Look no further than how he got to be Speaker of the House. He knocked one Democrat after another aside through the art of smear and under the guise of "ethics charges," and then, when there were many retirements by Democrats in the U.S. House in 1994, Newt helped create the "Contract with America" and engineered the first GOP takeover of the body in decades by mostly targeting those vacant House seats:
As nasty as Karl Rove is, he has nothing on Newt Gingrich. Rove also isn't as self-destructive and therein lies the danger of a Gingrich presidency.
Almost as soon as Newt got the speakership, he unraveled. It was really something to watch how he reached the pinnacle of his career, and then it all crashed. His "tantrums" and his attempt to oust Clinton over the bogus Lewinsky nonsense actually HELPED Democrats in the 1998 elections. He was forced from the speakership and the House after those elections. Eventually Tom DeLay, an even more corrupt and ruthless politician than Newt, took over the House via a puppet named Dennis Hastert, and forced through the ridiculous impeachment as "payback" for those congressional losses.
So Newt left Capitol Hill, but I always knew this guy would never completely disappear. He ditched his second wife, got a shiny new model in Callista Bisek, and started reinventing himself ala Richard Nixon. Remember, he has a Ph.D. in history and was a history professor before going into politics, so he knows about historic trends and how they seemed to favor Republicans. He also knows what it takes to get elected, and it has little to do with ethics or truth. Despite his many outrageous statements about various issues, Newt is NOT stupid by any stretch of the imagination. But his self-destructive tendencies whether or not as a result of some psychological problem (and speculated as far back as 1995 by Gail Sheehy) are causing a lot of worry among the big wigs who run the GOP. Or at least those of whom are looking at the electability factor and are banking on Mitt Romney. These big wigs can't be concerned over Newt's extremism, because he isn't any more extreme than Santorum, Paul, or any of a number of other has-beens or never-wases who sought the presidency. The concern is over his psychological stability.
One can draw a parallel between Newt Gingrich and John McCain regarding this issue. Gingrich is more of a concern than McCain ever was because he really thinks he is one of the "great men" or "visionaries" who can make an impact on world history. He has illusions (and delusions) of grandeur.
From the Sheehy piece, required reading for anybody interested in the career of Newt Gingrich:
Under the pressures of his racing internal time clock, Newt is likely to betray the core issues he sounded so passionate about yesterday. "Newt is decisive but changes his mind, so whatever he's doing might change in six months," says Frank Gregorsky. "But when it changes he is blindingly defensive and assertive about it." The biggest change may be yet to come. Newt, who started out as a moderate, may shed another skin when the pain of the budget revolution kicks in. Newt's loyal point man, Congressman John Kasich, head of the Budget Committee, may be the fall guy.
Newt's military mind-set, formed by Bob Gingrich and the battles of his psychic heroes, is deeply ingrained and an essential part of the way he operates. In a recent appearance on the Charlie Rose show, Newt quoted Mao: "Politics," he intoned, "is war without blood." Gingrich's pal Stephen Hanser says that part of Newt's strategy in the House is based on combat theory, namely the German armed-forces doctrine of Auftragstaktik, or "mission orders." The problem is that in the heat of battle subtleties are lost. Standards fall. Atrocities are forgiven. Especially if the action is rapid-fire.
And with Newt, it always is. Speed is unfailingly of the essence. The 100-day Contract with America is the best proof. The Speaker has the tendency to set up accelerated timetables and artificial deadlines, based on the necessity to keep his "frenetic psyche" within some boundaries. In Newt's world, dominated by hungry media perpetually in need of bigger jolts of adrenaline, there is no debate, no moderation. As Marcella Mc Pherson said, "If he wants something, he wants it now."
"I think the manic part of Newt's personality is troublesome," says one moderate Republican in Congress. "The hyperactivity, the racing thoughts. He flits from one subject to the other and sometimes fails to make the connections."
Gingrich is dangerous indeed. Obama's people are begging for a matchup with Gingrich rather than the more electable Romney, but they would get far, far more than they bargained for if Newt becomes the GOP nominee.
It's OBAMA'S campaign that needs to be reading history.
No comments:
Post a Comment