For those of you tantalized by the prospect of a Gingrich Presidential run, Newt will be on Captain Ed’s radio show today. Might be worth a listen.
I can not think of anything that would destroy Republican chances in 2008 more than a Gingrich run.
Gingrich
by John Cole| 45 Comments
This post is in: Media, Blogospheric Navel-Gazing
norbizness
I’m sure you can think of something, the fucking field’s littered with them as we speak.
whippoorwill
At least republicans would have a brain in the race.
ThymeZone
I dunno, I think John is right. Newt is a gen-u-wine lunatic and demagogue. He is literally liable to say anything, and has, at one time or another. He has more skeletons in his closet than a Holloween Haunted House.
HyperIon
so how does he differ substantially in this regard from rudy?
Zifnab
I’m still eagerly awaiting one of the Republican Candidates to flip the whole party the bird, hook up with a DINO, get married in Massachusetts, and run as Independents.
McCain/Lieberman ’08!
ThymeZone
Rudy has the 911 Changed Everything Merit Badge.
Grumpy Code Monkey
How about a Gingrich/Keyes ticket?
Jay
What makes Gingrich a lunatic?
caustics
Poor Newt. His trial-balloon for Green Conservatism was not well received, and The Movement has been looking at him funny ever since.
What’s really ironic is that the same GOP “insiders” that dismiss Newt as radioactive because of his marital issues are more than willing to embrace Rudy Gi9/11ani and absolve him of these and other RiNO sins.
Faux News
Does anyone remember Newt’s plan to give every homeless person in America a laptop computer? Sheer genius like this should not be tossed aside so quickly.
Jimmmmm
I can not think of anything that would destroy Republican chances in 2008 more than a Gingrich run.
I can: A nude picture of Cap’n Ed on a GOP fundraising direct mailer.
Badtux
John, what you say of Newtie Newt applies to every… single… Republican candidate in the Presidential race today. They all have more skeletons in the closet than a Republican senator toe-tapping and finger-waving in a Minneapolis airport bathroom. I honestly think that the Democrats could run a blue dog against any of these guys, and the blue dog would win. People are just pissed with the way that the Republicans screwed up their chance to create a New World Order based upon America the Great. I don’t think the average American has any problem with imperialism — U S A! U S A! U S A! — but the incompetent way that the Republicans have persued their agenda certainly is something the average American has a problem with, and none of the current crop gives any hope of change in that regard.
Jake
Are you getting Zen on us John? Saying Newt would make things worse for the GOP than the current crop of brain-sick, dumb-as-hell egomaniacs is like saying he could make water wetter.
[Pours kerosene in eyes, gropes for lighter]
Crust
A Tom Delay run?
mrmobi
I would be delighted if it happened. Newt is the Party of Torture’s idea man.
His personal baggage alone would cause a melt-down of biblical proportions.
Newt to someone, regarding his wife, who was suffering from breast cancer at the time, “She doesn’t look like a Presidents’ wife, and she’s sick.” (He eventually gave her the divorce papers while she was in the hospital for treatment) Lovely guy.
I understand that he has penned a tome about solutions to our healthcare problems. I’ll bet it’s a doozy, and that euthanasia is involved for those without the means to pay.
All that said, I’m pessimistic about the campaign Hillary will have to endure when she gets the nomination. I don’t think we’ve seen the worst swift-boat attacks yet, by a long shot.
Zifnab
No doubt they’ve been keeping Vince Foster’s body in cold storage for just this moment.
Tax Analyst
No “molderin’ in the grave” for old Vince, eh?
If he wazint so dang daid he’d prol’ly be appalled at de lebel of dizreespekt ‘dem ole bones of hiz had bin dun sujeckted to.
Badtux
mrmobi, the Republicans will swift-boat anybody who wins the Democratic nomination. If Jesus Christ ran as a Democrat, the Republicans would swift-boat him as “soft on terror” and “a long-haired hippie commie”. But Hillary is uniquely qualified to deal with the swift-boating, in that she’s been there before and everything they can come up with has already been said. Vince Foster? BORE-ing, that’s so 1994! She’s an emasculating bitch? BORE-ing, that was 1993! She’s a venal opportunist? BORE-ing, that was her run for the New York Senate seat in 2000! The Republicans could literally show security camera footage of Hillary walking into Vince Foster’s office, placing the handgun against his head, and pulling the trigger, and all that they’d get from the American public would be an eye-roll. Unlike John Kerry, she’s already a national-known public figure, and everybody’s already made up her mind about Hillary. Fox News and the VRWC are not going to get to define Hillary for the American public, at best they can nudge America’s perceptions slightly, but probably not enough to make any real difference.
Tim F.
Yar. Hill’s big advantage is that they can’t do that much more than they already did to her. She’s seen it all before. The political blogosphere was practically invented to spread wild-eyed screeds about Hitlery and Vince Foster. Badtux has it right about Jesus getting swiftboated (Judas and a couple of apostle camp washouts in a slick internet ad, natch), at least with Hill we know she can take it.
Fledermaus
Look, in 2008 what’s left of the GOP primary voters will look at whichever canidates are left and vote for the one that seems to piss off liberals the most. That is now the sole qualification for the nomination. Other than that every one of them will make the same promises they have for the last 6 years: ponies, endless wars, and tax cuts for all (unless you make less than 6 figures, loser).
Really is going to be about who can yell “liberals are teh suxxors!!!!oneone!11!” loudest.
Brian
Well, the Demopublicans can’t lose then. The Republican candidates may all be toxic nutjobs, but that’s OK, ’cause HILLARY will be in charge, with all the DLC-friendly, warmongering, corporate tax cutting, gaybashing, religion pandering, insurance industry supporting, and ponderous odes to “America is the Bestest and the Onlyiest and the Sweetest and the Only Real Place” propaganda you could ever look for. I can’t wait.
Six magic numbers on, and I would decamp for New Zealand (someplace as far, far away from the Mad Max wasteland we are creating here) as quick as possible. And no, I don’t like Nader, either.
Eural
I just returned from a brief visit with some very conservative friends who were just drooling over the thought of a Guliani/Gingrich ticket.
Really – they’re socially conservative and very pro-war and that’s the ticket they think can beat the Dems easy. And they also believe that if Hillary wins the nod then it doesn’t matter who they run because America hates the Clintons so much anyone can beat her.
The American heartland has spoken.
ThymeZone
Syphilis, I’d reckon, combined with unbridled, obsessive ambition, and egomania.
For starters. Other than that, he’s pretty cool.
Timb
He announced on Hannity’s drivel fest today that he will run provided he can raise 30 million dollars in pledges in three weeks (roughly 10 million a week in PLEDGES, not real money). At least he says wacky things and will make a debate more interesting.
PS Listening to him on Hannity’s show is so funny. It’s like having your dog interview you: “Isn’t it true, Tim, that you’re great?” “Can I get you anything?” “How does it feel to be so wonderful?”
At first I thought the radio was broken because there was an echo every time Hannity spoke, then I realized the echo was from Hannity being shoulder deep in Newt’s colon. Truly a command performance in sycophancy.
Bubblegum Tate
Better yet, a Keyes/Gingrich ticket. Lets get bizzzzay!
Faux News
Newt/Macacca 2008!
Hey Allen can run for Virginia Governor AND Vice Prez at the same time! Of course he will lose both races, but what the hell, why not?
BFR
Like maybe this blue dog?
Jake
Drooling. You mean like that flood of saliva you get before you puke?
Soliton
Absolutely nothing will energize the Rep base to get out and vote like a Hitlery nomination.
Hitlery will also lose quite a bit of the more liberal vote who will likely stay home for lack of interest.
One quote will lose Hitlery the election: “I can envision a day when you will need proof of insurance to get a job”.
That will be blasted over the Mighty Wurlitzer 24/7 for months on end, count on it.
As for Newt’s skeletons, keep in mind that the more fundamentalist the church, the higher the divorce rate and that atheists have the lowest divorce rate of all.
“Family values” social conservatives are good at preaching, but when it comes down to actions they have looser morals than just about anyone else this side of Ted Bundy.
Lying, cheating, stealing and divorcing are all just fine with the social conservatives as long as you speak the language of social conservatism.
Cain
I found it interesting that Bush thought Hillary would win the nomination. I couldn’t help but think that he said that on purpose so that he could get the base fired up and come out and vote against the wicked witch of Arkansas.
cain
Zifnab
I think its too late for that. Were Lucifer himself to win the Dem nomination, it wouldn’t make the Republican thugs and boobs running on the opposing platform look any more appealing.
And if Dems have learned one thing since ’04, its how to turn every Republican smear into a Democratic fund raiser. The screaming, frooth-lipped, oxycotin-fueled rage that the Republican base flings at Hillary will be just the thing to get die-hard liberals to warm up to the girl. We can expect the ’08 Swiftboating attempts to be that much more over-the-top and unbelievable, that much more ripe for satire and ridicule, and that much more of a rallying cry for picked-on liberals to rise up against.
incontrolados
T. Boone Pickens and Bob Perry’s effort (stophernow.com) so far — from what I have read — hasn’t made much of an impact, except for the funny-factor.
Here’s some happy talk from Bill Kristol:
There you have it. Election over.
ThymeZone
Actually, I think that is more likely the case. I think you are looking at the Bob Dole Effect next year. Whoever is the GOP candidate is going be a yawner.
Badtux
Frankly, at this point the Democrats could nominate a ham sandwich and the majority of Americans would vote for the Democrat. So I don’t think it really matters who gets the Democratic nomination. Or the Republican nomination, for that matter. Short of running Ronald Reagan’s zombie corpse for President (wait, they’re already trying that, anybody notice that at the last Republican “debate” Reagan was mentioned more times than George W. Bush?), the Republicans simply lack a candidate with the positives to outweigh all the negatives that Dubya and a Republican congress built up in the 2000-2006 time period. That said, it’d be cool if Hillary won just to watch wingnut heads explode as she takes charge of all the Imperial Presidency powers that the Busheviks have seized over the past six years… not that she is my preferred candidate by any means, but she seems to be the only one in the Democratic race with brass balls, except maybe Kucinich and Gravel but neither of them have the money to put together a credible campaign organization.
jake
Maybe I missed it, but I’m waiting for a GOP candidate to point out that H. Clinton is a giiiiiirl and therefore likely to get all hysterical if there’s a crisis. Or get hysterical and cause a crisis.
Zifnab
You had me terrified for a second. I almost thought Reverse Oracle Bill Kristol was predicting for us rather than against us.
But given as this man hasn’t been right once since the turn of the century, I feel incredibly upbeat and confident.
Soliton
There is no better publicity than free publicity and the MSM will make sure that the Rep candidate gets all they can stand.
I think y’all are misunderestimating the degree of conservative bias in the MSM. Kerry should have won the 2004 election going away and yet he didn’t because the MSM focused on (often made up) negative minutia about Kerry and completely ignored the incredible mountain of major negatives about Bush.
Just wait and see, cultural conservatives hate Hil with the burning passion of ten thousand supernovae. I live right in the middle of cultural conservative central and she is still a lighting rod to the CC’s.
I’ve been reading and posting at Humanevents.com and the clamor there for Newt is very strong.
VidaLoca
I have this picture in my mind of HRC, with a solid Senate majority behind her, putting Bill on the Supreme Court — now that would make some heads explode…
incontrolados
Sorry, Zif.
incontrolados
ZOMG
Anyone watching/listening to PBS?
ZOMG
Johnny Pez
Getting back to the topic of Newt, can someone explain to me why a man with the honor of sharing a name with Sir Isaac Newton would, instead, choose to be known by a diminutive version of that name that makes him sound like a reptile?
Andrew
Cookie Monster is out of control! C is for Cookie, not cocaine, CTW!
scarshapedstar
I’ve already pledged him $800,000. How about you?
By the way, Johnny, newts are amphibians.
Jay
combined with unbridled, obsessive ambition, and egomania.
You’ve just described every Presidential candidate, both Democratic and Republican.
I guess they’re all lunatics.
incontrolados
All the peeps who want to be pres are out of control, so yeah.
Wait, what’s the topic of this thread? Oh, yeah. Newt.
Let’s hope sss’s pledge works so that in the next debate newt can blatheron and all the other repub candidates can look at him like he’s teh crazy.
Given that teh crazy ruled last night, please please puleeze let newt get in.