His experience makes him the best GOP candidate – By Ian Foley
New Gingrich is a better candidate for president than a lot of people give him credit for. In the race for the White House, meaning is reduced to meat, and presidential debates are postulated as evening entertainment. The interests of American voters are being compromised in order for the “gotcha” question of the night to appear on the Colbert Report.
Foremost and center, hypocrisy takes the cake, the ultimate spin raw from the strategists, cooked up by the media, and served to the public. There is no denying that Gingrich is on his third marriage. However, it is important to step back and ask if this disqualifies him from governance. He admits the affair and apologizes.
The question is, does this make him any different from John Edwards and Bill Clinton, who remained in office after the affair was made known?
And then, we have the recent surfacing of White House Intern Mimi Alford, whose words of relations with Kennedy, supplemented by information from White House Aide Barbara Gamarekian in her JFK files, calls into question another president. The world gives little credit to the integrity on past indiscretions, not seen by those akin, in some cases even worse than his own.
Gingrich also comes under fire for money he received for consulting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. These moneys are really no different than those Romney received from the same industry, and are similar to those Obama received in contributions. Obama is the second highest recipient from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, second only to Senator Frank Dodd, senior Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, and ahead of Senator John Kerry, who has spent decades in the Senate.
In terms of policy, Gingrich has the ability and record of reaching across the aisle. When he was in office there was no problem, but on the campaign trail, it is a matter both sides can take pot shots at him with. Politicians flip-flop in order to get reelected, but wait, since his election to the House in 1978, Gingrich has never faced a fiercely competitive reelection race. He is a man who has been through compromise and the bipartisanship needed for substantive policy to move this country forward.
Gingrich made these past decisions based on the service of government and the people, something missing from the current arena of politics. When you separate the campaign rhetoric and Entertainment Tonight framing, that is what makes him different from the rest of the field.
His Own Party Can’t Stand Him – By Kirstin Cook
No one is more qualified on a person’s professional ability than a coworker. So, it is fitting that we look to Newt Gingrich’s coworkers to determine what type of professional he would be in the White House.
According to USA Today, several Republicans who worked with Gingrich when he was speaker of the House have strong feelings about his deficiencies as a leader.
Peter King, R-N.Y., said Gingrich doesn’t have the “mental discipline, the consistency, or the ego control to be a good nominee or a good president.” Steven LaTourette, R-Oh, described him as a “sober Charlie Sheen.”
If you don’t believe his acquaintances, look at his record.
Gingrich’s immoral conduct in his past marriages does not correspond with his supposedly wholesome beliefs that he intertwines with his campaign.
One minute, Newt is making a speech on family values. The next, he is handing his first wife divorce papers while she is recovering from cancer surgery, or asking his second wife to tolerate his affair with his would-be third wife.
For those who separate his ethics in the bedroom from his ethics in the Oval Office, think again. There are clear examples of Gingrich’s lack of morals in the workplace.
Gingrich was fined $300,000 by a House Ethics Committee investigation that found he used poor judgment in his ethical conduct, according to The Christian Science Monitor. Gingrich demonstrated a clear conflict of interest by distributing his conservative views through films of a college course he was teaching and using tax-exempt organizations to finance his propaganda.
Even more condemning is the fact he provided false information to the committee during this investigation. When confronted, Gingrich blamed his staff for distributing the mistakes.
You would think the speaker of the House would give a little scrutiny to documents from his office regarding an investigation of his ethics. Some consider this misinformation to have been intentional.
It was the first time in the history of Congress that a speaker was scolded for unethical conduct.
Gingrich has also spewed out false information on increasing gas prices, increasing food stamp usage, and the development of Iranian missiles that could even reach the U.S.
Not to mention his ego the size of Canada, and the $1.6 million he pocketed from Freddie Mac.
He states his deception best in his own words. During an interview with Esquire, his second wife Marianne Gingrich recalled his comments to her after she found out about his affair.
“It doesn’t matter what I do,” he said. “People need to hear what I have to say. It doesn’t matter what I live.”
Actions speak louder than words.