Hullabaloo

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

 
Newtie on the spit

by digby

Americablog did a partial round-up of the rough treatment Newt Gingrich is getting from his fellow Republicans:

Majority Leader Eric Cantor, via The Hill:

"There's no question there was a misspeak here," Cantor said on WLS radio in Chicago. "Just to sit here while all but three Hosue Republicans voted for the Ryan budget, to somehow portray that as a radical step, I believe, is a tremendous misspeak."

Cantor advised Gingrich to explain his comments and "get back on board with what we're trying to do."

Tea Party leaders:

Gingrich’s spending call irritates his base
GOP hopeful urges more Alzheimer’s research

WSJ ed board:

Gingrich to House GOP: Drop Dead
Newt undermines his former comrades on Medicare.

GOP Voter in Iowa yesterday (VIDEO):

Voter: You’re an embarrassment to our party.

Gingrich: I’m sorry you feel that way.

Voter: Why don’t you get out before you make a bigger fool of yourself.

And now Nikki Haley, who rang up CNN’s Peter Hamby to let loose.

"What he said was absolutely unfortunate," Haley told CNN in a phone interview. "Here you've got Representative Ryan trying to bring common sense to this world of insanity, and Newt absolutely cut him off at the knees."

"When you have a conservative fighting for real change, the last thing we need is a presidential candidate cutting him off at the knees," she added.

TPM has more:

Dick Armey, who had a legendarily tempestuous relationship with Gingrich when they were in the House leadership together and is now a Tea Party organizer, told Politico that Newt was "confused and conflicted" on policy.

"We always say: Newt always has so many great ideas," Armey said. "Well yeah, but then he shifts between them at such a rate it's pretty hard to track it let alone keep up with it."

The conservative press wasn't any kinder, as contributors to the National Review and the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal unloaded on the former Speaker in a piece entitled "Gingrich to House GOP: Drop Dead."

"The episode reveals the Georgian's weakness as a candidate, and especially as a potential President -- to wit, his odd combination of partisan, divisive rhetoric and poll-driven policy timidity," they wrote.

Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer told FOX News Gingrich's remarks were a "capital offense" that ruled out any chance of winning the nomination. "This is a big deal," he said. "He's done."

Gingrich, for his part, has sought to walk back his comments a bit. But on the basic point -- that the Ryan budget is "too big a jump" -- he has stuck to his guns.

The funny thing is that Newtie's right on this one. The smart GOP move is to distance yourself from Ryan's disastrous budget. People really don't like it and it's going to be an albatross around the GOP's neck. But it looks like they are all going to follow their fair haired boy over the cliff.

In the grand battle of the 90s, Clinton vs Gingrich, Newtie made the serious mistake of failing publicly and humiliating the people who once adored him. Clinton survived and went on to become a respected elder statesman and Gingrich was the one forced to resign, the fate they had designed for his rival. It looks like they aren't going to forgive him for it. Indeed, I would guess that they always loathed his smug, new-age conservatism (who didn't?) it's just that he had a knack for pissing off liberals and they figured he might be on to something. Now his megalomania just grates.


Update: Evidently he likes to eat a very expensive breakfast at Tiffany's too.


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digby 5/17/2011 10:30:00 AM