Gingrich: four more wars

[TheLibertarian]

The Grinch has lost his mind.

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich last week criticized the United States for not engaging more forcefully with other countries besides Iraq that President Georgw W. Bush had identified as the "Axis of Evil."

"I believe he was right but in fact could not operationalize what he said," Gingrich said in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute. "That is, there was an Axis of Evil, Iran, Iraq, North Korea. Well we're one out of three. And people ought to think about that. If Bush was right in January of 2002 -- and by the way virtually the entire Congress gave him a standing ovation when he said it -- then why is it that the other two parts of the Axis of Evil are still visibly, cheerfully making nuclear weapons? And it's because we've stood at brink, looked over and thought, 'too big a problem.'"

Typically I'd be loathe to copy-paste from a leftist website like HuffPo, but it's more than appropriate here. It's time we boot these big-spending chickenhawk neo-cons out of office before they destroy civilization in their hubris. Gingrich, Palin and their Reaganite clones ought to go the way of Obama and the rest of the FDR-lite crowd and gently into that good night.

[ChaosBorders]

I mean from a world opinion standpoint. Presumably these polls are of Americans. And you might not think it matters to the average American what the world thinks of us, but in the long-term it does. Our total military spending is about a trillion dollars a year, which is almost half of the spending done by the entire world. If most of the world hates us, we're not likely going to be able to ever lower that. If world opinion is in favor of us, we could actually cut down on military spending and use the money for more constructive purposes (or pay off debt). In the long term, it is in America's best interests to have the world liking us rather than wanting to see our nation fall.

Funny how much of the rest of the world are breaking their necks to come here, not Belgium. Our main threat is not from 'Old Europe' (BTW, central and eastern Europe love us), but from Islam. Obama's standing among world Muslims is dropping.

Perhaps, but I bet almost anything that China passes us economically within the decade. If they start pushing more for getting rid of the dollar as the global standard, do you think it will go better or worse for us if countries actually like us? We're powerful, and a lot of Americans assume we can pretty much say 'Screw what you think' to the rest of the world and do whatever we feel like because of that. But we can't do that forever. If we don't create cooperation we will eventually be rendered irrelevant by growing nations like China. Personally, I'd like to see the U.S. stay on top. Thanks to this last decade I don't think it's going to happen, but if we don't get our acts together we could end up falling farther than just 2nd.

[WinePusher]

What do you have in mind here.

By 'interfering in local affairs', WinePusher probably means suing AZ for trying to enforce immigration laws, while hypocritically ignoring sanctuary cities who violate immigration laws. This is a violation of his oath of office. He doesn't get to pick and choose what laws to enforce.

All of the above, and I'd also add things like interfering in the Black Harvard Professor and Cop contreversy, and injecting himself into the Mosque contreversy. What's funny is Obama says the police acted "stupidly" but it turns out that Obama was actually the person acted that way. Ohhh the irony.

[Darias]

The Grinch has lost his mind.

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich last week criticized the United States for not engaging more forcefully with other countries besides Iraq that President Georgw W. Bush had identified as the "Axis of Evil."

"I believe he was right but in fact could not operationalize what he said," Gingrich said in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute. "That is, there was an Axis of Evil, Iran, Iraq, North Korea. Well we're one out of three. And people ought to think about that. If Bush was right in January of 2002 -- and by the way virtually the entire Congress gave him a standing ovation when he said it -- then why is it that the other two parts of the Axis of Evil are still visibly, cheerfully making nuclear weapons? And it's because we've stood at brink, looked over and thought, 'too big a problem.'"

Typically I'd be loathe to copy-paste from a leftist website like HuffPo, but it's more than appropriate here. It's time we boot these big-spending chickenhawk neo-cons out of office before they destroy civilization in their hubris. Gingrich, Palin and their Reaganite clones ought to go the way of Obama and the rest of the FDR-lite crowd and gently into that good night.

I really can't listen to any of Gingrich's opinions with objectivity because of something I recently discovered about his character. It's actually quite distasteful.

In a new Esquire profile, Gingrich’s second wife Marianne — whom he cheated on with his current wife, Callista — breaks her twelve year silence on her relationship with Gingrich to reveal a portrait of man who understood the deep hypocrisy of his actions, but simply didn’t care:

He asked her to just tolerate the affair, an offer she refused.

He’d just returned from Erie, Pennsylvania, where he’d given a speech full of high sentiments about compassion and family values.

The next night, they sat talking out on their back patio in Georgia. She said, “How do you give that speech and do what you’re doing?�

“It doesn’t matter what I do,� he answered. “People need to hear what I have to say. There’s no one else who can say what I can say. It doesn’t matter what I live.“

Marianne, who was Gingrich’s “closest adviser� during his reign in the 1990s, went on to say that Gingrich “believes that what he says in public and how he lives don’t have to be connected.� But of course, as Gingrich himself demanded when he led a crusade to impeach President Clinton for personal infidelity, politicians’ private lives are inevitably connected to their public ones. Nonetheless, Gingrich has himself admitted to continuing his illicit affair with Callista — 23 years his junior — while simultaneously prosecuting Clinton’s adultery.

http://sayitaintsoalready.com/2010/08/1 ... t-as-i-do/

You can also read more about it here


He also loves attacking Obama and others on the left just to rally his base. He's a far right politician, the polar opposite of Obama -- and that's not a complement.

Obama's character rises very very far above his. Obama may be too fiscally liberal for my tastes, but I don't think he was nearly as bad as Bush.

But Gingrich would be like a Super-Bush. Lets pray he never becomes Emperor.

There was a point in the last election where I was seriously considering voting for Huckabee -- I eventually voted for McCain when he became the only option...

But I am glad I didn't vote for Huckabee -- who's homophobic comments really sickened me. I like Huckabee; he seems to be a vary fair and good person -- but the things he said about gay people were just really ignorant.

The right's insanity and extreme anti-Obama ferver has driven me to the middle. I'm an independent now but please PLEASE do not confuse that with being a Tea Partier -- that is an even extremer version of the GOP - just a bunch of Limbaughs, Palins, and Becks.

[ChaosBorders]

The right's insanity and extreme anti-Obama ferver has driven me to the middle. I'm an independent now but please PLEASE do not confuse that with being a Tea Partier -- that is an even extremer version of the GOP - just a bunch of Limbaughs, Palins, and Becks.

Welcome to the middle, where you can get to see the insanity of both sides unfold with equal horror. haha

[Goat]

I really can't listen to any of Gingrich's opinions with objectivity because of something I recently discovered about his character. It's actually quite distasteful.

What really turned me off, according to his first wife Jackie, he served her with the divorce papers while she was in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery.

She also had to take him to court to press him to actually pay the child support too.


Nice family values there.

[East of Eden]

But of course, as Gingrich himself demanded when he led a crusade to impeach President Clinton for personal infidelity,

Wrong, Clinton was impeached for perjury, obstruction of justice, and malfeasance in office. Saying the impeachment was about infidelity is like saying Watergate was about a burglary.

I agree such hypocrisy is bad, but we're not voting for pastor. If only our country were as prosperous as it was when the Gingrich congress was in charge.

He also loves attacking Obama and others on the left just to rally his base. He's a far right politician, the polar opposite of Obama -- and that's not a complement.

He attacks Obama because our left-wing extremist president is destroying the country with his unpopular policies.

Obama's character rises very very far above his. Obama may be too fiscally liberal for my tastes, but I don't think he was nearly as bad as Bush.

Huh? Obama's deficit is about four times what Bush's was.

[micatala]

Obama's character rises very very far above his. Obama may be too fiscally liberal for my tastes, but I don't think he was nearly as bad as Bush.

Huh? Obama's deficit is about four times what Bush's was.

I've asked for evidence on this repeatedly in other threads.

Show us the numbers and show us how much of this is due to Obama's policies, how much is due to the economic downturn, how much is due to not paying for the Bush tax cuts and the Bush Drug Bill, and how much is due to actually putting the war costs on budget.

Please back up the claim or withdraw it.

[East of Eden]

Obama's character rises very very far above his. Obama may be too fiscally liberal for my tastes, but I don't think he was nearly as bad as Bush.

Huh? Obama's deficit is about four times what Bush's was.

I've asked for evidence on this repeatedly in other threads.

Show us the numbers and show us how much of this is due to Obama's policies, how much is due to the economic downturn, how much is due to not paying for the Bush tax cuts and the Bush Drug Bill, and how much is due to actually putting the war costs on budget.

Please back up the claim or withdraw it.

And Bush could blame his deficits on the aftermath of 9/11. The phoney stimulous bill is all Obama's, as is Obamacare.

Tax cuts pay for themselves. When Reagan cut tax rates, tax receipts doubled in the '80s. Conversely, when tax rates are raised, they often produce less tax revenue due to the harm done to the economy.

[Goat]

Obama's character rises very very far above his. Obama may be too fiscally liberal for my tastes, but I don't think he was nearly as bad as Bush.

Huh? Obama's deficit is about four times what Bush's was.

I've asked for evidence on this repeatedly in other threads.

Show us the numbers and show us how much of this is due to Obama's policies, how much is due to the economic downturn, how much is due to not paying for the Bush tax cuts and the Bush Drug Bill, and how much is due to actually putting the war costs on budget.

Please back up the claim or withdraw it.

And Bush could blame his deficits on the aftermath of 9/11. The phoney stimulous bill is all Obama's, as is Obamacare.

Tax cuts pay for themselves. When Reagan cut tax rates, tax receipts doubled in the '80s. Conversely, when tax rates are raised, they often produce less tax revenue due to the harm done to the economy.

Bush can blame a lot of that deficit on the lies he built to attack Iraq. He lied about the "Weapons of mass destruction' he gave caused a large part of the deficit.

[micatala]

Obama's character rises very very far above his. Obama may be too fiscally liberal for my tastes, but I don't think he was nearly as bad as Bush.

Huh? Obama's deficit is about four times what Bush's was.

I've asked for evidence on this repeatedly in other threads.

Show us the numbers and show us how much of this is due to Obama's policies, how much is due to the economic downturn, how much is due to not paying for the Bush tax cuts and the Bush Drug Bill, and how much is due to actually putting the war costs on budget.

Please back up the claim or withdraw it.

And Bush could blame his deficits on the aftermath of 9/11. The phoney stimulous bill is all Obama's, as is Obamacare.

This does not provide evidence for the claim by any stretch of the imagination. The stimulus is Obama's and so are the costs associated with the health care reform. How much are these costs? How much are they projected to add to the deficit? The CBO should have numbers on this.

Back up the claim or withdraw it. Show Obama's deficits are 4 times as much as Bush's properly accounting for the source of the deficits.

Tax cuts pay for themselves. When Reagan cut tax rates, tax receipts doubled in the '80s. Conversely, when tax rates are raised, they often produce less tax revenue due to the harm done to the economy.

How about trying to justify the first claim before making more unsubstantiated claims. With respect to original claim, this is a red herring.

Besides, if these were true, then you should be able to substantiate that the Bush tax cuts paid for themselves. People like to bring up the Reagan tax cuts, but ignore Bush's. They also ignore the effects of the Clinton and Bush I and Reagan tax increases.


At any rate, before we go off on another rabbit trail, back up the first claim on deficits. Yes, you can count Obamacare and stimulus. I believe the stimulus for the first year was in the neighborhood of $400 million. I think you will find if you look it up that the effects of the health care reform in the next few years, even this year, are negligible. I can't see how you're going to get to 4 times the deficit Bush had on this basis, especially putting the war spending in the Bush budgets where it should have been.