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How Would You Feel About Newt?
Published in General
Dick Cheney would be better, but this would annoy the left in a most delicious way.
I find the idea sensible. Not because it would annoy the left, but because he knows how to do that job.
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
I find the idea sensible. Not because it would annoy the left, but because he knows how to do that job.
I agree Newt is proven. But I think Cheney is proven as well, and would be sure to work for the country’s good rather than his own ego. But both have that annoyance bonus which the base would appreciate at this time.
Newt had the best campaign commercial of the 2012 primaries:
Newt as Speaker while a Clinton and a Bush run for President — were the 2000’s just a bad dream and the 90’s never ended? What next, will they make new episodes of Friends? Will grunge dominate the airwaves again?
Quick, someone check and make sure Ricochet’s servers are all Y2K compliant!
I could go for either Newt or Cheney. Newt has done it berofe.
I like Newt. Lots of good qualities. Wrong time, wrong job. It would be like asking Petraeus to come back and win just one more war for us. Oh wait, that happened.
Too bad we could never get him on a stage against Obama. They’d have cleaned up the sad remains of the Alinskyite stooge with a sponge and a cup.
But not now. This Messianic approach to finding a Speaker will just breed disappointment, and there is much in the modern Newt to be disappointed about. He has given far too many speeches and written too many columns proposing far-out stuff, unencumbered by the expectations of politics, to emerge from even a casual sit-down. This is a guy with baggage already waiting in his room.
Mr. Gingrich is undoubtedly the best choice among American politicians. It is the shame of America that he is not voted to the office & that American Reps. will nevertheless vote in this election, for whoever.
The problem is democracy. If Americans want some peace in politics, a tolerable peace, the solution is obvious; Mr. Gingrich should be elected speaker & the GOP should be allowed to modify the House rules to effect two most necessary changes.
First, the partisan leadership would have to deal with the problems with fundraising & similar ugly & vulgar, but utterly necessary functions.
Secondly, monies should be appropriated to keep the Speaker in a glass cage in the House, in plain sight of the public. Kids should be brought in regularly to see the great man at work & certain numbers of Reps. should be selected by lot to whip the Speaker weekly lest he should be tempted into any private sort of wickedness. Probably, female Reps. should be preferred for the office, should they find it agreeable. Also, the Speaker should be forced to say witty things to an audience on a byweekly basis.
Mr. Gingrich is the ideal politician except for his ignorance of the boundaries of politics. Were he restrained by less brilliant but less deluded Americans, the GOP would begin to function politically like a party. What they are now cannot be said with dignity or not on Ricochet, but could be likened to a school whose graduates would inhabit naturally a brothel-
The idea stinks of desperation.
How truly pathetic is the House GOP.
Given the relative standing of the 2015 to GOP to the 1940 Tories, Mr. Gingrich is a very Churchill!
I have learned to embrace the liberal opinion that the elephant is the devil, & am working through how to get the damned beast to plow. Suggestions welcome-
Of course, conservatives think the elephant is a donkey. That’s insane-
In the midst of all the unworkable horrors, Newt has proposed some truly magnificent stuff. One of my favorite proposals of his is a ban on fundraising outside one’s district. Everybody competing in a district would be on the same playing field, and their interests would be focused where appropriate.
Don’t get me wrong. I like being able to support whomever, whenever, for the most part. But I support representative government and would press the “I Believe” button on a measure like this.
“Real change requires Real Change(tm).”
“Federal chipmunks.”
Those were the days.
Sigh.
He is one of a small number of politicians worth a damp while I have been alive.
My disgust at the idea is not at Newt. I remember declaring “Toads for Newt” after a great 2012 run debate performance, but the showy anachronistic gesture would be wrong, all wrong.
I am ok with that if R.E.M. releases some new hits.
Newt was good in the 1990s. Second acts are rarely as good though.
Newt is far, far too scattered a man for the job now. We need someone who doggedly keeps at it, not an ADD visionary.
Won’t happen and wouldn’t work. I don’t think an outsider — even one who’s a former insider — is going to happen.
That said, if Ryan resists — either because he won’t take the job or because he calculates he can’t reach 218 — this becomes crazy fast.
No second acts in American lives-
I was a huge fan of the contract and Newt’s leadership in 1994, but he had a solid majority to work with.
The math in the House doesn’t add up right now and until the republican party figures out what it stands for a new speaker just inherits the same issues.
House GOP has a bigger majority now. What exactly worries you about the numbers?
We are in this “interesting” moment because the leadership in the house has ignored the wishes of the Republican base. I hope a new speaker is selected who will pay a lot more than election time attention to the base, and to conservative positions.
That said, I don’t think we should elect a speaker who is not a member of the house, and I think the most Newt should be used is as an occasional consultant. Overall though the real conservative block is big enough to make trouble, but not big enough to garner majority support for its positions. In a worst case outcome, the liberal wing of the Republican party aligns with some Democrats, to elect a speaker who is a true RHINO and the alienation of the base grows much worse, rather than better.
Best feasible case is someone who is a similar conservative to Boehner but has a desire for fight, rather than concession. Long term, we need to increase efforts to educate Americans about the benefits of conservative policies, and the danger/ineffectiveness of leftist ones. A tough sell when the opposition just promises more free stuff, ignoring the real but delayed consequences, that the low information voter just falls asleep when they hear about them.
Newt was forced to resign for ethical reasons. both personal and professionally related. Do we really have memories this short?
How about reforming the House? Do folks here the institution is working out or that it’s not really possible to make it better? I get the sense that it’s really difficult to find out who matters in the House, because they have no interest in letting people know, & that even trying to have elections in the House is going to be a who’s who of nobodies. What changes do you think are advisable & at all feasible?
Good man, tossed over by some of the folks we’re struggling with today. The media, even marginally friendly media is blaming the conservatives we elected to change the place, for trying to change the place. Ignore the media for a change. The place obviously doesn’t function with people who are scared of Obama, scared of the media, really don’t want to lose their jobs and don’t understand what all our fuss is about. Daniel Webster makes a case that the House can function by setting priorities and broadening the process. Does that make sense? Does he make sense?
Well, if it can be done legally and if he can get an internal editor installed in his head before he takes the job, sure. I’m more in favour of Ryan if he’ll do it though.
Bad idea.
Tactically, at this point I support Ryan or whatever other establishment guy they want. Got Boehner and McCarthy — it’s important to take Yes for an aswer when you get it
The Tea Party will never function as an actual party, but as an influential internal faction of the Republican Party. Checkpoint met. Ryan’s budget ideas excite me about as much as cold meatballs in standing water, but he has much that is good about him.
In my mind, this internecine warfare is pointless if we can’t parlay it into an influence on the establishment, who will always hold a majority of the levers of power. We (the hotheads) win on margins, not simple sums. You cannot force people to go where you want if you give them nowhere to go. Take a memo, “wackobird” GOP establishment.
I wasn’t that opposed to McCarthy until he went Full Retard. Ryan will do. And if not, then he’ll walk the plank too.
Bright, all mouth and ego, self-promotion. Is that the profile that wins? Last time Newt was Speaker, he dominated the news for several days when he complained about his seat on AF 1 o an overseas trip, because he wasn’t being feted enough.
If you are looking for someone to be a blowhard in the news cycle, that is, a new Kevin McCarthy rim shot every second day, Newt is your guy.
Tom you were on a roll until number 4. There’s a lot the speaker can do between now and January 20, 2017. The magnitude of options and actions goes well beyond what a Silent Cal could comment on.
In theory Newt would be perfect, but, as Yogi said “In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. But in practice, there is”.