Jennifer Rubin needs an intervention. Someone needs to convince her to stop beclowning herself in the Mittquest, Gingrich: The phony intellectual:
When many in the mainstream media and far too many conservatives who should know better swoon over [Newt’s] pronouncements, the cannier on the right and left justifiably roll their eyes in disgust. Gingrich’s mind is an attic of throwaway, unusable and downright goofy ideas, piled high like newspapers in the room of a troubled subject on “Hoarders.” The volume is great, the quality is shoddy.
Puhlese, Shudder.
Ace, who has been no fan of Newt, sums it up nicely:
Update: Jennifer Rubin’s Romneyphilia Under Attack (via Protein Wisdom):
But to pretend that Rubin’s continual swipes at others (Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain, Rick Perry) are anything other than her inability to control a serious case of Establishment-media approved Romneyphilia is not something that will be allowed by her readers.
Take a look at the comments following her latest rip on Mr. Gingrich.
Ouch.
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I tried to read Robert Bork’s “Slouching Toward Gomorrah.” I gave up after awhile. Too bad Bork is so stupid, he can’t write a book I can comprehend.
It really is pathetic and sad to see what has become of JR. I used to read her every morning, without fail, when she was at Commentary, and she can be quite good. No more. I’m beginning to doubt that she will even vote for the GOP nominee if it is anyone but Romney.
Incidentally, the big-media supporters of Romney are always holding not-Romney supporters’ feet to the fire – “An abstention on Romney is a vote for Obama” – but they never exactly come forward themselves and ringingly proclaim their intention to not abstain if Romney is NOT the nominee. It’s funny because the not-Romney supporters are lambasted by these folks as purist, fanatical yahoos – but just read Rubin on any given day. Her devotion to her man would be comical if it didn’t represent the tragedy of a pretty good mind going to pot. And I have little doubt that David Frum will vote for Obama if anyone but Romney seals the deal for the GOP (not sure if he’d swallow his bile and vote for Gingrich).
The point is – and I don’t want to generalize to all or the majority of Romney’s supporters, some of whom are welcome guests here – a good deal of his bigger-name boosters do not at all make it clear what their motives are, and that’s part of what puts off those of us who aren’t in their camp. They seem like they’re trying to pull something on us. In Rubin’s case, it too often seems like she cares more about getting Romney in office than about beating Obama. Jonathan Tobin at Commentary has basically been reduced to giving campaign advice to Romney in the guise of dispassionate, er, commentary. It’s the dishonesty of it all, the pseudo-neutral partisanship that is usually the terrain of the lefty MSM, that provokes suspicion: If Romney is so bloody amazing, why do these folks have to defend him this way?
I was never a Palinista, but those of you who are have my sympathies – to be derided as irrationally faithful to an ideal candidate by people like JR and DF, who really should just go ahead and make official their Church of the Great God Mittens, must be unbearable.
I think everyone hesitates about supporting Newt. He has always been more intellectual than idealogical and he has been fighting the dems so long its easy to take things he has done to fight them out of context. I think we have to keep the eye on the ball and look at him in context about what he has advocated for a most of time in service over what he has said he or there when we were in pitched battles over major policies.
Let’s grant that Newt is an intellectual. But beyond that, where are Rubin and Ferguson wrong about the scattered, inconsistent, statist and liberal nature of many of his views?
Throw in the hypocrisy of his blasting Barney Frank and others over Freddie Mac when he had been on its payroll, and it’s hard to see why GOP voters would want him.
I have been reading Rubin for a while. But, I have been quite disappointed by her salivating over Romney and then bitterly, offensively, and viciously attacking any Republican candidate who challenges Romney. This week it is Gingrich. Last week it was Cain. And, the week before, it was Perry. In order to sustain these attacks, she has degenerated to strawman and over the top rhetoric. All the while, she says little about Romney.
Yesterday, I had enough. On one of the myriad anti Gingrich threads, I posted I was deleting her from my Google Reader and promptly did so. There is no way she ever regain my confidence in her analytical ability on any topic at any time. She has deteriorated to just a partisan clone of Ezra Klein and Greg Sergant. I congratulate Rubin on trashing herself. The Washington Post deserves her.
Indeed. She has proven to be a mendacious messenger (if you recall, we got some early glimpses of this during the debate over the Arizona immigration law, where she was foaming at the mouth in opposition – I gave her a pass there, but this shrill “I xoxoxo Romney” business is way too much).
Shame.
It’s true that Newt can be wacky. But nothing compared to Sir Isaac Newton, who once stuck a bunch of small foreign bodies behind his eyeballs (true story) as an experiment to discover how much of what we see is free will and how much is predetermined. Had to spent two weeks in the dark to recover.
The thought of Newt in a debate with Obama makes me weep with joy. The thought of Mitt debating Obama makes me want to stick small foreign bodies behind my eyeballs.
Hahaha! A+
+1
Rubin has never been a conservative and she should not be taken seriously by anyone who is.
Mr. Finkelstein – It’s one thing to criticize Gingrich for being “scattered, inconsistent, statist and liberal.” It’s quite another for Rubin to do so while pimping the GOP candidate who most embodies these characteristics, Mitt Romney.
What’s happened to Jennifer Rubin?
I used to love to read her writing at Commentary.
Maybe I’m a bit obtuse (won’t be the first time) and she was always this way and I didn’t see it.
Bring back the old Jennifer Rubin … or give that precious WaPo web space to the good Professor!
Frankly, I have found Jennifer hasn’t changed a bit since her Commentary days, with the notable exception of a new outlet.
But I again take issue with the premise of this posting.
Is an “intellect” what this country needs most in its president? Listen, Newt has been banging the drum for decades, few question his intellect, his ability to debate, and his other rhetorical skills.
I take issue with the premature cessation of vetting just because the light has shined on this fair haired man.
Frankly, the most I read about his vacillations between liberal and conservative the more troubling I find it. He was for an individual mandate on healthcare for those making $50,000 or more as recent as March 2011? He and Mitt essentially take ObamaCare off the table as a bone of contention should they become the nominee.
He also castigated the Ryan Plan in March 2011, calling it “conservative social reengineering,” and said the era of Ronald Reagan is over.
What good is intelligence when it is employed to further the liberal agenda?
With the now numerous backtracks of previously taken positions by Newt, the man is either untrustworthy or unreliable.
The thing I find most troubling about Romney is that the MSM wants to crown him the Republican nominee. That means they think they can demonize him and hand the election to Obama – again.
Wonder what they’ve got on him we don’t know about (yet)?
You realize that Gov. Deval Patrick and the Obama campaign have filed a FOIA request for records based upon Romney’s term as governor. That was announced just yesterday.
i encourage rubin to hold the course. i believe many people find her and the other establishment guardians irritating. this irritation will be expressed by voting against the guardian’s favorite. as an added bonus, the guardians will further discredit themselves – why would anyone believe what she has to say about the primaries?
I wonder if Jennifer Rubin and Allahpundit are actually the same person.