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- iHaveNet.com: Politics
by Cal Thomas
Newt Gingrich
Sitting in his spacious Washington, D.C., office on K Street, the leader of the last Republican revolution, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, ponders the future and likes what he sees. The intensity and commitment by the tea partiers to "throw the bums" out, seems to him as strong as the 1994 revolution that swept Democrats from power and gave Republicans an opportunity Gingrich readily admits they squandered.
"People are now much madder and sicker at the system than they were in 1994," he says. That doesn't mean they hate everything about government. It is the process they hate most. "People actually want an open, bipartisan, transparent process. So you can't say, 'OK, I'll pass these 10 things' (he's thinking of his Contract With America). You've got to come in and say, 'We will work together in the open in a way that is transparent before the whole country to achieve these 10 things.' That's a big difference."
Gingrich thinks one of the 10 things should be repeal of the new health care law: "Republicans should promise that a Republican president and a
And if Republicans are wrong? "The Democrats will have won their great gamble to create a socialist country."
Gingrich describes the Obama administration as a "secular-socialist machine." He says though the country is largely center-right, "it is a tribute to the power and capability of the
As the country shifts demographically from a white majority, to majority minority, I ask why the
Gingrich recalled an African-American man who "walked up to him after church and said, 'I notice you and the Rev. Sharpton care about children.' He didn't notice me, We have to decide whether we are prepared to go into every neighborhood in America, every precinct, knock on every door and say, 'there is a better future than a bureaucratic-welfare state-socialist model that is secular and will destroy our country and destroy our children's future.' "
What about charges that Republicans and conservatives are engaging in overheated rhetoric that could lead to violence against public figures?
"For people who are angry, the correct response is to beat them. Take all your energy, reach out and attract everybody you can, win the argument and beat them. The greatest satisfaction should be the retirement of Pelosi, Reid and Obama. ... For the mugger to complain that people are objecting vociferously to being mugged ... is an act of chutzpah on a grand scale. For any of these people who have deliberately bullied, bribed and abused the system to impose their will against the country to now be shocked that the country is unhappy with the machine, I think, is a further act of arrogance. They would like to mug you routinely while you quiescently thank them for the privilege of being mugged."
Is anyone in the party listening to him? He grins: "You'll have to ask them."
Gingrich sounds like he wants to run for president. When will he decide?
"February 2011," he says. "You'll get a brief email that says 'yes' or 'no.' "
I'm betting yes. The country needs the intellectual stimulation Newt Gingrich offers.
Available at Amazon.com:
Supreme Power: Franklin Roosevelt vs. the Supreme Court
The Political Fix: Changing the Game of American Democracy, from the Grassroots to the White House
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What Would Newt Gingrich Do | Cal Thomas - Politics Today
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