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How lost are the Republicans? They're looking to Newt for answers.

Published Jun 13, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Jun 22, 2009

Sure, F. Scott Fitzgerald, our patron saint of self-pitying oblivion, declared, "There are no second acts in American lives." But only because he didn't live long enough to study the modern Republican Party. Unlike the Democrats, who promptly banish their own former presidents (Bill Who? Jimmy Who?), Republicans have a long history of summoning disgraced or discarded leaders back from their Elbas. Richard Nixon was supposedly finished after losing in California in 1962; Ronald Reagan was written off as an old has-been after 1976. Maybe it's the men's-club mentality of the GOP: once you're in, you're never, ever out.

Can Newt be next? A decade ago he all but disappeared, stepping down from the House Speaker's job in the wake of political humiliation on the Hill and stories of sordidness in his personal life. He laid low, but he never quite left town. He wrote -historical-fantasy books. He started a think tank and a lobbying business. He married for a third time and converted to Roman Catholicism. Now almost 66, he is no longer an enfant terrible, but he is still formidable.

At the dawn of the Obama era, Gingrich has remade himself as the anti-Obama. He is arguably the GOP's most influential strategist and cheerleader, and a provocative scold of the administration. Where Obama exudes the new Washington equanimity, Gingrich exalts in the old-school insult. He is ruthless in caricaturing anyone who gets in his way as a "pagan" or "statist" or "socialist" or "racist"—all words Newt has hurled in recent days. And so, wounded, rudderless and leaderless, GOP members of Congress and others on his voluminous e-mail list have returned to hear the gospel according to Newt. They speak of him with the awe of disciples. In a party without a frontrunner for 2012, admirers talk about him as a presidential candidate. "I do wish that he would run," says Joe McQuaid, publisher of the Union-Leader in Manchester, N.H., still a beacon for the right. "He has a lot to offer conservatives." Yet it is hard to shake the feeling that Gingrich's new prominence is more a sign of the GOP's desperation than faith in its future, and that his reemergence is more likely to hurt the party than help it.

CID1990 wrote:
As for Newt, well, he has the same message he had 12 years ago. He's a proclaimed fiscal conservative, but I wonder about his leadership qualities when he allowed the Contract with America to go awry. He talks a conservative game, but he might well be nothing more than another big spender.
.

CID1990 wrote:I'm a conservative and I don't listen to Rush. He has been crowned spokesman of the Republican Party by the media, nothing more.

As for Newt, well, he has the same message he had 12 years ago. He's a proclaimed fiscal conservative, but I wonder about his leadership qualities when he allowed the Contract with America to go awry. He talks a conservative game, but he might well be nothing more than another big spender.

I might be able to get on board [with] Sarah if she'd show me her titties and get me a beer.

Ivytalk wrote:Newsweek. Bunch of Obama-loving nimrods, starting with Jon Meacham and Evan Thomas and working its way down the food chain.

Rob Iola wrote:Hmm, Palin - there's just a little too much Glenn Close/Fatal Attraction in her for me...

But back to the topic, this article is pretty silly - Newt is no more the future of the GOP than Algore is for the Dems. Your 2012 mix for the presidential race, depending of course on Obama's popularity 2 years hence, centers around Romney, Palin, Jindal, Huck, and Pawlenty - plus dark horses such as Cantor.

SeattleGriz wrote:

Ivytalk wrote:Newsweek. Bunch of Obama-loving nimrods, starting with Jon Meacham and Evan Thomas and working its way down the food chain.

Good Lord I agree. Enough with the infatuation of Republicans, and their supposed downfall. How about we focus on the Messiah pouring old wine into new bottles.

Funny how this has all worked. ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and MSNBC in the tank for Dems bitching about Bush for 7 years, then when Obama wins, they continually bleat how the Repubs are dwindling.

Old hat and very lame.

TwinTownBisonFan wrote:

Rob Iola wrote:Hmm, Palin - there's just a little too much Glenn Close/Fatal Attraction in her for me...

But back to the topic, this article is pretty silly - Newt is no more the future of the GOP than Algore is for the Dems. Your 2012 mix for the presidential race, depending of course on Obama's popularity 2 years hence, centers around Romney, Palin, Jindal, Huck, and Pawlenty - plus dark horses such as Cantor.

Romney - Mormon... the evangagopers will never sit for that
Jindal - Kenneth from 30 Rock??? really?
Huck - somehow I doubt it...
Pawlenty - Governor Hockey Hair??? He's too busy running MN in to the ground... but he's the least fatally flawed of all the guys you mention...

I'd watch Kasich if he can win the OH Gov this year...
I'd have said watch John Ensign... before today...
I think the GOP is going to put a bullet in their foot and nominate Palin at this point...

SeattleGriz wrote:

Ivytalk wrote:Newsweek. Bunch of Obama-loving nimrods, starting with Jon Meacham and Evan Thomas and working its way down the food chain.

Good Lord I agree. Enough with the infatuation of Republicans, and their supposed downfall. How about we focus on the Messiah pouring old wine into new bottles.

Funny how this has all worked. ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and MSNBC in the tank for Dems bitching about Bush for 7 years, then when Obama wins, they continually bleat how the Repubs are dwindling.

Old hat and very lame.

houndawg wrote:

CID1990 wrote:I'm a conservative and I don't listen to Rush. He has been crowned spokesman of the Republican Party by the media, nothing more.

As for Newt, well, he has the same message he had 12 years ago. He's a proclaimed fiscal conservative, but I wonder about his leadership qualities when he allowed the Contract with America to go awry. He talks a conservative game, but he might well be nothing more than another big spender.

I might be able to get on board [with] Sarah if she'd show me her titties and get me a beer.

I think Newt will be a tough sell to the family values crowd. How anyone could do someone the way Newt did his first wife.......

It's going to take more than titties to get me on board with Palin. Naked lap dance or no deal.

UNI88 wrote:

houndawg wrote:
I think Newt will be a tough sell to the family values crowd. How anyone could do someone the way Newt did his first wife.......

It's going to take more than titties to get me on board with Palin. Naked lap dance or no deal.

You should aim a little higher and ask for Bristol too.

TwinTownBisonFan wrote:

Rob Iola wrote:Hmm, Palin - there's just a little too much Glenn Close/Fatal Attraction in her for me...

But back to the topic, this article is pretty silly - Newt is no more the future of the GOP than Algore is for the Dems. Your 2012 mix for the presidential race, depending of course on Obama's popularity 2 years hence, centers around Romney, Palin, Jindal, Huck, and Pawlenty - plus dark horses such as Cantor.

Romney - Mormon... the evangagopers will never sit for that
Jindal - Kenneth from 30 Rock??? really?
Huck - somehow I doubt it...
Pawlenty - Governor Hockey Hair??? He's too busy running MN in to the ground... but he's the least fatally flawed of all the guys you mention...

I'd watch Kasich if he can win the OH Gov this year...
I'd have said watch John Ensign... before today...
I think the GOP is going to put a bullet in their foot and nominate Palin at this point...

UNI88 wrote:

houndawg wrote:
I think Newt will be a tough sell to the family values crowd. How anyone could do someone the way Newt did his first wife.......

It's going to take more than titties to get me on board with Palin. Naked lap dance or no deal.

You should aim a little higher and ask for Bristol too.

houndawg wrote:

UNI88 wrote:
You should aim a little higher and ask for Bristol too.

She can get me a beer while momma gets on the floor and fcuks like a greyhound bitch.

houndawg wrote:

UNI88 wrote:
You should aim a little higher and ask for Bristol too.

She can get me a beer while momma gets on the floor and fcuks like a greyhound bitch.

BeauFoster wrote:

UNI88 wrote:
You should aim a little higher and ask for Bristol too.

I demand an immediate boycott of all things UNI88 until the Palins receive a full apology for this heinous and atrocious joke.

Grizalltheway wrote:

SeattleGriz wrote:
Good Lord I agree. Enough with the infatuation of Republicans, and their supposed downfall. How about we focus on the Messiah pouring old wine into new bottles.

Funny how this has all worked. ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and MSNBC in the tank for Dems bitching about Bush for 7 years, then when Obama wins, they continually bleat how the Repubs are dwindling.

Old hat and very lame.

You and Ivybreath need to read The Economist.

Rob Iola wrote:

TwinTownBisonFan wrote:
Romney - Mormon... the evangagopers will never sit for that
Jindal - Kenneth from 30 Rock??? really?
Huck - somehow I doubt it...
Pawlenty - Governor Hockey Hair??? He's too busy running MN in to the ground... but he's the least fatally flawed of all the guys you mention...

I'd watch Kasich if he can win the OH Gov this year...
I'd have said watch John Ensign... before today...
I think the GOP is going to put a bullet in their foot and nominate Palin at this point...

Crist from Florida (great name!) is another on the watch list.

But yes, there are flaws with all of them - but they're all far more relevant in the current GOP than Newt, who's little more than a talking head at this point. Bottom line is how winnable is 2012 - if Obama's polling as well as Clinton was in '95 (no double entendre intended, maybe), then it really doesn't matter who the GOP tosses out there.

But speaking of parallels to the '96 election and Newt, what will be revealing about the 2010 and 2012 election cycles will be whether the Conks see any Congressional/Governor gains - that would open the door to 2016 (yeesh) with (Hillary?) running against someone still in some state's legislature at this point.