Political Ruminations

Morning Quote: Mitt Romney

“When Republicans act like Democrats, they lose. And in Newt Gingrich's case he had to resign. In Rick Santorum's case, he lost by the biggest margin of any Senate incumbent since 1980.”

- Mitt Romney joins Santorum and Gingrich together as Washington insiders in an interview with NBC News yesterday.

Quote of the Day

“I think that when Newt Gingrich parades around the country saying Mitt Romney is a liar and Mitt Romney parades around country saying Newt Gingrich is a liar, the conclusion most people draw is they’re both liars.”

- Former congressman, Alan Grayson (D-FL), to Talking Points Memo earlier today. Grayson, I should note, is running to reclaim his old seat in 2012.

Bob Dole Speaks Out Against Gingrich Candidacy

Let there be no doubt that former Republican senator and presidential candidate, Bob Dole, is a Romney supporter. From a statement released by the Romney campaign today:

I have not been critical of Newt Gingrich but it is now time to take a stand before it is too late. If Gingrich is the nominee it will have an adverse impact on Republican candidates running for county, state, and federal offices. Hardly anyone who served with Newt in Congress has endorsed him and that fact speaks for itself. He was a one-man-band who rarely took advice. It was his way or the highway.

Gingrich served as Speaker from 1995 to 1999 and had trouble within his own party. By 1997 a number of House Republican members wanted to throw him out as Speaker. But he hung on until after the 1998 elections when Newt could read the writing on the wall. His mounting ethics problems caused him to resign in early 1999. I know whereof I speak as I helped establish a line of credit of $150,000 to help Newt pay off the fine for his ethics violations. In the end, he paid the fine with money from other sources.

Gingrich had a new idea every minute and most of them were off the wall. He loved picking a fight with President Clinton because he knew this would get the attention of the press. This and a myriad of other specifics like shutting down the government helped to topple Gingrich in 1998.

In my run for the presidency in 1996 the Democrats greeted me with a number of negative TV ads and in every one of them Newt was in the ad. He was very unpopular and I am not only certain that this did not help me, but that it also cost House seats that year. Newt would show up at the campaign headquarters with an empty bucket in his hand — that was a symbol of some sort for him — and I never did know what he was doing or why he was doing it, and I’m not certain he knew either.

The Democrats are spending millions of dollars running negative ads against Romney as they are hoping that Gingrich will be the nominee which could result in a landslide victory for Obama and a crushing defeat for Republicans from the courthouse to the White House. Democrats are not running ads against Gingrich which is further proof they want to derail Governor Romney.

In my opinion if we want to avoid a sweeping victory by Obama in November, Republicans should nominate Governor Romney as our standard bearer. He could win because he has the requisite experience in the public and private sectors. He would be a president in whom we could have confidence and he would make us proud.

Romney Profits From Fannie & Freddie Even as He Sticks it to Gingrich for the Same Thing

Even as Romney goes after Newt Gingrich for profiting from mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, it turns out that Gingrich isn’t the only one profiting from the two lenders:

On his financial disclosure statement filed last month, Romney reported owning between $250,001 and $500,000 in a mutual fund that invests in debt notes of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, among other government entities. Over the previous year, he had reported earning between $15,001 and $50,000 in interest from those investments.

And unlike most of Romney’s financial holdings, which are held in a blind trust that is overseen by a trustee and not known to Romney, this particular investment was among those that would have been known to Romney.

Think Progress on Romney’s new ad targeting Gingrich over the Fannie-Freddie connection:

Over the weekend, Romney intends to start airing an ad that will say, “While Florida families lost everything in the housing crisis, Newt Gingrich cashed in. Gingrich was paid over $1.6 million by the scandal-ridden agency that helped create the crisis.” Shockingly enough, the ad fails to mention Romney’s own investments in the government backed mortgage giants, which have netted him tens of thousands of dollars.

Will update with the ad as soon as it’s released.

Romney Strikes Back at Gingrich After South Carolina Defeat

Romney went after Newt Gingrich with a vengeance in Ormond Beach, Florida, yesterday. He attacked both Gingrich’s career as the speaker of the House in the 1990’s, and his career as a lobbyist for mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. From Romney’s remarks:

“Speaker Gingrich has also been a leader. He was a leader for four years as speaker of the House. And at the end of four years, it was proven that he was a failed leader and he had to resign in disgrace. I don’t know whether you knew that, he actually resigned after four years, in disgrace.

He was investigated over an ethics panel and had to make a payment associated with that and then his fellow Republicans, 88 percent of his Republicans voted to reprimand Gingrich. He has not had a record of successful leadership.”

Over the last 15 years since he left the House, he talks about great bold movements and ideas........ell, what’s he been doing for 15 years? He’s been working as a lobbyist, yeah, he’s been working as a lobbyist and selling influence around Washington.”

Gingrich’s various careers, along with his personal foibles, are easy pickings for rivals. The question is, can they make it stick? I would have thought so, but then I would not have thought that evangelicals in South Carolina would go for Gingrich with his three marriages, and penchant for conducting illicit affairs on the side.

Adding........great tweet on this from David Frum:

Look on the bright side: no more family values talk from South Carolina Republicans.

Morning Quote: Sen. Tom Coburn on Newt Gingrich

“I am not inclined to be a supporter of Newt Gingrich having served under him for years and experienced personally his leadership. … because i found it lacking often times. … There are all types of leaders, leaders that instill confidence, leaders that are somewhat abrupt and brisk, leaders that have one standard for the people they are leading and a different standard for themselves. I just found his leadership lacking and I’m not going to go into greater detail on that and if you poll the group of people that came in congress in 1994, which he did a wonderful job in organizing that and he’s brilliant and has a lot of positives, but i still, I will have difficulty supporting him as President of the United States.”

- Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) on Fox News Sunday regarding the candidacy of Newt Gingrich.

Morning Quote: Publisher Joe McQuaid

“I think — and this is crazy, but so are we — that Gingrich is going to have a better time in the general election than Mitt Romney. I think it’s going to be Obama’s 99% versus the 1%, and Romney sort of represents the 1%.”

- Publisher of the New Hampshire Union Leader, Joe McQuaid on why his paper is endorsing Newt Gingrich.

Mitt Romney is indeed part of the 1 percent, but so is Newt Gingrich. Both Romney and Gingrich have spent their entire adult lives shilling for corporate dollars, both in and out of government, and both of them have serious baggage, but Newt’s baggage far exceeds that of Mitt Romney.  Truly an endorsement  that signifies the definition of the word "irony".

Quote of the Day II: George Will

“In regard to Gingrich…Gingrich's is an amazingly efficient candidacy in that it embodies almost everything disagreeable about modern Washington. He's the classic 'rental politician'. People think his problem is his colorful personal life. He's gonna hope people concentrate on that.”

- George Will (R) slams Newt Gingrich’s candidacy on This Week with Christiane Amanpour. Watch the video:

Quote of the Day: Paul Krugman

“It was his time, the Republican base doesn’t want Romney and they keep looking for an alternative, and Newt — although somebody said ‘he’s a stupid man’s idea of what a smart person sounds like,’ but he is more plausible than the other guys they’ve been pushing up.”

- Economist Paul Krugman on This Week with Christiane Amanpour, explains why Newt Gingrich is getting his day in the sun with Republicans. Watch the video:

Morning Quote: Rep. Barney Frank

Background from the Boston Globe:

It all started in October, when Gingrich during a GOP debate suggested that Frank should be imprisoned for his role in the subprime mortgage crisis. “If you want to put people in jail ... you ought to start with Barney Frank and Chris Dodd,” he said, referring to the Newton Democrat and the US senator from Connecticut. Then, following a report by Bloomberg News about Gingrich’s consulting fees from the mortgage agency, Frank today denounced Gingrich as “fundamentally intellectually dishonest.”

---

“He’s a man with no ethical core whatsoever. There are a number of conservatives whom I respect … Newt’s just never had any principles, so no I’m not surprised about this at all.”

- Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) denounces GOP presidential hopeful, Newt Gingrich.

Quote of the Week

Last night, at the Congressional Correspondents Dinner, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) made fun of Newt Gingrich for his flip flops on Libya, along with  his many wives, and then he got in a dig at Fox News. Amazing or just punked by a writer?

I was happy to see that Newt Gingrich has staked out a position on the war, a position, or two, or maybe three. I don’t know. I think he has more war positions than he’s had wives. [...]

There’s a big debate over there. Fox News can’t decide, what do they love more, bombing the Middle East or bashing the president? It’s like I was over there and there was an anchor going, they were pleading, can’t we do both? Can’t we bomb the Middle East and bash the president at the same time? How are we going to make this work?

Watch it:

One has to wonder if he wrote his own material, or got punked by a Lib speechwriter.

Via Think Progress

Morning Quote – VIDEO: Rachel Maddow on Newt & Newt Gingrich on Unemployment Compensation

One of the men who would be your president, 2012 wannabe, and pretender to seriousness, Republican Asshat, Newt Gingrich weighs in on unemployment compensation during a speech to GOP activists:

I'm opposed to giving people money for doing nothing.

And Rachel Maddow strikes back at the hypocritical and pathetic, 2012 wannabe, Newt Gingrich:

Let is review for just a second how Newt Gingrich makes his money,

For starters, he hands out fake awards in exchange for cash. Newt Gingrich makes money right now running a fake awards for small businesses scam. Last year he tried to give one of his fake awards to a small business called The Lodge in Dallas, Texas. In exchange for a $5,000 donation, Gingrich offered The Lodge, a strip club, a certificate, a novelty gavel and a dinner with him. When Mr. Gingrich realized he was giving one of his fake awards -- for a $5,000 donation -- to a strip club he decided to rescind the award and the dinner invitation. In mid-December, Gingrich sent another letter to The Lodge and asked them for a $2,000 donation to his American Solutions organization. This is how Newt Gingrich makes his money but he doesn't think that you earned yours.

Newt Gingrich is a direct mail scam artist. He hires the analog equivalent of spammers to troll the Yellow Pages, looking for businesses he can fool into thinking they are winning a 'Newt award,' and then he cons money out of them for accepting it.

 

Newt Gingrich is a Filthy Lying Hypocrite

Remember how Newt Gingrich, the Family Values Phony Poster Child, crucified Bill Clinton? Andy Ostroy does.

We surely remember how these skeevy hypocrites like Gingrich crucified Bill Clinton back in the 90's over his affair with Monica Lewinsky. He became just the second sitting president in United States history to be impeached. Yet one by one these witch-hunting hypocrites including Gingrich, Bob Barr, Henry Hyde, Robert Livingston, Helen Chenoweth, Dan Burton, John Ensign, Larry Craig and others were all subsequently embroiled in their own humiliating public sex scandals. These philandering phonies went ahead with their Clintoncide despite knowing they couldn't keep their own pants on. What unmitigated gall. 

Unmitigated gall, indeed.