National Bank, and;
3. The McKinley business—progressive-urban coalition to defeat the threat to modern industrialism
Any effort smaller than this is doomed to fail.
This chart tracks “NEWT action”, highlighting the following practices:
“build up, preparation, attention Focusing; Follow through,
dissemination, consolidation, then Evaluation and improved preparation
for Future action.” The underlined text at bottom reads “A Pattern
rather than a single point.”
This
1992 note appears to be a 25-year plan (the header reads “1993-2018”).
Items on the list include: “A series of books (the history of Freedom,
prosperity and safety),” “Possibly a series of courses with audio and
videotape followers,” and “Campus (intellectual) appearances on ‘the
histories,’ ” with “Gingrich the historian applying the lessons of
history to public life
Newt might know where "the bodies are," but he is still a Progressive and just as dangerous. If elected, he would be the second President with a PhD. The first was Woodrow Wilson.
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