George Will’s disdain for Mitt Romney pales in comparison of his disgust at Newt Gingrich. From yesterday’s “This Week”:
Gingrich’s is an amazingly efficient candidacy, in that it embodies almost everything disagreeable about modern Washington. He’s the classic rental politician. People think his problem is his colorful personal life. He’s gonna hope people concentrate on that, rather than on, for example, ethanol. Al Gore has recanted ethanol. Not Newt Gingrich, who has served the ethanol lobby. Industrial policy of the sort that got us Solyndra – he’s all for it. Freddie Mac, he says, hired him as a “historian.” He’s not a historian. Hire Sean Wilentz, hire Gordon Wood if you want a historian.
Now, as a technical matter, Gingrich, who has a PhD in history from Tulane, is a historian. But Will’s right: Freddie didn’t hire him for his decades-lapsed scholarly credentials but for his ability to lobby Congress and his credibility in some conservative circles.
Politico’s Alexander Burns adds:
Will’s undisguised scorn is a good illustration of why Gingrich, even as he makes a bid for the affections of rank-and-file anti-Romney voters, is unlikely to win over much of anti-Romney conservative upper crust. As much as there’s still a demand for an impressive, thoughtful conservative in the race who can lead the party to Romney’s right, most of the political elites who know Gingrich best were convinced a long time ago that he isn’t that guy.
Quite right.
