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Pre-debate irreparable split

Pre-debate irreparable split

The only way Mitt Romney wins a nomination is by destroying others.  It was true in 2008, and it’s true in 2012.  He is incapable of bringing people together with positive inspiration.  He had the chance early in this cycle to prove he would not run the type of nasty campaign he ran in 2008, but when push came to shove in Iowa, he fell back on what he knows.

In 2008, the Republican insiders had someplace else to go (McCain), but they don’t this time, so the wounds will not be healed, even with the prospect of 4 more years of Obama.

Someone is going rogue, as this series of tweets (read bottom to top) based on this Politico article indicates:

In the meantime, Romney’s strategy has lifted him in the most recent polling to a substantial single digit lead:

  • And We Should Hate Newt Gingrich for This? “All the members of the Republican Party who have been complicit and collaborative in the destruction of our nation in the past few decades always talking about smaller government while never fighting against the tide of creeping socialism have now come out against Newt Gingrich.”
  • If It Ain’t Brokered, Don’t Fix It!  Part of the problem is that it feels like Romney 2012 is trying to pull off a rerun of the Obama 2008 campaign, running as a largely blank slate, letting voters of diverse ideological stripes project their desires and preferences onto him…. I’ve laid out my gripes with Newt. But Romney is making that divided convention, party-elders-look-for-a-unifying-candidate scenario look better and better each day.”
  • Florida primary pits tea party vs. cocktail party:  “Exit poll data and unmistakable anecdotal evidence from their events reflects an unfolding campaign in which Romney does best  with voters that are a lot like him — wealthy, well-educated and lukewarm about the populist tea party movement. Gingrich is appealing most to Republicans who earn under six figures, make up the core of the middle-class and are worried about their economic prospects and furious at the establishment.”
  • And Tweet of the Day:

  • More
  • No surprise, in early 1990s Romney donated to Dems while running away from Reagan.
  • Mark Levin: ““Newt Gingrich, if he does nothing else, did more for the conservative movement and to stop the liberal Democrats in the House of Representatives than virtually everybody today who is criticizing him!” You must listen to the whole thing, shame on Romney and his attack dogs.

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Comments

I hope Gingrich got a good night’s sleep and rested up his voice.

The tide of acrimony engulfing Newt makes me fear for our country’s future. There will be no meaningful change in the direction of our government if Romney wins, and we will get what we deserve. While I am prepared to take my lumps, having enjoyed the blessing of the United States, I am saddened with respect to my grandkids’ future.

    Darkstar58 in reply to Rick. | January 26, 2012 at 5:19 pm

    No, that’s where you are wrong – we don’t deserve this, and the only reason we might get stuck with it is because the self-described elites are doing anything they can to hold onto what little power they have left and forcing us into this corner.

    What we deserve is the chance to elect the person we want. We can’t do that when a portion of the party pumps huge amounts of money, organization and media shilling into a campaign against our desires. That is why we the people are taking back our party, removing RINOs and “just get along” wimps, and doing what we can to limit their power as much as the power of Democrats.

    What we deserve is what is on the horizon; either a Republican Party that listens to us or a Republican Party that once again fades off into the history books as a once-strong force that lost their way and stopped listening to their people…

      MadCon in reply to Darkstar58. | January 26, 2012 at 5:38 pm

      In other words, the national GOP is headed to irrelevancy, much like the California Republicans who are now irrelevant and out of power. California is now firmly in the hands of Democrats for the foreseeable future.

      If Romney is foisted on us, much like Meg Whitman (a moderate, billionaire businesswoman) was chosen as the California nominee for Governor, I fear the same outcome as what happened in California.

      Milwaukee in reply to Darkstar58. | January 26, 2012 at 5:40 pm

      “What we deserve is the chance to elect the person we want.” Then why can’t I vote for Palin? Because the media elite with complicit Republicans are willing to destroy her and her family. They are willing to destroy anyone who stands up to them.

      Senator Feingold of Wisconsin: ‘It isn’t over until we say it is over.’ Them there’s fighting words.

    raven in reply to Rick. | January 26, 2012 at 5:59 pm

    Newt isn’t going to lose to this hollow man. He just isn’t.

What’s interesting is that there is essentially NO coverage of how misleading Romney’s attacks on Newt have been. None. I see nothing at PJ Media, nothing at Town Hall, and nothing at Human Events.

It reminds me of Animal Farm and how the history of the revolutino got re-written, only this time it’s the history of the Reagan Revolution and the Republican ascendancy in Congress.

If Romney gets away with this, I predict bad things for the Republican Party.

I am going to renew a question I posed previously, but with a slight edit:

My question about this “Lombardi Rule”:

If the voters nominate Sarah Newt, will the GOP establishment follow the “Lombardi Rule”?

    NC Mountain Girl in reply to Valerie. | January 26, 2012 at 5:05 pm

    I thought Rush used this tactic in his ironic way today in his segment where he repeated how surprised he was to learn these things about Newt before and after he talked about his memories of Newt from the 1980s.

I am praying Newt hits it out of the park in the debate (again) and it shifts the tide. The GOP establishment is disgraceful with the slash and burn politics on a fellow GOPer.

They’re all acting like liberals. If we act like liberals, we will lose in November.

    Darkstar58 in reply to Since1776. | January 26, 2012 at 5:11 pm

    Tell Romney to stop the Alinksy-style attacks and Newt will go right back to his original campaign style of “Message not Messy”

    Of course, Mitt has absolutely nothing to run on other then slander and lies; so I guess we are stuck with his low-life game…

Windy City Commentary | January 26, 2012 at 4:53 pm

Drudge is now highlighting that Bob Dole is Trashing Newt. It front and center with big red letters. I’m sure Drudge will keep it up the rest of the day.

    Anyone who remembers Bob Dole, “the tax collector for the welfare state”, should take this as an endorsement of Newt. Dole prided himself on making deals, no matter how bad the deal was or how much he had to sell out the conservative side. The thing was the deal. Gingrich was not about deals. Gingrich was about victory. 1994 was no more an accident than was the collapse of the Soviet Union. Both were pushed. In 1994 it was Gingrich pushing out the compromising, sold-out Republicans for people that still cared about the Reagan Revolution.

      Not just the tax collector for the welfare state, but the spouse of nanny-stater Liddy Dole.

      (Pipe down, my conscience. The Doles are a political couple like the Clintons. Mentioning Liddy is fair play.)

    JimMtnViewCaUSA in reply to Windy City Commentary. | January 26, 2012 at 5:30 pm

    I read about a Dole endorsement in comments on another website.

    I assumed it was a bit of clever snark. OMG.

    Kewl. The coveted Bob Dole Endorsement. And a diss from Tom Delay too. Really Kewl.

Bob Dole. In 1996 I wrote in my vote for President. That’s the only time I’ve done that. Why am I unimpressed with his opinion?

I just caught part of a radio interview between Hannity and Romney. He’s stuttering and stammering and hitting Newt on all of the things that came out today.

This attack was planned by the Romney camp, you can bet on it. On the Romney team is Norm Coleman, a man who used the Democratic party to get elected then switched to the Republican party, and cannot be trusted.
Hell, he’s so distrusted here in Minnesota that he got beat by Al Franken, for cripes sake!

Henry Hawkins | January 26, 2012 at 5:07 pm

What we are seeing is why a truly free press is incredibily important to our country. If what happened in 2008 (refusal to vet Obama, or criticize him since), and what is happening now are what they appear to be – the cooption of the media by political forces – then the vote franchise has been essentially removed from the American people.

First, Awesome quote of the day!

Anyway, the most important thing of this cycle is the one thing you never, ever, ever hear about – the fact that Romney is so disliked by the masses that there has been a “Non-Romney” voting block of about 50-60% of the base since day one.

That is the person the Establishment shows they will do anything to force us to vote for – a person that between half to 3/4 of us want nothing to do with!

This race is going to be one of the last straws for the Establishment. The Tea Party mentality of targeting both Dems and RINOs alike is going to hit a fever pitch if we are forced to vote for a candidate that Governed Left of Obama just to make sure the Establishment gets to keep all the king-like powers they have accumulated over the years.

A vote for Romney means “throw them all out” becomes the 2012 slogan most likely to be heard. It also means there will likely be huge scandal (and more of the “he isn’t a legitimate President”/”do away with the Electoral College” nonsense) faced as Mitt is unlikely to win the popular vote even if he does somehow pull out the election (Romney will struggle in Red states, lowering the overall vote totals while Obama will have huge voter totals from the big-city states like CA, IL and NY)

The electoral gains of 2010 were due to incompetent Democrat overreaching and to grass-roots activism. The Republican Establishment, which brought us the blowout losses of 2006/8, did bupkis to repair the country’s loss of confidence in the GOP.

Now that there is a real chance of unseating the incumbent President, the Establishment demands to be in charge–or else. And combines its hypocrisy with character assassination.

Iirc the founder of the Christian religion stated that elegant facades can house rot and filth.

Subotai Bahadur | January 26, 2012 at 5:17 pm

OCBill @ January 26, 2012 at 4:39 pm

Forcing Romney on the base will mean a loss of both the presidential race, and down ticket. If you work real hard to hack off your base of supporters, when you are not credibly presenting ANY reason that you will be different than the Enemy; there is no reason to come out and vote, let along work for a candidate. The biggest disaster for the Institutional Republicans would be holding the House, taking the Senate, and Romney squeaking out a win somehow. The abject failure of the Institutionals to govern in any way that the Democrats would disapprove of would, will mean an active Third Party movement by July 2013. Followed by a Whig-like collapse of the Republican party. Which means that they really have no intention of winning the presidency.

donb @ January 26, 2012 at 4:39 pm

As far as the Institutional Republicans are concerned, the Lombardi Rule only counts for their candidates. If the base nominates someone that the Institutionals disapprove of, the Institutionals will reflexively work to elect a Democrat over their own putative candidate. We have seen it repeatedly all over the country for the last decade or so. They prefer Democrats to their own base.

As far as the dis-endorsements by Dole, et.al. I can only say that you are known by the quality of your enemies.

Subotai Bahadur

    MaggotAtBroadAndWall in reply to Subotai Bahadur. | January 26, 2012 at 6:36 pm

    Not only is there no reason to come out and vote if Willard is the nominee, I am so disgusted by Ramesh Ponnuru and almost everybody at NRO except Walsh, Coulter, Drudge, Bob Dole, and especially how Willard has conducted his campaign that I am seriously considering changing my registration so I can vote for Obama if Willard is the nominee.

    And I fricking DESPISE everything Obama is doing to the country. I have NEVER voted for a Democrat for ANY office before in my life. EVER. In 30 years of voting.

    If they insist on pushing this Obama clone on us, then I may as well vote for the authentic far left liberal.

NC Mountain Girl | January 26, 2012 at 5:32 pm

Republicans seem to have this fight once a generation. Reagan won the nomination in 1980 almost solely because of the grass roots. The DC establishment was disdainful because a lot of his support came from voters who had been registered Democrats or for Wallace in 1968, had become independents after that and only registered as Republicans to support Reagan in 1976. I was living in a caucus state at the time and the GHW Bush people were pretty snarky by 198o standards about all the newcomers taking over “their” Republican party. Some of them were so die hard they supported Anderson in the general election.

NRO has a “message” from Bob Dole.

But Oh. Please. The message is obviously a fake.
Everybody knows that Bob Dole always speaks in the 3rd person. As soon as I came upon the usage of “I” it clearly was a obvious fake.

Bob Dole knows that Bob Dole would never talk in the 1st person.

Someone once said that there are 2 rules on the internet. 1) Don’t cross Matt Drudge and 2) I forgot the other one.

I think waaaaay back in the early Drudgereport days, Newt probably said something dismissive to Matt regarding Monica and Bill etc. That was when Matt made his bones in the news. Probably Newt laughed at him or his hat or something. And for that, the Drudge curse! (cue Stevie Wonder : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CFuCYNx-1g )

holmes tuttle | January 26, 2012 at 5:48 pm

After the past few days I would fully support Newt running 3rd party. Or would fully support Trump if he did so. And yes I know what that means. After this week I’m ok with it.

Rick Santorum has the power to stop this GOP mess right now.

    Sherlock in reply to janitor. | January 26, 2012 at 5:57 pm

    Yep. I generally like the guy but he has no chance right now and he has to know it. He needs to “take it on the chin” and get out and endorse Newt so that conservatives have a chance.

      StrangernFiction in reply to Sherlock. | January 26, 2012 at 6:20 pm

      He could do one better by unloading on Mitt tonight and then getting out and endorsing Newt. I’d be happy with any of the three.

    JackRussellTerrierist in reply to janitor. | January 26, 2012 at 7:47 pm

    Yes, he does. If he were to fall on his sword now, he would earn my undying respect. I like the man, but I don’t know how strong his character really is. Does he want the best for this country, or will he be petulant? I’ve always liked him and had a fairly good opinion of him even though I disagree with him on a few things. But this is the moment for him to fish or cut bait in the character department. Sure, it’s his choice and his right to stay in, and I know he has many well-meaning supporters who are good people behind him and urging him to fight on, but a real leader would look at the cold, hard facts and do the right thing.

“What is called the splendour of a throne is no other than the corruption of the state. It is made up of a band of parasites, living in luxurious indolence, out of public taxes. When once such a vicious system is established it becomes the guard and protection of all inferior abuses. The man who is in the receipt of a million a year is the last person to promote a spirit of reform, lest, in the event, it should reach to himself.”

~ Thomas Paine
Rights of Man, Part the Second, Chapter IV “Of Constitutions”

holmes tuttle | January 26, 2012 at 6:04 pm

Great point above. Ive never cared all that much for Santorum, but if he drops out and endorses Newt he’ll be a hero of mine forever.

Newt should promise him the cabinet post of his choice

How can Santorum in good conscience stay in and help someone who supported abortion up to 2004? Who vowed to protect the right to choose and agreed with Roe? How?

    holmes tuttle in reply to holmes tuttle. | January 26, 2012 at 6:14 pm

    I mean, Rick Santorum is arguably the most pro life Senator in the history of the Senate. He’s a warrior for life. It’s his #1 issue.

    When Rick Santorum was leading the fight against partial birth abortion. When he was standing up in the Senate and making impassioned pleas on behlaf of the unborn and standing up to Barbara Boxer and the abortion lobby, Mitt Romney was telling Planned Parenthood he agreed with Roe v Wade, was telling MA he would preserve and protect a woman’s right to choose, was signing laws establishming $50 copays for abortion and appointing planned parenthood board members to a key position on a state healthcare panel and his wife was donating to planned parenthood.

    How does Rick Santorum look himself in the mirror and know that his staying in only helps Romney and could possibly deliver him the nomination? How does someone who cares so much about life do anything at all to help someone with such a disgraceful record as Romney on the issue?

    I so hope he sees the light.

    JackRussellTerrierist in reply to holmes tuttle. | January 26, 2012 at 7:54 pm

    I agree. Right now in the WH we have a enuuch who thinks an unplanned pregnancy is punishing a woman with a baby and that unborn human beings who survive abortion attempts should be killed. Surely Rick can see that there will be no progress made against abortion as long as we have pro-abortion candidates. If he really cares aboout the unborn, he will step aside and suppport Newt so that obastardcare can be repealed. He must see that that can never happen under Romney – Romneycare, let alone the fact that Romney supported abortion until it was more politically expedient not to.

johnnycab23513 | January 26, 2012 at 6:10 pm

NOW can we think about a third party?

Yes, third party is the way forward. Damn the torpidos full speed ahead.

holmes tuttle | January 26, 2012 at 6:18 pm

And where is Huckabee? Is he also content to let a guy like Romney who trashed him last time get the nomination?

Huckabee also cares about abortion deeply. Is he ok with a guy with Romney’s record getting the nomination?

A Huckabee endorsement would be huge. Or even a statement that he’s not endrosing Romney. That we need someone with ha strong, consistent pro-life record. Even a Palin-esque, “I’d vote for Newt so this process continues past FL” would be good. That’d be enough.

All these guys sitting and back and doing nothing, staying on the sidelines, while someone who has done everything he could and spent millions to personally attack them, whose record is an insult to the very issues they care so deeply about, is going forward.

It’s very disappointing.

[…] via » Pre-debate irreparable split – Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion. […]

Brian Higgins | January 26, 2012 at 6:34 pm

Can you discuss the pundits generally thought of as conservative who are backing Romney, and attacking Gingrich? How long would it take for Byron York to get behind Gingrich if he is nominated? How long would it take for Ann Coulter (to give an extreme example) after what has been said by her? Name your favorite Romney-backing pundit disappointments and say why. Please exclude Drudge. He’s a special instance.

holmes tuttle | January 26, 2012 at 6:35 pm

Let me also say as somewhat who does support Newt that I do think all these attacks have damaged him and the establishment is clearly full stop against him. At some point the attacks overwhelm. At some point it becomes too much. I believe they will actively oppose him even if he gets the nomination and will still attack him during the general. They will continue the past few days for the next 9 months. You will see establishment Republicans endorse Obama a la Powell in 2008. You will see people like Christie and other Romney backers state they will not support Newt and will not campaign with him and will not appear at the convention and will remain neutral. They will help Obama win so that Jeb Bush can run in 2016.

I firmly belive that 100%. They’d rather have Obama win than Newt. I have no doubts on that score.

I think Newt may realize this as well. I know he has a big ego, but it may be time to show some modesty. If he really wants to stop Romney, and I suecpted he does. If he really wants to get back at the establishment, and I suspect he does, it seems to me there is one option.

He stands down and supports someone who will carry the banner against Romney and the establishment.

It may be Santorum. It may be someone else.

Imagine if he said at tonight’s debate “I am fully endorsing Rick Santorum and urge all my supporters to vote for him. Conservatives must come together to stop this effor by Romney and the establishment to marginalize us, to marginailze the tea party, to return to the status quo of the Bush years.”. That’d be a huge development.

Maybe it’s someone new. I don’t who. Huckabee? DeMint? Cain? Palin? Someone who can continue that tea party support and unite conservatives against the establishment and Romney.

But sometimes when you’re overwhelmed you need to change course. Newt knows history. He knows how disastrous Pickett’s Charge was. He knows about how the US retreated from the Chosin Reservoir in Korea to regroup and fight another day and land at Inchoen.

Sometimes if you’re double and triple teamed you need to pass the ball to the open guy in the corner who is wide open for the game winning shot rather than taking the shot yourself with 3 hands right in your face.

    Sherlock in reply to holmes tuttle. | January 26, 2012 at 6:47 pm

    You make some good points but it seems clear that the conservatives prefer Newt and you have to tell me why you think that the establishment would not use the exact same tactics on the other “Not Romneys”.

      holmes tuttle in reply to Sherlock. | January 26, 2012 at 6:51 pm

      I think there might be someone else who doesn’t have all the specific personal baggage that Newt has. Who wouldn’t be seen by the establishment as a disaster and unelectable. For example, Huckabee was doing very well against Obama earlier last year before he got out.

      Huckabee is generally well liked. He doesn’t have the adultery and personal issues. He doesn’t have all the establishment people who hate him going back to the 80s and 90s.

      Yes, he’d be attacked but I don’t think it’d be as effective. Also, it would be so obvious that the establishment was just doing anything possibleto save Romney I think it would backfire.

        JackRussellTerrierist in reply to holmes tuttle. | January 26, 2012 at 8:22 pm

        The GOP establishment is backing Romney. On that we agree. But you go on to speak of Newt’s “baggage.” He’s got a whiny ex and an unfounded ethics charge, which is a helluva lot less than what obastard has for “baggage.” Newt has a good record as Speaker and driving the juggernaut that brought the House back to the ‘pubs after 40 years in the wilderness. Romney has Romneycare for baggage. Hell, that isn’t “baggage.” That’s an entire ocean-going freighter, yet the establishment backs him. So what makes you think the establishment would be any kinder to Huck or anybody else? What you’re suggestinging isn’t borne out by the facts.

I wouldn’t mind the attacks, if they were factual.

    JackRussellTerrierist in reply to Valerie. | January 26, 2012 at 8:24 pm

    I would mind them if they’re factual…..but irrelevant, which most of them are. Newt may pick his nose, too. That may well be a fact. So what?

holmes tuttle | January 26, 2012 at 6:48 pm

Must see video from 2008. Must see. Romney on FOX News saying “Bob Dole is the last guy I’d want to see write a letter for me” and laughs as he says it. He then goes on to attack Dole as a loser, but basiclly describes his own camapign this year in the process.

In light of Dole’s letter to NRO today, this takes on new relevance and this video must be seen by everyone.

If anyone knows someoine in the Newt campaign or how to get in touch with them please contact them and make them aware:

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2011/12/18/how_times_change.html

Hopefully Newt is made aware of it as well.

The video is crystal clear. Just the latest in a long line of flip flops. But the connection to the recent attack led by Dole is striking.

I don’t know how t oembed but if the Prof does maybe could do a separate post with the video embedded for all to see and get this wider publicity. Send it around to a bunch of other blogs as well. Rush. Levin, etc… Get it out there.

I would rather have Obama than Romney. Argument as follows:
1) Mitt can’t possibly fix the problems.
–a) Advisors say he won’t repeal Obamacare,
–b) Advisors say they would negotiate with taliban.
–c) Tax proposals give into class warfare and won’t help the economy.
–d) the man has no foreign policy.
2) Given 1), Democrats could say in 2016 “SEE, I told you they had no solutions” and win the presidency back from Mitt.
3) By 2020 we’re Greece and it won’t matter much anymore.
4) Given 1,2), Rather have the democrats oversee the mess that will be the next four years instead of Mitt. Then maybe, with a new party a Palin (or a Jindal, or a Perry) could rise and fight the good fight.

That being said, I am hoping and praying that Newt will win the nomination, defeat Obama and LEAD US to fix the problems facing the nation.

This is my first post here, after Newsmax, L-I. is the only other source I can rely on these days for accurate reports on the election, glad to make y’all acquaintance.

    MadCon in reply to JDmyrm. | January 26, 2012 at 7:38 pm

    Welcome, JDmyrm,

    Your post makes me think of the parallels between this coming Presidential election and the 2010 California Gubernatorial election. The California Republican Party favored Meg Whitman who was the moderate billionaire businesswoman to run against “Moonbeam” Jerry Brown. They thought her jobs/economy message would appeal to moderates and Independents and win out over the liberal Jerry Brown. Oh, how wrong they were.

    Jerry Brown won by a comfortable margin (53.8% Brown to 40.9% Whitman). When I asked some friends of mine why they voted for Brown over Whitman, considering that Whitman was an experienced businesswoman, the answer was: “Better to vote for the devil you know versus the devil you don’t.” Another reason they voted for Brown was that they didn’t trust Whitman’s big-money big-corporate background. The economy started picking up a little before the election too, and a manufactured scandal over Whitman’s illegal-immigrant maid was leaked out.

    The California Republicans are now stuck in irrelevancy and are out of power. The governorship and the entire California Legislature is Democratic and will likely remain that way until California sinks under its own financial weight.

    I see the same ominous parallels if Mitt is our nominee. He’ll run as the experienced businessman moderate against Obama, but in the end people will pick the devil they know (Obama) since they don’t trust Mitt’s big-money big-business connections. The economy will likely also look better by then too, and maybe the Democrats will also bring out the old scandal right before the election involving Mitt’s illegal-immigrant yardwork/garden labor at one of his mansions.

    The national GOP will then sink into irrelevancy much like the California Republican Party has.

You know that Mitt must be going into “unstable” territory when even a liberal, Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo, says this about Romney’s nasty 2-page mailer against Newt:

“01.26.2012 — 12:21 PM
Erratic, Reckless, Grandiose

As I’ve told people a few times: wake me up when the Romney campaign schedules a press call with a psychiatrist. Then I’ll know things are getting serious. This anti-Newt mailer sent out by the Romney campaign isn’t quite that. But it’s close.

Josh Marshall”

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/01/erratic_reckless_grandiose.php?ref=fpblg

Here are images of the mailer at WaPo, and yes they’re nasty:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/romney-paints-gingrich-as-mentally-unstable/2012/01/26/gIQAM2b0SQ_blog.html

Another great post at Riehl World View: http://www.riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2012/01/more-incompetence-from-mitt-didnt-hide-swiss-bank-account-in-time.html

Big Ooops–Looks like Mitt forgot to hide his Swiss bank account in time. He is so incompetent and the establishment thinks he is the one to get us out of the mess we are in.

holmes tuttle | January 26, 2012 at 7:18 pm

At least Obama killed Bin Laden. What has Romney done? He’s sais that islam has nothing to do with terrorism.

That Romney/Dole video I linked above is even better. After he attacks Dole, Mitt says “the next in line, the inevitable choice, lets give it to him, and then it won’t work”(in reference to the similiarity between McCain and Dole in 08).

But his exact words apply to him today.

It would be a devastating ad for Newt to run of Romney saying those 4 lines above, and then cut to Newt saying “I totally agree with Governor Romney. We need a new choice. We don’t have to let the establishment lead us down the same path they have in the past. Others talk about how they will change Washington, I can debate President Obama and tell the Ameircan people how I did change Wsahington. Balanced budgets, reduced spending, economic growth, 4% unemployment, entitlement reform, 11 million new jobs. I’m Newt Gingrich and I approve this message.

holmes tuttle | January 26, 2012 at 7:23 pm

BTW, Re Eliot Abrams. Do you all know he’s married to current Commentary editor John Podhoretz’s sister? That he’s married to the daugher of Commentary founder Norman Podhoretz? that Commentary has generally backed Romney? All these establishment ties go way back and they’re all intertwined and connected, even by family in some cases.

Also, that Eliot Abrams was pardoned for Iran Contra by Bush41. The same Bush41 who endorsed Romney and who hates Newt for defeating his tax hike and who he blames for his loss to Clinton.

I’m not surprised at that connection, either.

    I saw someone else mention Iran-Contra last night. Does it make sense now why Abrams wrote in his NRO hit piece?

    The best examples come from a famous floor statement Gingrich made on March 21, 1986. This was right in the middle of the fight over funding for the Nicaraguan contras; the money had been cut off by Congress in 1985, though Reagan got $100 million for this cause in 1986.

    From today:

    Attention Elliott Abrams on Newt: Did Daniels, Barbour, Rollins Know?

    by Jeffrey Lord, former Reagan White House political director and author.

    But quite specifically, if Elliott Abrams ever was seriously concerned about Newt Gingrich’s relationship with Ronald Reagan he never… ever… brought it to the attention of the White House political office. To the best of my knowledge.

    Or… he did. And the answers are there to be had from Governors Daniels and Barbour and from Ed Rollins.

    IMHO, we are seeing serious, vicious payback from decades old feuds.

    If Abrams was so concerned, then why didn’t he mention it to Lord?

    Elliot Abrams wife is Jennifer Rubin, who as you mentioned is the sister of John Podhoretz.

Just stopped by Hot Air. The hits are coming in so hard and fast against Gingrich that this day reminds me of the day that Palin became McCain’s VP nominee — suddenly we were awash in one awful story about this woman after another.

OMG, did you know that Gingrich proposed building a real Jurassic Park???? AND a colony on the moon??? ZOMG!!! Seriously, we must rally behind Romney the progressive to prevent this madman from winning the nomination and making the Beltway Republicans laughingstocks!!!! :p

Tonight is Newt’s big chance. If he survives and flourishes, they are out of their despicable ammo. They got nothing left. Let’s go Newt. Show em how you fight!

holmes tuttle | January 26, 2012 at 7:41 pm

Levin needs to endorse Newt. If Romney wins FL that’s it. I know Mark like Santorum but he has to be honest and see that Rick has no chance in FL. None. Newt is the only one who can beat Romney in FL. The only one.

He needs all the help he can get. Only Newt can defeat the establishment right now. Standing by is and doing nothing is helping Romney.

Endorsements for Newt by Levin and Limbaugh and Hannity would be huge. Sean is a good friend of Newt’s. He knows him from back in his days in Atlanta before he was a big star. Newt was a big help to Sean’s early career. Rush has talked about Newt was the only one defending Reagan on CSPAN in the 80s and how those speeches were inspring to him and taught him conservatism.

Those 3 endorsing Newt would be huge. There’s still time for them to make a difference. If not now, when? Time is running out. We need all the help we can get. Everything.

Levin clearly doesn’t like Romney. Santorum is done. Mark has to see that. The best thing he can do to stop Romney is endorse Newt. He needs to be convinced of that.

A great line for Newt to use at the debate “In this present crisis, putting the same GOP establishment that got us into this mess back in power is not the solution to the problem we face, the GOP establishment IS the problem. The establishment MUST be defeated.”

Would be a great way to pay tribute to Reagan’s inaugural and every true Reaganite would instantly get it.

Last week on Hannity’s TV show, Gingrich predicted the Establishment would lose its mind if he looked like he was going to win Florida. He was right.

The rot is deep. Two weeks ago, I wrote an essay about Rush Limbaugh’s systematic demolition of Gingrich, starting with Limbaugh’s inexplicable failure to praise Gingrich for running an ideas-only campaign, which Limbaugh advocated heavily for months. That, and Limbaugh’s chortling glee at Romney’s demolition of Gingrich, and refusal to condemn Romney for such tactics. “American Thinker” rejected the essay, very nastily I might add. It started a back-and-forth; when I provided proof (Limbaugh’s online caricature of Newt is the most vicious I can ever recall of a Republican, and the snotty way Rush treats pro-Newt callers), they just stopped talking to me.

Now Limbaugh is actively propagating lies as though they’re factual. When this fetid pile of garbage was being dumped, Limbaugh grabbed a shovel and pitched in. I used to be a Rush fan. No more.

Whoever wins, when the dust settles, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Matt Drudge, American Spectator, National Review, etc. ad infinitum, will discover the consequences for selling their souls. It won’t be pretty for any of them, and the conservative movement/media will be grievously wounded. Thanks, sellouts.

I think the RINO losers ran Gingrich out of D.C. 15 years ago because he was an assertive, conservative winner, not a me-too Dem-lite loser. Now they’re scared to death he’ll come back to D.C. All stops are out. If only they were a fraction as brutal to Democrats as to conservatives.

After my initial shock and dismay, I’ve stepped back with some hope.

There’s a debate tonight. Hopefully Newt is primed and ready.

Additionally, there may be a backlash against this vileness.

And I think the polls are rigged. Romney somehow surges almost 20 points (from -8 to +9) in just 4 days? With only negative anti-Gingrich messages? I’m not buying it.

The “fix” is in. I hope Newt beats it.

Henry Hawkins | January 26, 2012 at 8:52 pm

I’ve been checking the Media Research Center’s NewsBusters website to see if they’re addressing any of the more over the top Gingrich character assassinations among the squish media. Not a peep.

Hmmmmm.

Speaking as a conservative since 1993, after watching the same kinds of smears from the Romney Campaign in 2008 and now in 2011 that have been common from the political left all these years, I will never support Romney and will support a 3rd party candidate or stay home if none exists. Also, after seeing the Republican establishment join in the same kinds of distortions and smears we’ve seen against conservatives from the left, I will be changing my party affiliation from Republican to Independent. I do not believe I’m alone here either.

    Darkstar58 in reply to EricM. | January 26, 2012 at 9:53 pm

    Please dont stay home, its a poor idea.

    Now, I agree with you on the “cant vote for Romney” stance and have been in and out of that boat for a few months. So not telling you to vote for him – but there are two other important aspects if you do vote otherwise

    1) You support Republicans in the state elections
    2) You have the chance to vote for the Green party and ideally get them their 5% so they can get FedFunding and hopefully start slitting the Dem vote down the road.

    Its my plan if Paul (and possibly Mitt) gets our nomination.

It is profound the contrast of the two candidates when you compare what they actually DID on both the conservative and liberal ledger versus what they are SAYING what they would/would not support. In other words, WHAT DID THEY DO WITH THEIR POWER WHEN THEY HAD IT? (sorry for shouting). My comparison here: http://www.politijim.com/2012/01/stats-on-what-newt-and-mitt-did-not.html

Weren’t the GOP insiders whining about how the TP was going to split the GOP? Seems like they’re doing a pretty good job of that themselves.

At one point most people were in the ABO camp – until it looked like that camp meant conservatives must fall in line behind the establishments approved choice – not any crass unPresidential voter choice. Now all we hear is how if we keep thinking there is some option other than Mitt we’re going to give the election to BO and doom the GOP to wander in the wilderness for decades.

    Henry Hawkins in reply to katiejane. | January 27, 2012 at 1:52 pm

    It takes two sets of folks to ‘split’. One moves. The other chooses either to move with them, avoiding a split, to stay where they are, or to move in the opposite direction. A large faction of the GOP moved right – the Tea Party folks. The establishment GOP opted to remain where they were. The resultant split is necessarily caused by the combination of choices. The GOP has split, but it is no more the fault of the Tea Party than it is the GOP establishment.

Friday Fratricide, the GOP Debate Circular Firing Squad edition…

Pundette has Newt fatigue. I imagine there’s going to be a lot of that going around, egged on by the GOP Establishment….