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- iHaveNet.com: Politics
by Jules Witcover
It's a measure of the leadership bankruptcy in the
Largely by the process of elimination in a field of
With his egomaniacal sense of superiority that dismisses the collection of unimpressive competitors for his party's 2012 nomination, Gingrich somehow has managed to elbow his way into what is somewhat laughably called the top tier of candidates vying the lukewarm choice of their party.
The latest survey for
Gingrich presents himself somehow as a political jewel whose brilliance somehow has escaped public recognition up to now. But the book on him is riddled with a history of self-serving braggadocio, misrepresentation and overreaching of his record as an legislative achiever, academic and historian.
He was self-canonized as the leader of the Gingrich Revolution of the early 1990s that won control of the House with his Contract With America that thereafter swept through the House but never got by the
The latest rap against him is his alleged receipt of at least
In a classic Gingrich response, he sought to turn this particular sow's ear into a silk purse. "It reminds people that I know a great deal about Washington," he purred. With a dig at President Obama after saying the new Newt was going to refrain, he added: "We tried four years of amateur ignorance and it didn't work very well," apparently referring to Obama's less than three years in office. "So having someone who actually knows Washington might be a really good thing."
Such dismissive observations require a suspension of memory about Gingrich's most famous political misstep, when at the end of 1995 President Bill Clinton called his bluff on closing down the federal government in their fight over the budget. The resulting closedown that included national parks and other facilities drew public ire toward the Republicans and forced Gingrich to back down.
The
Gingrich's latest tack, presenting himself as the wise and seasoned politician who knows Washington best and can most effectively wrest the reins from the amateurs next year, is clearly a strategy of getting the
Certainly, a Gingrich nomination would be gleefully welcomed by the current practitioners of "amateur ignorance" who currently occupy the turf. Romney may not thrill the Republican conservatives who rule the party, but he probably offers the
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Newt Gingrich: The GOP's Leadership Bankruptcy | Politics
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