Why a Newt Gingrich Candidacy Would Doom the Tea Party
2012 Elections, Headlines Tuesday, December 6th, 2011
By CONOR FRIEDERSDORF, The Atlantic
Gallup finds that 82 percent of Tea Party affiliated voters deem Newt Gingrich an acceptable Republican presidential nominee in 2012. They don’t seem to realize that if he wins the nod their movement is doomed, regardless of how the general election goes. The Tea Party cannot support Gingrich without betraying its core principles. But the movement also cannot disclaim him once he is the Republican nominee.
Tea Partiers with a better instinct for self-preservation would see that none of the Mitt Romney alternatives still running would be as corrosive to their cause as the former Speaker of the House.
Why?
The Tea Party wasn’t just a reaction to President Obama or the financial industry bailouts. As Jonah Goldberg puts it, “a major motivating passion of the tea-party movement was a long-delayed backlash against George W. Bush and his big-government conservatism.” Support for the War on Terrorism and the invasion of Iraq caused many conservatives to stay loyal to Bush. But that didn’t mean they liked No Child Left Behind, Medicare Part D, the attempt at a guest worker program, TARP, or the Harriet Miers nomination. Especially after the defeat of John McCain, many on the right insisted they’d never again support Bush-Rove conservatism.
And Gingrich supported almost all the most controversial Bush-Rove policies!
He favored No Child Left Behind, an unprecedented federal intervention in education. He supported Medicare Part D, a brand new, budget-busting drug entitlement. He supported “comprehensive immigration reform,” perhaps the most divisive-among-conservatives policy initiative of the aughts. He urged the passage of TARP. And he even spoke favorably about the infamous Harriet Miers nomination, a George W. Bush misstep that caused many of his most loyal supporters to rebel.
Tea Partiers pledged that if they had their way the GOP would never again have as its champion a federal government enlarging, entitlement expanding, amnesty urging, Bush-style Republican.
To read more, visit: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/12/why-a-newt-gingrich-candidacy-would-doom-the-tea-party/249534/
Short URL: https://reteaparty.com/?p=4781
Why the hell is it that whenever a person comes up leading the pack in the Republican party, some fools start badmouthing the leaders, claiming they are bad news, failures, imperfect or some other horsepookey. This is a rerun of past issues of republicans eating their ow, even their best and brightest.
The goal here is ti get rid of Obama, and far too damned many so-called conservatives seem bent on helping him.
You should listen. Not every attack is from the left or from the “country-club Republicans.” Gingrich has a long and cozy relationship with the New World Order promoting Council on Foreign Relations. He is terrible on gun owners’ rights, immigration, health care, and a host of other issues from a conservative standpoint. He is NOT A CONSERVATIVE and it appears he will say whatever he thinks will get him elected, including that he has had a moral religious awakening.
Newt’s “Contract with America” was great stuff but he lost no time in dismantling it and became just another influence-peddling Washington insider so maybe it was just another campaign ploy.
I agree. This is our election to loose and the Republicans are trying hard to loose it. Where is this Tea Party coming from. They sound more like the Republican establishment that the Tea Party. Newt is the only conserative in the front. Do you really think Mitt, the man who will say anything and take any position to get elected. It will be business as usual in Washington. Besides he inspires no one to go to the polls and vote. He is another McCain. It was his turn does not inspire voters. We need Newt who knows how Washington works and is willing to change things. Are county is at stake if we do not get it right this time.
Do not see a place to put this comment. Maybe the moderator will forward to the right location. I just saw Victoria Jackson on FOX News. She is a Tea Party Member and supports conserative values. She was on Saturday Night Live. She has a new DVD out “Marriage Retreat” that supports family values and mrriage between a man and a women. She is having a hard time getting a job in liberal hollywood. You have to stay under ground if you are a conserative in hollywood. Anyway, we should buy it to support a more conserative values in hollywood.
No James you are incorrect. The Goal is to get rid of the Corrupt government that is extingushing our civil liberties faster than we know. The goal is to stop the fraudulant corporate/banking cartel controled government to stop giving the fed to rob us blind by bailing out banks. Your missguided quest to vote aginst something and not for something makes you no different than the fools that thought if they got Barry Seotoro in the white house they would not have to pay their mortgage, get a new car, and get to be on Oprah.
There is N O perfect candidate. WhoEVER is running AGAINST bHussein obama N E E D S our votes. Newt will be BETTER than obama. He has not been perfect. He will NOT BE perfect…. B U T, he will be BETTER than bHo.
Now that Newt KNOWS he has to be more Conservative, he will take care to not alienate his voters. People, VOTE ! Don’t be stubborn because we can’t find the perfect candidate. (S)he does not exist.
Then put up a candidate who can (1) get the nomination, then (2) beat Obummer. I care less if both the Republican and TEA parties go out of business. I just want Obummer gone!
The only Republican who beats Obama with independent voters in head-to-head match-ups is also the one candidate who receives the most support from the troops. In fact he receives more campaign donations from active military personnel that all other Republican candidates and Obama COMBINED. Sound good? I happens to be Ron Paul who many political observers in Iowa think may win the Iowa Caucus.
I agree. Please look at my website http://www.theaveragejoe.us
I agree! Please view my website @ http://www.theaveragejoe.us
I fully support Newt Gingrich for President. He is the best person to shape up DC as he has done in the past. If the Tea Party does not like him, woe to them, consider me not a blind sheep Tea Party member, but a wise old owl who can think for herself. Jeanne B
Jeanne: “I fully support Newt Gingrich for President. He is the best person to shape up DC as he has done in the past”
Because….??? I would really appreciate one of Newts supporters listing the reasons why they support him. Something with substance please. So there can be a discussion. I am sure you are very wise,Jeanne, so please share your wisdom…because you must see something the rest of us are missing!
Ron Paul supporters constantly present viable reasoning behind their support for their candidate and I would apprectiate the same from those who support Newt or others.
I would venture to say, don’t be fooled by Newt’s rise in the polls; Newt Gingrich has a long history of supporting gun control … and that is just one reason to not support Newt. There are many. Here’s a link to an article about his positions changes on this important right guaranteed by the second amendment, and what he has done to undermine it.
http://www.ronpaul2012.com/2011/12/06/newt-gingrich-is-not-a-conservative-pt-6/
It makes you ignorant to history. Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it. If it bhaaas like a sheep and thinks like a sheep I am pretty sure it is a sheep and based on your comment you are a sheeple.
Gingrich cannot beat Obama with all the bagage he has.
Don’t waste your vote.
Newt Gingrich is a political chameleon that has inexplicably managed to fool conservatives for 30 years. He is a globalist to the bone and supports every opportunity to erode American sovereignty and the constitution. He disguises his statist positions with an abundance of flip-flopping and pandering as needed. He has a long history of expanding the Federal Government and deficit spending. He is the very definition of an Establishment Insider.
And some of that bagage is lies. Like that he told his wife who was in a hospital room on death’s door that he wanted a divorce. Read what his daughter has to say about that event: http://www.creators.com/conservative/jackie-gingrich-cushman/setting-the-record-straight.html
My mother and I have both recently run into quite a few people who hold an inaccurate understanding of this hospital visit. Many think my mother is dead.
So, to correct the record, here is what happened: My mother, Jackie Battley Gingrich, is very much alive, and often spends time with my family. I am lucky to have such a “Miracle Mom,” as I titled her in a column this week.
As for my parents’ divorce, I can remember when they told me.
It was the spring of 1980.
I was 13 years old, and we were about to leave Fairfax, Va., and drive to Carrollton, Ga., for the summer. My parents told my sister and me that they were getting a divorce as our family of four sat around the kitchen table of our ranch home.
Soon afterward, my mom, sister and I got into our light-blue Chevrolet Impala and drove back to Carrollton.
Later that summer, Mom went to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta for surgery to remove a tumor. While she was there, Dad took my sister and me to see her.
It is this visit that has turned into the infamous hospital visit about which many untruths have been told. I won’t repeat them. You can look them up online if you are interested in untruths. But here’s what happened:
My mother and father were already in the process of getting a divorce, which she requested.
Dad took my sister and me to the hospital to see our mother.
She had undergone surgery the day before to remove a tumor.
The tumor was benign.
As with many divorces, it was hard and painful for all involved, but life continued.
As have many families, we have healed; we have moved on.
Just one of many lies that are told by the liberal media and when found to be false the retraction is printed on page 25 where is was a headline the day before. We let the liberal media take down Herman Cain are we going to let them take down the rest of our canidates?
Ok, then let’s stick to his career choices…
NEWT GINGRICH’S VOTING RECORD:
10/22/1991 – Voted for an amendment that would create a National Police Corps.
03/-/1993 – Voted for sending $1.6 Billion in foreign aid to Russia.
11/19/1993 – Voted for the NAFTA Implementation Act.
11/27/1994 – Supported the GATT Treaty giving sovereignty to the U.N.
08/27/1995 – Suggested that drug smuggling should carry a death sentence.
04/25/1996 – Voted for the single largest increase on Federal education spending ($3.5 Billion)
04/10/1995 – Supported Federal tax-dollars being spent on abortions.
06/01/1996 – Helped a Democrat switch parties in an attempt to defeat constitutionalist Ron Paul in 1996 election.
09/25/1996 – Introduced H.R. 4170, demanded life-sentence or execution for someone bringing 2 ounces of marijuana across the border.
01/22/1997 – Congress gave him a record-setting $300,000 fine for ethical wrongdoing.
11/29/2006 – Stated that free speech should be curtailed in order to fight terrorism. Called for a “serious debate about the 1st Amendment.”
02/15/2007 – Supported Bush’s proposal for mandatory carbon caps.
09/28/2008 – Stated if he were in office, he would have reluctantly voted for the $700B TARP bailout.
10/01/2008 – Stated in an article that TARP was a “workout, not a bailout.”
12/08/2008 – Paid $300,000 by Freddie Mac to halt Congress from bringing necessary reform.
03/31/2009 – States we should have Singapore-style drug tests for Americans.
07/30/2010 – States that Iraq was just step one in defeating the “Axis of Evil”.
08/03/2010 – Advocates attacks on Iran & North Korea.
11/15/2010 – Defended Romney-care
12/05/2010 – Stated that a website owner should be considered an enemy combatant, hunted down and executed, for publishing leaked government memos.
01/30/2011 – Lobbied for ethanol subsidies.
01/30/2011 – Suggested that flex-fuel vehicles be mandated for Americans.
02/13/2011 – Criticized Obama for sending less U.S. tax dollars to Egypt.
02/15/2011 – Wrote book saying he believes man-made climate-change and advocated creating “a new endowment for conservation and the environment.”
03/09/2011 – Blames his infidelity to multiple wives on his passion for the country.
03/15/2011 – Stated that NAFTA worked because it created jobs in Mexico.
03/19/2011 – Shows no regrets about supporting Medicare drug coverage. (Now $7.2T unfunded liability)
03/23/2011 – Completely flip-flopped on Libyan intervention in 16 days.
03/25/2011 – Plans to sign as many as 200 executive orders on his first day as president.
04/25/2011 – Became paid lobbyist for Federal ethanol subsidies.
05/12/2011 – More supportive of individual health-care mandates than Mitt Romney.
06/09/2011 – Campaign staff resigned en mass.
07/15/2011 – Poorly managed campaign is over $1 Million in debt.
08/01/2011 – Hired a company to create fake Twitter accounts to make fake followers.
10/07/2011 – Stated he’d ignore the Supreme Court and bypass the constitution and congress.
As posted by “The GreatGazoo” on Business Insider.
The only way one can judge what someone will do in the future is to analyze what they have done in the past. This lengthy list does a good job of showing that Newt is WAAAAY left of Romney, he is no conservative by any means, and does not deserve the support of the Tea Party.
TARP Bailouts. Gun Rghts. Health Care Mandate. Fannie and Freddy meddling right into the housing crisis. His Foreign and Monetary policies.
Newt has awful positions on all of these crucial matters, which is why he is no better for us than Obama or Romney. He has played both side of the fence his entire career. Let’s not forget his big-spending liberal voting records and his traitorous shifting on his own Contract for America in the 90′s.
Do a little research and stop dancing with big-spending, big-government Republican phonies.
Newt knows you have to win elections. If you don’t win, then you don’t influence stink. Understand?
My Tea Party brother wants to end all welfare and bring the goverment to where it was in the 1950s, fine but he won’t take a step in that direction if he loses elections. And his radical reactionary idea don’t fly… gotta win first.
L
If that’s how to move forward, no wonder we’ve lost so much of our liberty over time. A principle is no longer a principle if put aside for expediancy. Pragmatic means do not reach principled ends.
Exactly! Voting for the lesser of two evils is still…evil. it just doesn’t hurt so bad at first!
Pragamatism has lead us down the road to serfdom…
All this crap is exactly what the obama people are hoping for. How about trying not to trash our candidates rather do the opposite and hold obama and his bunch of liars feet to the fire. obama’s entire cabinet are the most despicable bunch ever in the white house.
You are absolutely right! And, being a tea party/912 leader from March 2009, the thought sickens me.
I doubt Very Seriously that Gallup actually polled “TEA party affiliates” !!!
Ron Paul would do well in a general election and has the best chance of winning out of the Repub field because he is the only candidate who can take votes AWAY from Obama ? ( Gingrich and Romney do not have the crossover appeal that Ron Paul does to attract disaffected Liberal and Democrat voters. He already has huge support amongst Independent voters and we all know they sway the election. )
http://www.decodedscience.com/the-paul-predicament-gop-contender-tied-with-obama-among-iowans/7134
The problem with the ABO think ( anyone but Obama ) is that will elect Obama -lite. While the country may last a little longer.., it will not solve the true underlying problems and just prolongs the end. It is disingenuos of people who yell and scream about the constitution to support Gingrich or Romney.., both men who have shown themselves ( by word and deed ) to be supporters of Big Government. Romney = individual mandate in Massachusetts Gingrich = cap and trade ( both have flip-flopped positions by now.., but.. )
Ron Paul is the only candidate who has the record, values and has the economic knowledge to turn things around.
Foreign policy note : US foreign policy has flip-flopped as much as Romney and Gingrich. In the 1970′s the US wanted Iran to be a nuclear state :
http://www.fpif.org/articles/us_tells_iran_become_a_nuclear_power
A ticket of Kasich of Ohio and Rubio of Florida is the dream GOP ticket acceptable to the GOP establishment and the Tea Party Movement. Plus they deliver key toss up states that are absolutely necessary to beat Obama. The Tea Party should convince them to runas a team. They haven’t the baggage of Newt or the history of Romneycare. They are TV and debate savy and they collectively bring into play blue collar rust belt states and states with high percentages of Hispanic voters that Obama needs. Most importantly they have no Wall Street or Washington corruption tied to them. Kasich & Rubio will win and appease both the Tea Party and the GOP Party leaders.
I like it!
How in the heck did the media OR pollsters manage to come up with the fantasy that Newt is in anyway a Tea Party favorite when he is the exact opposite of everything the Tea Party stands for? They must think we are stupid. It won’t matter if Obama gets re-elected if it is Newt or Mitt instead since all three are big government. This country is in big trouble. For Obama to say he plans to cut $1 trillion over 10 years in a joke. He won’t be in office in 10 years and everyone will forget he even ever said that just like everyone has already forgotten what a crappy “conservative” Newt was. Cap and Trade, NAFTA, GATT, Dept. of Ed., gun control, DREAM act, ObamaCare etc. Give me a break. The Tea Party is not for Newt. You can’t be serious, somebody is dreaming.
Ron Paul would cut $1 trillion in 1 year, not 10. What will our debt be in 10 years if it is Obama or Obamalite? Will we even still be the United States in 10 years? Either we are serious or we aren’t. Big government doesn’t mean we are serious, quite the contrary.
Marco Rubio is a great conservative patriot but is not a natural born citizen. His parents were not citizens when he was born. We either have a Constitution or we don’t. Why would you want to give up our Constitution even for a decent conservative candidate.
Senator Rubio is young, attractive, smart and would eat obama’s lunch in a debate forum. He, unlike obama when he first ran, has name recognition. All he needs is a swell of Tea Party voters to bring his name to the forefront.
remember, obama was young, unknown and generally had no voting record. He used a word “Change” and got young voters excited. Old republicans like Paul, Gingrich and others, with a lot of bad baggage in their pasts, just won’t get elected. Now is the time to spring this young man’s name before the public and back him to the limit just as the Tea Party did last November.
If the Republican party repeats the disaster they committed with John McCain by selecting Newt Gingrich, I’ll watch Obama repeat the slaughter at the polls. Almost none of my friends and family voted for McCain, and even less would vote for the even more corrupt Gingrich. If Ron Paul wins the primary, there will be such an outpouring of campaigning by the grassroots that it will be like nothing in modern American history, and Obama will be toast.
Whoever the Republicans nominate, that team must win the election. William McGurn of MAIN STREET calls attention to little mentioned Latino Luis Fortuno of Puerto Rico. Read his Opinion in the Dec. 6 issue of the WSJ.
My blogsite has repeatedly stated that the person who can beat the hard Democrtats and Obama has not yet entered the race
So sad.
stossel had the governor on. seems like a pretty cool guy!!
So…. what the Heck does the “Tea Party” stand for again, if they elect Newt??
The guy is the Washington insider’s insider and influence-peddler!
Obama would handily defeat Gingrich, and the Tea Party would have sold its soul for… nothing!
I hear so many saying that we have to support noot (or mitt) even though they are not perfect and even though they are not very “conservative” so that we can get obummer out of the white house. OK, so how about all you guys get behind the ONE man who can truly beat Obama, Ron Paul!!! Dr Ron Paul is the one true conservative candidate and he’s the ONLY one who can draw nearly all the independent voters and a good number of disenfranchised democrats…
Let get behind the ONLY true conservative and the one who CAN beat Obama, DR RON PAUL !!!
Ron Paul is a freedom panderer. He panders to those who hold freedom as an important value, yet in many areas, he holds contradictory views.
One of Ron Paul’s main flaws is his blindness to certain flaws in the constitution. The constitution gives Congress the power to coin money. If history proves anything, it proves that all governments will abuse this privilege and impoverish their citizens. If the free market is the answer to the interactions of individuals, the currency used in those interactions must also be free of government intervention, otherwise a free market will not exist.
Another Ron Paul blindness is his devotion to State’s rights. Why would something, such as Obamacare, be against individual rights if purported by the Feds, but not if purported by the States?
While Ron Paul should be lauded for proposing a 0% income tax, it is irresponsible to do so without advocating a plan for how the nation achieves it. These are just a few of the issues in which I find Ron Paul wanting and I haven’t even gone into his disgust for finance and his less than stellar advocacy for a strong defense.
His $1 Trillion cuts plan is a comprehensive and feasible TRANSITIONAL program to getting us closer to the free market society that we must reclaim..this cannot be done overnight.
He seems to be the only candidate he understands having a strong DEFENSE as being more important than a costly, foolish, provocative OFFENSE military policy. Washington is using our resources to guard the borders between North and South Korea, and between Afghanistan and Pakistan, rather than adaquately protecting our own borders.
YES, WE MAY HAVE TO HOLD OUR NOSES, AGAIN, BUT I DO BELIEVE THAT IF WE CAN GET ANOTHER LOAD OF TEA PARTY FOLKS INTO GOVERNMENT, GET RID OF THE OLD GUARD, PUT THE BINDERS ON A NEWT(?) PRESIDENCY WHEN HE GETS OUT OF LINE, WE CAN VOTE IN (WITHOUT NOSE PLUGS) A REAL CONSERVATIVE IN THE NEXT ELECTION CYCLE AND OUST THE RINO!
No matter who wins the nomination, I will vote for ANYBODY BUT OBAMA.
As for the anger of the TEA party, which I have supported from day one and still do, if you were so opposed to all those GW Bush policies, why did it take Obama to bring you out? Bus was in office EIGHT YEARS and he was the same guy all the while, so why all of a sudden are we mad at his policies?
And why doesn’t Santorum and Bachman get more support from teh TEA party? I hear all these complaints about how the liberal press is “taking down” our candidates but the press is not voting in those polls that treat Santorum and Bachman like red haired step children.
I predicted that Rick Perry would rise and fall and the same happened to Cain, Bachman and even PaThey didn’t fall because of the press or even the events that are given credit or blame for their downfall. They tumbled because the corage of the entire conservative movement is so weak and shallow that all it takes are a few wannabe hookers to rear their ugly heads and all that GOP conservative support heads for the hills.
The reason we keep electing people like Bush, Snowe, Collins, Grahmnesty is because we let the hated press tell us whom we should be supporting and we actually think we made up our own minds.
The TEA party movement is acting like it wants to become the new Ralph Nader/Ross Perot faction of the GOP. Go ahead and nominate Ron Paul. Obama will then go on vacation and let ACORN, AARP, SEIU and Ron Paul himself do his campaigning for him. I’m reminded how those indignant conservatives threw Bush 41 out because he broke the “No new taxes” pledge thus giving us eight years of Bill Clinton, who put Ruth Buzzi Ginsburg
and Stephen Breyer of the Supreme Court.
givng Obama another four years will almost guarantee the addition of at least one and likely two more liberal justices. I hope America will survive that, but i ain’t betting on it.
Could someone PLEASE tell me what the hell your problem is? What’s wrong with supporting Santorum? Please, give me ONE NEGATIVE! He has EVERYTHING that the Tea Party represents. WAKE UP!
It’s a good piece, though I think the word “doom” is a little strong. The Tea Party will only be doomed if it does not accept the reality of politics that “absolutes” don’t work. It cannot have an “all or nothing” mentality. It needs to accept it’s defeats, and learn from them, and continue the good fight.
agreed; the stupidity is stupendous. You must play the cards you have.