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Newt Gingrich: No Slack for You

Bump and Update: Arianna thinks we should cut Gingrich some slack and accept his repentence. I understand where she's coming from, but I can't agree. Newt Gingrich was one of the most dangerous men in politics. Don't ever forget his 1995 Contract On America and the Taking Back our Streets Act. He cannot be allowed back into the fray. He will tool us again. We're lucky we got rid of him once. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice.... (sorry about the unintended rhyme.)

Also refusing to cut Gingrich any slack: Jane at Firedoglake, Glenn Greenwald at Alternet, Matt at My DD.

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Original Post 4/11/06

Jane and Think Progress say Newt Gingrich's speech yesterday saying continued war in Iraq is a mistake and that we should leave Iraq now is not to be trusted. I agree. Here's Newt yesterday:

Newt Gingrich, the former Republican Speaker of the House, told students and faculty at the University of South Dakota Monday that the United States should pull out of Iraq and leave a small force there, just as it did post-war in Korea and Germany. "It was an enormous mistake for us to try to occupy that country after June of 2003," Gingrich said during a question-and-answer session at the school. "We have to pull back, and we have to recognize it."

Newt was a hawk on Iraq.

Another tactic Secretary Rumsfeld used to circumvent the established professional intelligence apparatus of the executive branch was his reliance on the Defense Policy Board..The DPB was chaired by Richard Perle, a hawk on Iraq and former member of the Reagan administration. In Perle's judgement, the CIA's judgments about Iraq "isn't worth the paper it is written on." The Board also contained other high visibility hawks on Iraq, such as James Woolsey and Newt Gingrich, as well as a range of other former defense officials not necessarily committed to war with Iraq.

Here's more:

With the election of George W. Bush, Newt Gingrich was tapped to serve on the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board, a much maligned think tank for the Defense Department that is dominated by neoconservatives and has been criticized because of the perceived conflicts of interests of its members, many of whom have strong ties to defense contractors that could benefit from sensitive information gleaned at policy board meetings. Gingrich is one of only eight Hoover fellows with seats on the 31-member board.

Newt joined the group on 8/16/2001. He was a member until 1/10/2006.

Newt was a supporter of the War in Iraq from the get-go after 9/11.

On Sept. 19 and 20, the Defense Policy Board, a prestigious bipartisan board of national security experts that advises the Pentagon, met for 19 hours to discuss the ramifications of the attacks of Sept. 11. The members of the group agreed on the need to turn to Iraq as soon as the initial phase of the war against Afghanistan and Mr. bin Laden and his organization is over, people familiar with the meetings said. Both Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and Mr. Wolfowitz took part in the meetings for part of both days.

....''If we don't use this as the moment to replace Saddam after we replace the Taliban, we are setting the stage for disaster,'' Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House and a member of the group, said in an interview.

Here's Newt last month speaking about Iran:

Some Republicans, though, say a military attack may be required if only to set back Iran's nuclear program a few years.

"Every year that we wait, the risk increases," said former House speaker Newt Gingrich, a member of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board. "I would hope that the administration would decide to do something decisive. . . . We have the military power in the region if we need it. It's a question of whether we have the will."

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    Re: Newt Gingrich: No Slack for You (none / 0) (#2)
    by jondee on Tue Apr 11, 2006 at 08:12:20 PM EST
    Put "no spine" Newt together with the all-spine-and-nothin-else gang running things now and you still have some kind of Frankenstein half human. Maybe we should engineer a coup and install a dictator the way we did in Iran 50 years ago.

    Re: Newt Gingrich: No Slack for You (none / 0) (#1)
    by Richard Aubrey on Tue Apr 11, 2006 at 08:22:59 PM EST
    Newt's got a lot on the ball. He's a big-picture guy. He has a way with words. He's tough when the odds are his. He has no spine. You will recall when Schumer took an article by a professor who was helping Newt in his work, turned one of the statements around to make her look like a Nazi sympathizer. Instead of taking Schumer apart, Newt, since the lefties pretended to actually believe this slander and the MSM went along with it, dumped her. He's trying to get in good with the noisier crowd, again.

    Re: Newt Gingrich: No Slack for You (none / 0) (#3)
    by jondee on Wed Apr 12, 2006 at 02:06:56 AM EST
    "He has no spine." The ship is sinking and he wont go down with the ship.

    Re: Newt Gingrich: No Slack for You (none / 0) (#4)
    by soccerdad on Wed Apr 12, 2006 at 03:28:39 AM EST
    From a neocon perspective,although it was not option #1, letting Iraq slide into all out civil war is certainly acceptable. The oil is still in the ground and there will be fewer Iraqis to deal with later. All we need is enough troops toprotect our "enduring", i.e. permanent bases The rise in influence of Iran, although predicted by many before the war, is now the biggest issue to deal with. You deal with Iran and you have automatically weakened the position of the Shiites in Iraq, its a two-fer. So I'm not sure there are real inconsistencies with Newt, maybe he's just championing a different strategy.

    Re: Newt Gingrich: No Slack for You (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Apr 12, 2006 at 04:27:52 AM EST
    Well, it's certainly not inconsistent that he has no spine, but he's certainly changed his tune strategically. He wasn't a PNAC signatory, but he didn't seem to object to their nonsense 'til it went south or until about 3 years after everyone with a brain knew it went south.

    Re: Newt Gingrich: No Slack for You (none / 0) (#6)
    by orionATL on Wed Apr 12, 2006 at 07:22:14 AM EST
    newt gingrich another of the right-wings many psuedo-intellectuals.

    Re: Newt Gingrich: No Slack for You (none / 0) (#7)
    by Sailor on Wed Apr 12, 2006 at 07:51:58 PM EST
    Uhh, newt is a proven liar, opportunist and criminal. Why would anyone believe him?

    Re: Newt Gingrich: No Slack for You (none / 0) (#8)
    by Kitt on Wed Apr 12, 2006 at 08:07:17 PM EST
    No slack from this quarter for Newt. He's not only a liar but an incredible opportunist to boot. He's up to something....bidding his time....waiting for a slot somewhere....sometime....to break back in. If it takes rolling on George, ah well.

    Re: Newt Gingrich: No Slack for You (none / 0) (#9)
    by jondee on Wed Apr 12, 2006 at 08:10:31 PM EST
    I always thought "Newt Gingrich" sounded like a character in the Screwtape Letters.

    Re: Newt Gingrich: No Slack for You (none / 0) (#10)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Apr 12, 2006 at 08:22:15 PM EST
    I have to agree. . .NO slack for Newt. Remember that in spite of the faux apologies, this is the man who made it his life ambition to set into motion the wheel that is now running over Americans everywhere. This is the man who went into his wife while she was in post-op for cancer surgery and gave her divorce papers. He's a cold-hearted bastard and deserves to stay on the outside, where he belongs. . .

    Re: Newt Gingrich: No Slack for You (none / 0) (#11)
    by Che's Lounge on Wed Apr 12, 2006 at 10:16:51 PM EST
    Clinton/Ginrich '08 The unity ticket. I think I just made myself sick.

    Re: Newt Gingrich: No Slack for You (none / 0) (#12)
    by squeaky on Wed Apr 12, 2006 at 10:34:51 PM EST
    Gosh, the timing of this reformation?, seems curious. Powell turning on Cheney, Newt turning on the war. I think that Fitzgerald's shake up may have something to do with this. Or is it all the other republicans who are getting indicted? The current saber rattling? What is his postiion on nuking Iran? Is that why he wants the troops out? It is not unusual for the party to distance themselves from a lame duck prez. Is the big exodus starting? Apart from not trusting him something about the timing makes me wonder, why now?

    Re: Newt Gingrich: No Slack for You (none / 0) (#13)
    by oldtree on Wed Apr 12, 2006 at 11:46:26 PM EST
    neutered has never had done anything that could make for the misery he caused in the house or misrepresentatives. he is personally involved in the decay of human rights, the advancement of the religious fanatic, screw the poor and make a buck while doing so... the list goes on, a record like his speaks for itself. he should be considered a mentor to delay. ... they will say anything that fits the moment. so let's laugh and see what he does tomorrow.

    Re: Newt Gingrich: No Slack for You (none / 0) (#14)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Apr 13, 2006 at 01:52:12 AM EST
    Of course she wants to cut him some slack, is that soo suprising? Can anyone remember her extending the same courtsey to F**kuyama? Instead of arguing her point, she devotes half of her piece to what Hillary should do; as though that is the issue here. I don't like this woman, and can't understand people's infactuation with her. And as a quick aside, will people just get off Hillary's back and let her do what she has to do? Every potential candidate is involved in some political maneuvering and I don't see the same vitriol being directed at McCain, Romney and Ruddy and to a lesser extent Kerry. Dems should stop eating their own!

    Re: Newt Gingrich: No Slack for You (none / 0) (#15)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Apr 13, 2006 at 01:54:40 AM EST
    No slack never! There's no reason to rehabilitate these conservatives -- Gingrich, Fukuyama, etc. -- by allowing them to claim that Bush is an aberration -- and that this time they're really really serious.

    Re: Newt Gingrich: No Slack for You (none / 0) (#16)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Apr 13, 2006 at 05:55:28 AM EST
    Intelligence was never the issue with Newt. Intellectual honesty and integrity? Well, that's another story. Character, integrity? Newt's got a better shot at winnin' the Boston Marathon.

    Re: Newt Gingrich: No Slack for You (none / 0) (#17)
    by orionATL on Thu Apr 13, 2006 at 07:04:02 AM EST
    newt gingrich? so what is the georgia salamander up to? why has he crawled out from under his rock now? he hasn't sent me an explanation, but here's my opinion. my opinion may not be right, but the price of it is. as i see it, a number of right-wingers are working on finding, or being, an electable right-wing presidential candidate for the 2008 elections. to be electable any candidate will probably have to publicly disavow anything bush has done for which there is strong public disapproval - like the iraq invasion, for example. this does not mean these right-wing folk disapprove of what bush is doing. rather, it means they understand they have to create a false public persona to have a chance of keeping the presidency in right-wing hands. in short, gingrich and others of his ilk are concocting a public lie (their public disapproval of unpopular bush initiatives) in order to fool the voters into thinking them moderate. this is, by the way, the same tactic that rove used with bush in 2000. if fact, it would not surprise me if rove were in on this select-the-best-right-winger-for-2008 game as i write these words.

    Re: Newt Gingrich: No Slack for You (none / 0) (#18)
    by orionATL on Thu Apr 13, 2006 at 07:09:05 AM EST
    thanks for the link to your 1/16/06 article on shadegg. this history and political network info i did not know.

    Re: Newt Gingrich: No Slack for You (none / 0) (#19)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Apr 13, 2006 at 08:11:07 AM EST
    I agree with you all the way orionATL. We must not forget that it is in ALL republicans' best interest to moderate and distance themselves from a president with slumping popularity during this election year. I am just surprised that more people aren't "calling them out" on their (what i find to be) obvious shenanigans. It disappoints me that the Dempcratic leaderrship is once again taking a passive role and even congratulating republicans on their moderate rhetoric. I'm no political strategist, but it seems like the right time for the dems to go on the offensive attack. WE CANNOT FORGET WHO WE ARE DEALING WITH (sneaky liars, crooks, warmongers, etc.)!

    Re: Newt Gingrich: No Slack for You (none / 0) (#20)
    by fafnir on Thu Apr 13, 2006 at 08:50:19 AM EST
    I was astonished that Arianna asked peace activists to go easy on Newt. Arianna should judge Newt by his deeds, not his words. He has a long record of ridiculing and demonizing the progressive world view. Moreover, he was a key enabler of the Bush Crime Family's agenda to invade and occupy Iraq. Sadly, Arianna is being played, and her credibility among activists will suffer as a result.

    Re: Newt Gingrich: No Slack for You (none / 0) (#21)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Apr 13, 2006 at 09:11:01 AM EST
    Yeah, you're absolutely right, fafnir. Newt rates at least a 20-Life seein' is believin' sentence with some stringent parole criteria.

    Re: Newt Gingrich: No Slack for You (none / 0) (#22)
    by Che's Lounge on Thu Apr 13, 2006 at 09:19:45 AM EST
    And Arriana's credibility is already tanked.

    Re: Newt Gingrich: No Slack for You (none / 0) (#23)
    by jondee on Thu Apr 13, 2006 at 09:24:30 AM EST
    I dont really trust Arianna. Wasnt she doing a similar schtick for the right a few years back? Then she goes through a messy divorce from her Gingrich clone husband and turns into a radical firebrand. It almost seems like a what-would-really-piss-him-off deal then any genuine change of heart.

    Re: Newt Gingrich: No Slack for You (none / 0) (#24)
    by squeaky on Thu Apr 13, 2006 at 05:21:47 PM EST
    Newt was on TV today and he has hedged his comments about withdrawl. He talked about the 'long war' and that we need to stay until all those murderers and rapists are eliminated. Crooks & Liars has the clip. I think his gun sights are on Iran. billmon makes a good point: he has heard WH talk about troop withdrawl and wants to be the first to publicly say it. Feather in his foreign policy cap. He is slime. Very clever slime.

    Re: Newt Gingrich: No Slack for You (none / 0) (#25)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Apr 14, 2006 at 12:11:35 AM EST
    Is this the same gingrich who screamed about welfare even though he refused to support his first ex wife and his kids? i think they went on welfare or relied on churches to feed them.

    Re: Newt Gingrich: No Slack for You (none / 0) (#26)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Sep 09, 2006 at 08:32:32 AM EST
    I will try and follow the rules this time.. ;) I (accidentally) hacked into the GOPAC website that needs to be logged in to read the page, I did it from the google "cashed" button, (legally) which automatically bypassed the password protection on the blogpage... I am not supposed to be seeing this crap without being logged in...But here it is.. Take an hour and read this,,(mostly the very bottom half It is unbelievable...From the GOPAC republican website.. THE ORIGINAL "MEMO" WAS ONLY THE FIRST PART AND WAS WRITTEN IN THE 1990'S, NO ONE HAS SEEN THE LAST 4 PARTS BEFORE....THEY ARE BRAND NEW AND DISCOVERED BY ME ON ACCIDENT. I can not prove they are taken off the GOPAC site because I do not have the required password to see and read the file. All I can say is Newt Gingrich admits writing it, the GOPAC admits to passing it out and the wording is clearly written by a right wing madman made to look like it is a joke. IT IS NOT. "click on the "current page" of the link and see the page dissapear for yourself, do some investigating on your own and see what you find. linked text = Linked text IMPORTANT POINT 4: Don't let facts get in your way. Most people don't know the facts anyway, and very few people will actually take the time to look the facts up. Those that do can be dismissed as Godless liberals. All of these facts can (and should) be avoided if you are to begin talking right. If someone brings them up, call them un-American, claim they are ignoring all the positive accomplishments of the Bush administration (don't worry, you won't be asked for any facts), claim they are pandering to the liberal agenda and/or giving comfort to the terrorists. Remember, right-talking is a team sport. You're team can be #1 even if they lose every game. What is important is that you fill the stadium with screaming fans.