Recently, Nancy Pelosi warned for the second time that Gingrich presidency is "not going to happen", because "there's something I know". We expect nothing less from Nancy.
After nearly a week on the defensive CNN's John King reported that Gingrich's indignant offers to rebut the network's interview with his second wife, were hollow. "Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond says the only people the Gingrich campaign offered to ABC were his two daughters from his first marriage." reported John King."After persistent questioning by our staff, the Gingrich campaign concedes now Speaker Gingrich was wrong — both in his debate answer, and in our interview yesterday."
Univision correspondent Jorge Ramos followed up with Gingrich suggesting that his criticism of Bill Clinton's affair was hypocritical. Gingrich fought back saying: “I hwave been deposed both times under oath and both times I have told the truth in the deposition..."
The only problem is that in neither case was Gingrich actually deposed.
Alan Lee, the Carroll County clerk of the court, who released the 1980–81 records of Gingrich’s Georgia divorce from Jackie Battley last week, told The Daily Beast: “There was no deposition". Similarly, the lawyer for Gingrich’s second wife, John Mayoue, said: “Simply put, he was never deposed.”
Superior Court Judge Dorothy Robinson, who oversaw the second case, indicated that if it wasn’t on the docket, it didn’t happen. Another source knowledgeable about the second divorce denied there was a Gingrich deposition: “He never did one. No one did. We never got depositions. It was a load of crap.
What is remarkable (although completely justified, and appropriate) is that Newt is drawing intense fire from conservatives.
 |
| Hit from both sides |
If you read any conservative US press today, it is hard to avoid attacks on Newt - they're coming in fast and thick. Newt better hope that the Republicans in Florida have not read the Drudge Report this morning. Or the National Review. Or the American Spectator. Or Ann Coulter. Or listened to Glenn Beck.
Apparently, a lot of conservatives are terrified by the prospect that Newt Gingrich could actually win the nomination.
Here's a brief summary of various attacks landing on Newt.
Glenn Beck actually defended John King asking Newt the about allegations by made by Gingrich's second ex-wife on ABC a few days before:"I feel bad for him because he had to ask the question". Beck also compared Gingrich's favorable and unfavorable ratings with those of Nancy Pelosi. "He makes Nancy Pelosi look like a superstar to the rest of the country."
Ann Coulter wrote a long piece of New Gingrich today the conclusion of which is apparent from the title: "Re-elect Obama: Vote Newt!".
Drudge report had dug up several criticisms made by Newt Gingrich of Reagan's struggle with the USSR, and George W. Bush's proposed 'surge' in Iraq, making the point that Newt is no conservative or visionary, but an unprincipled opportunist.
Drudge report found devastating comments made by Newt:
NEWT 1983: Reagan responsible for national 'decay'...
NEWT 1986: 'The Reagan administration has failed, is failing...
NEWT 1988: 'If Bush runs as continuation of Reaganism he will lose'...
It linked to article by Elliot Abrams in the National Review entitled "Insider: Gingrich repeatedly Insulted Reagan.” describing Gingrich's long record of criticizing and undermining Reagan’s policies.
Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. entitled his article on Gingrich "Our Bill Clinton" in the American Spectator, referring to Newt's character.
A top deputy to Gingrich during the Republican revolution of the mid-1990s, Tom Delay also compared Newt to Bill Clinton in radio interview with KTRH. “He’s not really a conservative. I mean, he’ll tell you what you want to hear. He has an uncanny ability, sort of like Clinton, to feel your pain and know his audience and speak to his audience and fire them up. But when he was speaker, he was erratic, undisciplined.”
Later today Bob Dole added his voice to the chorus of conservatives critics of Gingrich."Hardly anyone who served with Newt in Congress has endorsed him and that fact speaks for itself. He was a one-man-band who rarely took advice. It was his way or the highway." Dole said in reference to Newt's reputation as a great idea-man: "Gingrich had a new idea every minute and most of them were off the wall". Newt is exactly a reliable colleague, according to Dole: "In my run for the presidency in 1996 the Democrats greeted me with a number of negative TV ads and in every one of them Newt was in the ad. He was very unpopular and I am not only certain that this did not help me, but that it also cost House seats that year."
It remains to be seen what effect these attacks have on the tonight's debate in Florida and the upcoming primary there at the end of this month.
No comments:
Post a Comment