I have been tacitly defending Newt's initiatives, and one of the regulars here, Marilyn Daley, has been a big booster of Newt's Winning the Future. However, I simply cannot abide with the comments Newt made Thursday before a Young America's Foundation sponsored event in Washington, DC. Here is the story:
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Thursday the Bush administration is waging a "phony war" on terrorism, warning that the country is losing ground against the kind of Islamic radicals who attacked the country on Sept. 11, 2001.
A more effective approach, said Gingrich, would begin with a national energy strategy aimed at weaning the country from its reliance on imported oil and some of the regimes that petro-dollars support.
"None of you should believe we are winning this war. There is no evidence that we are winning this war," the ex-Georgian told a group of about 300 students attending a conference for collegiate conservatives.
Gingrich, who led the so-called Republican Revolution that won the GOP control of both houses of Congress in 1994 midterm elections, said more must be done to marshal national resources to combat Islamic militants at home and abroad and to prepare the country for future attack. He was unstinting in his criticism of his fellow Republicans, in the White House and on Capitol Hill.
Excuse me, Newt, but the fact that Islamic radicals who want to destroy Western Civilization are out there and scheming to get us is not a phony event. Ask Israel how phony the war on terror is. Ask New Yorkers. Ask the families of Sept. 11 2001. Ask the victims of Madrid. Ask the victims of London. Ask those who witnessed what went on in the United Kingdom recently.
I fail to see how calling the war for civilization phony is advancing a winning solution for America's future. I fail to see how lying about what is going on in Iraq as being phony and not telling the story of the success of the surge is not advancing America's future. I fail to see how your rhetoric, Newtie, which is only serving to undermine our soldiers by giving the Mainstream media yet another voice of a supposed conservative who is against Bush and his little war,is helping America's future.
But, let me say this: the issue of a real energy policy is indeed an important issue. That should have been a plank in the war on terror, to be sure. However, to call the entire war on terror as phony simply because you want to snipe is ridiculous.
Lastly, let me detail another cannard Uncle Newtie threw forth aimed at covering his street cred, hiding behind nonpartisanship:
"What I'm trying to start is a new dialogue that is evidence-based," Gingrich said Thursday. "It doesn't start from the right wing, it doesn't start from the left wing," he said, but is an effort to get politicians and voters to "look honestly at the evidence of what isn't working and tell us how to change it."
Gingrich was interrupted with applause once, when he called for an end to the biting partisanship critics say has polarized national politics and paralyzed the workings of government.
"We have got to get past this partisan baloney, where I'm not allowed to say anything good about Hillary Clinton because 'I'm not a loyal Republican,' and she's not allowed to say anything good about me, or she's not a 'loyal' Democrat. What a stupid way to run a country."
He reserved his most pointed criticism for the administration's handling of the global campaign against terrorist groups.
"We've been engaged in a phony war," said Gingrich. "The only people who have been taking this seriously are the combat military."
You should not be saying anything positive about Hillary Clinton because there is nothing positive about Hillary Clinton. Her health care plan is a financial disaster. Her decision making based on which way the wind is blowing is a disaster. Her lack of personal accountability for her decisions and the crooked practices of her campaign is a disaster. Her ideas for America are a disaster. She is a phony. There is nothing positive to say about her. I guess maybe the thing you and her have in common is that marriage for love means little to you both. I guess maybe marriages of convenience is something you might share.
Mr. Gingrich, if you can't think fast enough to say the right thing about what you feel, kindly shut the hell up. I understand your true meaning Newt, but not everyone is able to do that. Not everyone is able to translate that what you meant was that the war has not been totally prosecuted correctly. You know, a pygmie is a little person who is primitive. Your inability to think and speak correctly your position, I suppose, makes you a pygmie on this issue. You have not promoted the future, you have harmed our soldiers, you have harmed those who support the war on terror.
