The Long Knives are out for Newt

December 8, 2011

Comments

In addition to the Erickson confession I noted earlier today, others are out to get Newt today. Ann Coulter devotes an entire column dealing with Newt’s affiliation with Alvin and Heidi Toffler (and throws in a gratuitous reminder of his infidelity) while Quin Hillyer at the American Spectator addresses The Fallacy of the Master Debater.

It seems that many conservatives aren’t happy with the current Not Romney.

Coulter’s piece is amusing to me, as it focuses on Newt circa 1995, when he was the Hero of Heroes to the GOP. I don’t recall much concern of Newt’s futurism at the time. As such, it is amusing for the retconning of his tenure as Speaker.

I think that Hillyer makes some valid points. Specifically:

People see Gingrich handle himself well in eight-way debates (an easy task when no other candidate has even bothered criticizing you all year because you seemed so irrelevant), and they imagine that he’s the one to take the fight to Obama.

He goes on to list a bunch of what he considers unconservative positions that Gingirch has taken, but more importantly notes that one-on-one debates are a different creature.

A dissenting view from Rush Limbaugh: The So-Called Conservative Media Attacks Newt Gingrich.

It will be interesting to see the difficulty that conservatives have in deciding between Mitt and Newt.

6 responses to “The Long Knives are out for Newt”

JohnMcC

December 8, 2011 at 11:10 am

Wonder if someone is working on a seismograph, Geiger counter or strain-guage to measure the panic at the Tampa Convention when it convenes to nominate Mr Gingrich? Or thought of the possibility that the anti-TP ‘establishment’ will be hanged from the ceiling, to fall along with the celebratory balloons?

As noted around the left-hand side of the internets, this Repub campaign would not have been accepted as reasonable fiction if accurately predicted.
john personna

December 8, 2011 at 11:19 am

I’d say Coulter’s is a hit-piece on the Tofflers. Is she mad because she can’t write a book that captures the spirit of the times as well as did Future Shock?

FWIW, I did read The Third Wave, and I’d say that it was massively more right than wrong. The blog environment in which we speak is very much “Prosumer” as posited.
MBunge

December 8, 2011 at 11:28 am

If Rush and Fox News decide Gingrich is their guy, no one else matters.

I also think it’s funny that it is precisely Gingrich’s non-conservative views which might give him a better chance to defeat Obama, while Romney’s establishment credentials and fealty to the right could be the things that doom him in the general election.

Mike
ponce

December 8, 2011 at 11:47 am

as it focuses on Newt circa 1995, when he was the Hero of Heroes to the GOP.

Newt stumbled soon after taking office with his government shutdown tantrum in 1995 that damaged the Republicans and helped Bill Clinton.

Kudos for the under the radar comparison of the Republicans to the Nazis.
EddieInCA (now in GA)

December 8, 2011 at 12:35 pm

Dr. Taylor –

Unfortunately, what many in the “GOP establishment” haven’t yet realized is (as David Frum has noted often) that they no longer control the GOP base. It’s now fully owned and controlled by Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, and their ilk.

Fox News have blasted and/or belittled Romney, Bachmann, Perry, Santorum, Paul, and Huntsman. All you have to do to see who Fox favors is to see how they interview Newt vs. everyone else.
Brett Baier will never interview Newt the way he did Romney.
O’Reilly will never interview Newt the way he did Bachmann.
Hannity will never interview Newt the way he did Ron Paul.
Greta will never interview Newt the way she did Santorum.

Rush has already said that Newt is his man, going so far to claim that the “conservative media” who badmouth Newt are really not conservative. Rush’s audience doesn’t care about National Review, The Weekly Standard, the GOP Pacs. All they care about is removing the socialist, facist, communist, Kenyan-born, Indonesian-raised, America-hating Muslim fraud that stole the election due to the liberal media, the Black Panthers, and Acorn. And Rush pushes that mantra on a daily basis.

If Fox news picks Newt, the sheeple will fall in line. It will be Newt, and there is nothing Romney can do about it.
Stormy Dragon

December 8, 2011 at 2:56 pm

@JohnMcC:

Or thought of the possibility that the anti-TP ‘establishment’

The fact they can cast Newt Gingirch as an anti-establishment with a straight face is why no one wants to take the TP’s pronouncements seriously. They’re basically a political talking parrot. They’ve learned to squawk certain phrases, but they have no idea what anything they say actually means.