What is wrong with Newt Gingrich?

[yellowcanine]

I mean, most of us here have known for a long time that Newt is a first class nutcase. But lately he seems to be out Newting Newt, if that is possible. Saying Obama has a Kenyan anti-colonial outlook, even if he was quoting "Distort the Newsa", seems way over the top for someone seriously talking about running for President in 2012. At some point he will almost certainly have to dial back on a stupid statement like that, so why make it in the first place?

[Dappleganger]

1. Newt invented the crazy train.

He's not about to give up his job as the conductor to the likes of Palin and Beck, so he has to out-crazy them every week to prove himself.

[LeftinOH]

2. He knows what his audience wants to hear -whether he feels that way or not. n./t

[Deep13]

3. He has no soul. nt

[SalviaBlue]

4. Its definitely calculated.

He's trying to lower the bar for acceptable discourse. Its like a dog whistle to call out the crazies and make them think their extremist positions are mainstream.

[yellowcanine]

10. Except that Newt would be one of the first ones thrown under the bus if the crazies gained any power

I actually used to think Newt had fairly good political instincts, even if he was a nutcase. Obviously he couldn't outmaneuver Bill Clinton politically, but few could. But now I am beginning to think that Newt was just lucky in some of the political successes that he had, such as defeating the Clinton health care plan and leading the Republican takeover of the House in 1994.

[DirkGently]

32. Kind of a one-note flute for a guy heralded as so "smart."

The "Kenyan" thing was just surreal. And you're right, the people he's trying to stir up with his recent DVD and this new "Kenyan" baloney are not his squidgy corporate buddies. He's conjuring demons here.

Won't end well.

[louis-t]

5. One word:

Opportunist. OK, 2 words: Slimy Opportunist.

[Cleita]

6. He's just a socio-path and should be

institutionalized.

[Fuzz]

26. All he wants is a Pepsi, and she wouldn't give it to him!

Sorry, I saw 'institutionalized' and had a Suicidal Tendencies flashback.

[DJ13]

7. The nutbag express was launched with his contract on america

He wants it to be about him instead of limp Dick Armey.

[lpbk2713]

8. Just look at the end of his name.

(R-GA)



:rofl:

[Jackpine Radical]

36. R-Gaga

[liberal N proud]

9. Planning a 2012 run for the White House

Hoping to run on the deluded crazy republican. It worked for bu$h.

[yellowcanine]

15. But it didn't work for Bush. Bush downplayed the nutbaggery.

Remember "compassionate conservative"? That was pure BS but it worked.

[opihimoimoi]

11. The GOPer Masters sent him to run...make Palin more acceptable??

[EFerrari]

12. The creepy part is that they never dial it back and our media

just goes with it every time -- i.e., it becomes the new normal.

[kentuck]

13. He's trying to get to the right of Crazy Sarah but...

it's not easy.

[yellowcanine]

17. That I agree with but that is the part I do not understand. If the Republicans want Sarah Palin,

they are going to go for Sarah Palin not some washed-up and bloated imitation.

[kentuck]

19. But he sees himself as some great historical figure...

and it would destroy him if his Party were to choose Sarah over the Newt.

[yellowcanine]

23. That is the other thing which puzzles me about Newt. As a self proclaimed historian, he seems to

know so little history - at least useful political history. Sarah Palin et al. are modern day Know Nothings and while the Know Nothings had some success - in fact a lot of success nationally (they had about 100 congressmen and about 8 governors), they never elected a President and they were pretty much gone within a decade.

[NoPasaran]

14. His mama dropped him on his head a lot when he was a baby

[blondeatlast]

16. "Out-Newting Newt." That's what's wrong--it's hard to bottom oneself,

but if can be done, by Gawd, Newt will!

[yellowcanine]

21. Yes it is. Kenyan anti-colonialist is right up there with the yeast infections.

[leftynyc]

18. He isn't getting enough attenton

So he has to out-crazy Sarah.

[spanone]

20. the morons love sarah palin and she's quadruple newt, he figures he can't be crazy enough

[Warpy]

22. He's desperate to get back on stage as a headliner

so he's flailing around, trying to find some sort of gimmick that will wow the suckers.

That's all this is, and it's pathetic.

I guess he's gotten tired of wife #3.

[yellowcanine]

25. I agree but why not run for governor or senator? Yes one does wonder about wife #3.

[Warpy]

33. Neither half wit senator from Georgia wants to retire

and I don't imagine the governor slot will be open any time soon. Besides, he wants to get back to a position where he's powerful enough to shut the entire government of the United States down. You can't do that from the governor's office or a Senate chair.

He doesn't want to be a bit player, he's a STAR.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

24. How much time do you have? nt

[sinkingfeeling]

27. He's just trying to breathe new air into the KKK and the 'Old South'.,

[47of74]

28. Ate too many paint chips as a kid...

...or he lived under some bitching power lines.

[Bigmack]

29. He got it from Dinesh D'Fucking Souza....

"From the anticolonial perspective, American imperialism is on a rampage. For a while, U.S. power was checked by the Soviet Union, but since the end of the Cold War, America has been the sole superpower. Moreover, 9/11 provided the occasion for America to invade and occupy two countries, Iraq and Afghanistan, and also to seek political and economic domination in the same way the French and the British empires once did. So in the anticolonial view, America is now the rogue elephant that subjugates and tramples the people of the world.

It may seem incredible to suggest that the anticolonial ideology of Barack Obama Sr. is espoused by his son, the President of the United States. That is what I am saying. From a very young age and through his formative years, Obama learned to see America as a force for global domination and destruction. He came to view America's military as an instrument of neocolonial occupation. He adopted his father's position that capitalism and free markets are code words for economic plunder. Obama grew to perceive the rich as an oppressive class, a kind of neocolonial power within America. In his worldview, profits are a measure of how effectively you have ripped off the rest of society, and America's power in the world is a measure of how selfishly it consumes the globe's resources and how ruthlessly it bullies and dominates the rest of the planet."

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0927/politics-socialism-capitalism-private-enterprises-obama-business-problem_print.html

D'Souza is apparently the rising intellectual (?) star on the right. Check this out...

"Dinesh D’Souza, known to conscientious commentators everywhere as “Distort D’Newsa,” has been – for far too long – one of the Right’s rising stars. Known for his bigoted-sounding theories on race, gender, and sexuality, D’Souza has been flown around to college campus after college campus by his benefactors at Young America’s Foundation and The Heritage Foundation, spewing his shock-value material to budding college conservatives.

D’Souza’s rise is the perfect illustration of the success that right-wing foundations have had in cultivating a generation of conservative thinkers and leaders by throwing money at them, supporting their academic work, and hooking them up with internships, government jobs, and the right conservative network.

A darling of the right-wing-campus-newspaper-backing Collegiate Network, D’Souza helped found the infamous ultra-conservative Dartmouth Review as an undergrad. Under D’Souza’s “leadership,” The Review ran notoriously tasteless, bigoted, and just downright offensive articles of all stripes. Among his signature pieces: a parody of African American students at Dartmouth entitled “This Sho Ain’t No Jive Bro”; an interview with a Ku Klux Klan member featuring a graphic of a hanged black man; and selected words of wisdom from Adolf Hitler. The Review consistently referred to gay men as sodomites, and D’Souza himself publicly outed one gay student in an article based on stolen correspondence between members of the Dartmouth Gay Student Alliance.

With his journalistic career on the upswing (if not the up and up), D’Souza was hired as the editor of Prospect, a magazine started by a conservative Princeton alum. D’Souza’s stint as editor helped him expand his already outrageous repertoire to include a sexist attack on the field of women’s studies. Also while he was editor, the magazine published an expose of a female undergrad’s sex life without her permission."

Read the whole article to know the enemy...

http://www.campusprogress.org/articles/know_your_right-wing_speakers_dinesh_dsouza

[rhett o rick]

30. Beck has raised the crazy bar. nm

[scheming daemons]

31. "What's right with Newt Gingrich" is a MUCH shorter list

[unblock]

34. why make it in the first place? let me count the ways

- he gets headlines. not easy to get these days when there's a lot of crazy that goes all the way to eleven to compete with.
- he gets to appeal to bigots. remember, you appeal to your base first. you don't move to the center until after the primary.
- he gets money. you just KNOW tying "obama" to "kenyan" was the magic password that opens up a whole lot of right-wing checkbooks.

so if and when he wins the primary and has to appeal to the center, and if anyone remembers and cares about this quote, THEN he can meekly backpedal. while getting more headlines.

so what exactly is stupid about him saying this -- from the point of view of a cynical right-wing political slimeball, that is?

[hobbit709]

35. What's right with him would be a much shorter list.

[blondeatlast]

37. But much, much longer to discover. nt

[guruoo]

38. He wasn't getting enough attention. nt

[old mark]

39. Newt LOVES attention, good, bad, whatever. If you look up Narcissistic

Personality Disorder, you should find his personality described, at least in part. He just can't help himself.

mark

No pic, but you decide:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissistic_personality_disorder

[yellowcanine]

41. No question Newt is a narcissist but that is nothing new. I just think he as gone over the top,

even for Newt.

[old mark]

44. I think he is trying to fit in with the "new generation" of RW insanity, and

going over the top as a result.

For Newt, going over the top is quite an achievement.

mark

[Brigid]

40. He is jealous.

Glenn Beck has garnered tons of attention -- and money -- just by being a wingnut, so Newt decided to get in on the act.

[BolivarianHero]

42. My step-dad's always despised Newt and his ilk...

And this from someone who likes Stephen Harper and who never voted anything other than Tory until 2004.

[felix_numinous]

43. Republicans only have crazy horses to put in the race

--the crazier the better. Think about it-They put a hollywood actor with early stage Alzheimer's, Bush senior and his halidol, and W-an 'ex' coke addict. Republicans want a player, not a sane person with morals and sense.

[HopeHoops]

45. Oh, fuck. WHERE oh WHERE to begin?!?!?

I'm going to need about a dozen legal pads and a fresh box of pens to even start on that list.

[CanonRay]

46. His career is over and he's desperate to get back in the game.

[Phentex]

47. He has always been a nutcase but when they put him in a suit

he got the attention of those who hadn't heard his crap for years and years...long before he was in the spotlight.

He is an attention seeking idiot.