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Republican Establishment Goes Mad

By Larry Johnson on June 9, 2009 at 4:48 PM in Current Affairs

While channel surfing last night I happened across the fund raising dinner held by the Republican Congressional campaign committees (i.e., House and Senate) and saw a clip of the propaganda film extolling the virtues of Newt Gingrich. Are you kidding me?

I agree that Newt is a smart fellow and a clever pundit. He certainly deserved credit for the Republican congressional win in 1994. But as a leader he demonstrated he was a complete, utter lightweight.

Gingrich had the chance to lead by example. So while he helped lead the charge criticizing Bill Clinton’s adulterous behavior sanctimonious Newt was busy fucking women other than his wife. This goes beyond hypocrisy. This reflects arrogance, hubris and recklessness wrapped up in intolerable smugness.

I do not forget or forgive that kind of conduct. Newt had an historical opportunity to transform the Congress and instead chose his own penis politics over his so-called vision for America.

And what do establishment Republicans in Washington want? More Newt. Check this out at CQ:

Sarah Palin could have stolen the show without uttering a word at Monday night’s $14.45 million Republican congressional dinner. But she didn’t.

It was the keynote speaker, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who ultimately dominated the end of a day on which the Alaska governor’s whereabouts — her attendance at or absence from the Washington Convention Center — had seemed to captivate the nation’s capital.

Gingrich held forth for nearly an hour, delivering a policy-heavy address that few Republicans, and surely fewer Democrats, think Palin could match.

Deemed both “too long” and “cogent and well thought-out,” by Utah Sen. Bob Bennett, Gingrich’s speech sounded a bit like the rough draft of a State of the Union address.
He articulated policy visions both broad and specific on such a wide array of topics that it was hard to keep count: taxes, education, energy, regulation, affirmative action and the role of religion in American life, to name a few.

It was a bad scene for Palin, according to GOP strategist Matt Mackowiak.

The Republican spin is that Newt was “da man!” While I’m still a registered Republican there is no way I would give a dime to support another fat, old white man who demonstrated who could not handle leadership when he had the chance. By contrast the Republican establishment is busy blasting Sarah Palin who, as a successful governor with a track record of fiscal responsibility and challenging entrenched, corrupt Republican interests, is deemed “unacceptable.”

As bad as I think Obama is he can probably rest easy. The Republicans seem to have a death wish and refuse to embrace the future. They are locked in the past and too eager to sniff Newt’s underwear to even entertain a new thought.