Newt doesn’t understand, or doesn’t want to admit, that the people are sick and TIRED of professional politicians. We don’t need RINOs and Blue Dogs trying to stay in office by compromising their “ideals”. That is in quotes because, IMHO, 95% of professional politicians do not have principles. They like what they are doing, they have no problem with the ethical and moral lapses they tolerate to stay in the game, and they are convinced that only they can make things ‘work’. Yeah, and the pension benefits are not too shabby, either.

I for one, and most tea partiers too, I think, support: a) smaller government; b) less debt; and, c) term limits for all politicians.

I suspect Newt would say o.k. to (a), uummm, not so much to (b), and NEVER to (c).

Thanks for your prior service, Newt, Now go home and stay there.

The only

Gingrich needs to come to a reckoning, and face the fact that his approach to the political game is based on yesterday’s rules. His breed is neutered.

Besides, he has undercut his own credibility up one side and down the other with stupid moves like sitting in a chair next to Nancy Pelosi peddling the Global Warming fraud, and standing proudly for Dede Scuzzy-what’s-her-name.

Go away Newt. Your time came and went.

Newt, post-Clinton, doesn’t seem to have done the “back to basics” step. Move back to ‘Lanta, work on local issues, meet with real regular people, get out of the toxic air of D.C. and be just another American for a while. Now, he’s observed the Tea Party parade, and is trying to run over and get in front of it.

Sorry, Newt. Doesn’t work that way. Not this time.

Mew

I always did. Back in 94 he came through like a champ.
But I have to say that his Pelosi-couch thing and the Scozzapalooza episode rocked my confidence in him. Newt needs to come on home again and remember where he came from.
RINO’s are out.
Partisans are in.
We don’t need no stinkin’ compromise.

I think he has a decent claim as to being sincerely for openness as he was crucial in starting the THOMAS site.

I have not understood all the heat he has received for the meeting with Hillary on EHT and with the Pelosi ad.

He has worked for real health reform, especially in the last few years at the Center for Health Transformation. He has toured state legislatures, including with Jindal in Louisania, promoting his plans on health care.

And plenty of conservatives have paid lip service to global warming. But when the chips were down and gas prices were sky high in 2008, who was out in front and started the “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less” petition?

I certainly do not believe he is or has been perfect, but if he needs to play the game here and there — and does not give away too much on actual policy — so be it.

…people are looking for tangible authenticity. “Openness” packaged by the GOP at the recommendation of Newt Gingrich does not pass the authenticity test.

The people are so jaded against politicians, the trust is going to have to be earned, not wrapped up in slogans and bogus “contracts” that are whipped up 10 months before an election.

Newt is not ahead of the game this time and he shouldn’t be aping the tea party people.

The tea party is way, way out in front with its Contract FROM America where they are busy drafting a contract for the politicians to follow if they want tea party support.

You can find the CFA at this site:

http://www.contractfromamerica.com/Idea.aspx

We love ya Newt but you need to be sitting this one out.

Having hooked his wagon to a dead -and apparently corrupt- horse Scozzafava, Newt not only exhibited poor judgement and a lack of influence with the electorate… but also an inexplicable stubbornness, doubling-down on his previous bad bet by lashing out at Hoffman and his earnest supporters, scolding them as “misinformed” on Fox.

How is this any different than Team Obama’s condescension towards a lot of these same people when they oppose his statist schemes?

Such inflexibility from as clever a political strategist as Gingrich -while his career goes down a deep, dark hole- suggests that Newt was marching under orders… dispatched by the RNC. And Scozzafava made fools of all of them-

Look for Newt to be a spent political force… done. He really pissed-off the resurgent Reaganite wing of the party now… where’s the growth in that? They’d possibly forgive -even admire- him if he had shown the courage to admit his error and back off a couple months ago… but he completely blew it, who would ever listen to his lecturing now-? And he showed no courage whatsoever-

Hey Newt -seriously- did you bump your head in the shower?

http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com/

Why is Newt trotting out the “Contract” phrase again?

This would be similar to John Travolta telling us we should really watch this movie of his called “Saturday Night Fever.”

This is America: even if you lament the tendency, Americans want something “new and improved.”

Gingrich and his Contract are not new and improved. With his personal history of deceit and divorce he is particularly anything but new and improved. And with his avuncular tone of “let’s pat the Dems on the back” of arrogance and “rising above the fray,” he comes across as ineffective, because we know you cannot make deals with Dems.

You cannot be their palsy-walsy chums! If you arrive in D.C., you must maintain a distance, and defeat everything they stand for.

NO PRISONERS!

Congressman Paul Ryan of WIsconsin wrote an essay for the January 27th Wall Street Journal and delineated what he calls a GOP “Roadmap to the Future.”

See if you like it as a new and improved version of Contract WIth America 2.0.

See:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703808904575025080017959478.html

Tea Partiers, PLEASE don’t fall into this trap. It will negate any validity of the movement. If you’re going to sign up Newt, you might as well go ahead and bring Steele to the table too.

You’ve made plenty of waves all by yourselves. No need to ruin it now. The rest of the country is listening…and we hear you.

who would THROW US under the bus to get what he wants. He is an insider and he is NOT a Conservative. On the NY23 CRAP he heard us and he IGNORED us because he knew better…..Newt Gingrich is WRONG for American in 2010 and beyond, so go home and write history books!

The bigger problem with Newt’s statement is that the MSM will jump all over this kind of thing, claiming him to be a spokesman for the movement – with all of his historical political baggage. The Tea Party movement loses credibility when these ‘professional’ politicians waltz in to lend their name to it, as if that’s something the movement even wants. What they really achieve is to hijack the movement – at least in the eyes of the megaphonic public press – and blunt its purpose considerably. Suddenly, the movement finds itself compelled to carry all of their historical baggage – the very thing that it is trying to repudiate.

Newt has ideas, even good ideas. But he would far better serve the movement if he would first understand what it is really all about.

I know that Gingrich has misstepped a few times since leaving office, but he also has had some great ideas. He has been trying to promote those ideas for decades and this is just another attempt.

Rather than be scornful of the contract with America Idea, I think it should be embraced, not because it is yesterdays slogan but because Newt is right, people are distrustful. That is precisely why being open about exactly the things you plan to do is the only thing that can possibly work in this atmosphere.

Newt’s strength is still what it always was, as a policy genius. Yes, genius. He can’t lead, he can’t run a meeting, he can’t actually get things done, so needs to be part of a team, only not with him at the head of the table.

Some one else has to pose and frame the questions, with a view toward getting things done. If Newt poses the question, it rarely gets outside his brain. He can’t get things done. I can see Reagan asking Newt “What should we do about this?” and Newt coming back in 2-3 days with the most splendiferous options possible. I can’t see the reverse.

It’s like the old saw about debating a legal question with moral arguments, or moral questions with legal ones. Typical apples and oranges. Newt want to set himself up as the movement’s spiritual adviser, when the Founder’s will do just nicely, thanks. And we can all read. I have a bookshelf of spiritual; advice.

He simply wants a place in the movement where is not qualified to sit.

I wouldn’t want to be a member of any organization that has a professional politician as a member. It irks me that pro pols. including Newt see the need to institutionalize the tea partiers. The TP is not a group of disgruntled individuals in search of an organizer. Rather it is by and large a group of people saying, “pay attention to us; we’re not that stupid.” Beyond that, I’m hesitant to make characterizations about tea partiers.

This is like saying it’s more important for a thief to tell you he’s robbing than for him to actually stop robbing you. I’d rather he didn’t rob me in the first place.

I agree with the poster above who said that Newt’s strength has always been policy. He was one of the few politicians who could offer specific policy recommendations and the reasons for adopting them, instead of the usual bromides about fixing education, restoring America’s greatness, or bringing Hope and Change.

Now, for him to say that Americans in general, and the Tea Party activists specifically, don’t care so much about policy so long as its done transparently, makes me wonder what has happened. The Tea Party activists don’t care about process nearly as much as smaller, less intrusive government.

I wouldn’t accept higher taxes or government-rationed health care if the bill was negotiated and drawn up in my living room. If Newt thinks I am unique, I think he has badly misjudged the electorate.

He changes his tune depending on his surroundings. I don’t trust him and he has earned that mistrust.

If he is really interested in furthering the conservative cause and philosophy he needs to stop looking for a way to get back into the limelight. He continues to look for ways to make it about him. In a setting that is conservative, he does conservative speak. In a setting that is less than conservative, Newt uses “less than conservative” speak.

Sorry Newt but go away. Time for new faces in whom we can learn to trust.

Two years ago, Gingrich told Hannity, on his radio show, that the era of Reagan is over. My teeth fell out. It was at about the time that Gingrich was thinking about getting into the 2008 presidential race. He said he would decide by a certain date, and, it depended on how much support he got. Before that date, he called it quits.

Again on Hannity’s radio show, several months ago, Hannity asked him if he was going to run for the presidency in 2012. Without delay, Gingrich said yes.

Apparently Gingrich also told Stephanopolus (sp) in an interview, that the era of Reagan is over. He said that the Republican party needed to re-define itself. He suggested that Republicans move in a direct as to what Americans want today. As Rush said at the time, that means sticking your finger in the air, and seeing what direction the wind was blowing. Great Rush transcript talking about Conservatism, and the crop of candidates that were anything but conservative. I always knew he believed Fred Thompson to be the only real conservative in the race, but, I think he saw “no fire in the belly” to go to the length it would take to win-

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_011408/content/01125111.guest.html

Gingrich needs the spotlight, but the lights for him went out long ago.

…I’ll state that Newt’s problem is that he spends too much time up in the ivory tower contemplating his navel and not enough time out in the real world where the rest of us operate every day.

Conservatism is the province of real people who work, produce, either earn a paycheck or meet a payroll, change diapers, and maintain a family budget. Conservatism as a philosophical idea is great, but cannot work unless grounded in day-to-day reality.

I think he would give Republicans the best chance at victory.

As far as the Tea Party Movement is concerned, I see two things needed to ensure a conservative victory.

1. Endorse a candidate that has more than just a shot at winning, which means a smart, veteran politician like Newt.

2. Remain indefinitely organized and active enough that whoever they endorse and empower, he or she knows that they can just as effectively be neutralized.

America needs conservative activists, ordinary citizens engaged in the national debate, and a check and balance on the media not just for hard times- but to prevent complacency and a return to “business as usual” regardless of the party in power.

Newt would be a great candidate if he took a real contract with America to Washington and I think he could be the man to do it. The bigger question in my mind is will there be a united conservative group that productively influences crafting of the language and then enforces carrying it out to the letter.

http://archive.deseretnews.com/article/700005489/Newt-Gingrich-coming-to-campaign-for-Bob-Bennett.html

That puts Newt in an interesting position. He wants the Tea Party members, but then he turns around and supports someone that none of the Tea Party members want re-elected.

I realize that as soon as Bennett looses the nomination, Newt will support whoever gets it, (so will Mitt Romney), but these two are hurting the chances of getting any support from almost any republican in Utah.

Bennett’s bill, S.391 Healthy Americans Act, had some of the same provisions that Bennett voted that the current healthcare bill was unconstitutional.

I guess it was fine for Bennett’s bill to be unconstitutional, but the democrats bill, which is unconstitutional is not OK?

Time to Replace Senator Bob Bennett.

It’s sad, really, to watch Newt trying to be “relevant.” Remember a year or so ago when he was making pitches with some Democrat about global warming or change or whatever disaster mankind was unleashing on the world. That has since flopped as have his aspirations.

He has become the Washington establishment we all seem to decry these days, and that the problem. He part of the “nuanced” crowd now, Republican version. After all, he did support Dede Scozzafava for Congress, never mind her record. His plan seems to get Republicans elected regardless of who they are and what they stand for so Republicans can be in charge, to be nuanced leaders from Washington. That’s the key, in Washington. That is what a lot of the Tea Party people are against, more Washington. That is the problem, more Washington.

I have never been a Dick Armey fan, but he does understand where the energy of the Tea Party Movement comes from and is seeking to work with it as an effective force to get conservatives elected everywhere. Newt just seems baffled by it. I find it fascinating he is baffled by it, to borrow from Newt.

and into the future is to be an idea man and strategist – an “elder statesman” role I believe he is qualified to play. But his time in the limelight is over, and his relevance to the next cycle of elections should be in the former role, not as a candidate running for office. His practical contemporary politics is (IMO) irretrievably tainted by being a Washington insider for so many decades, but he still has a lot to offer as one voice (not THE voice) in helping assemble a new Republican platform.

http://truthandcommonsense.com/2010/01/31/newt-owns-up-but-is-still-full-of-fleas/

I’ve felt this way about Newt for a long time and his couch love-in with Nancy sealed it for me. He is trying to stay relevant so he can make money. As I said in my post-

“So how does a middle of the roader get time over Mike Pence or someone like him? Good question and one that we should answer before we let ol’ flea bitten Newt back on the porch.”

I like having him on our team. I don’t want him in political office; as an adviser, fine.

I still have a hard time getting this out of my mind … http://ow.ly/12kaV

He said all the right things and then tried to make friends, with people who any normal person could see, were his and our, mortal enemies! He did this time and time again. He’s still doing it!

The old saw about bringing a knife to a gunfight, just doesn’t quite cover it in his case. He’s an incredibly intelligent man, recognizes the enemy, is victorious against them, then accepts an invitation to a dinner at their place, cooked by their chef…. Go figure.

Maybe he just didn’t realize that it would take silver bullets, and that they enemy wasn’t your standard wolf.

and has become a “man caused disaster.”

Let’s talk about the first contract — IT DID NOT WIN THE 1994 election. Almost no one knew about it until the last minute.

WHAT WON THE 10094 ELECTION WAS OUTRAGE AGAINST THE 1994 ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN.

Even Bill Clinton admitted it cost him 60 House seats in 1994 … I was there, right in the middle of the defoleyate campaign that threw out Speaker Foley.

So lets start in the right place, the Republicans wanted no part of our campaign to repeal the gun ban.

AND NOW WE DON’T WANT ANOTHER CONTRACT, WE WANT CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT. AND SECONDLY, STOP THE RIDICULOUS SPENDING THAT IS BANKRUPTING OUR COUNTRY.

He didn’t do anything to me, he did it to himself. When you behave like a chameleon and a pig, people are likely to see you for being those two things. If the people he hurt granted him forgiveness that’s fantastic, but I don’t feel particularly compelled to give him the opportunity to run the country. He let Billy-Jeff Whorehopper play him for the fool and I’d rather not have that type of meglomaniac in charge.

Newt, or your supporters, stay at home, write books, become the real elder statesman of Georgia, it will suit you and give your state someone to balance out that shameful worthless former president.

Alienating Gingrich would be a big loss. He should be embraced and channeled into the right direction.

As I see it with these professional polititians and pundits like O’Reilly is there is one big thing that seperates them from most of the tea partiers and that is their paycheck. How can these humility lacking people of opinion ever understand what it is we are speaking to. Even Hannity gets giddy sometimes about things I am outraged over. It is as Beck said the other day. We have been building on last weeks failures and not on the Constitution. We tea partiers are the mass of people who are being stymied. When they increase our taxes and styfull our future it is a killer. I know Sarah Palin has been an encouragement to me but with her, for whatever reason, campaining for that McCain RINO may mean her paycheck is seperating her from me. I don’t mind how wealthy a tea partier is but when they start to look to the left and not to the Constitution then I worry. Rush seems to get it and he knows he’s doing well but he has refused to even beltch out of the left side of his mouth.

I understand the media has to fill up time and space and Gingrich is always available. He is useful to those who seek to diminish us. He has had the limelight for years. He chose to do nothing to help us. He should retire in shame immediately.