Regarding Newt Gingrich

“March 8, 2003: State Department spokesman says of forged documents, “We fell for it”; shortly thereafter, Wilson tells CNN that the U.S. government has more information on this matter than the State Department spokesman acknowledged.

“Sources have informed Wilson that soon after the CNN interview, a decision was made at a meeting in the Office of the Vice President – possibly attended by Dick Cheney, Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, Newt Gingrich, and other senior republicans – to produce a workup on Wilson to discredit him.”
Joseph Wilson; The Politics of Truth; Carroll & Graf; 2004; page 452.

Discussions about the long anticipated and recently announced presidential candidacy of Newt Gingrich frequently focus on two things: his experience as a hostile Speaker of the House, and his marital infidelities. It would be easy – too easy – to dismiss Gingrich as a bitter politician, with deep character flaws that render him unlikely to be elected to high office. Yet this is the country in which both Richard Nixon and Richard Cheney held the reins of power.

I am convinced that Gingrich is actually running for the Vice Presidency. I base this opinion on information pertaining to the role that Gingrich played in VP Cheney's cabal. Although Gingrich was neither elected nor appointed to any position in the Bush/Cheney administration, he definitely played an under-reported and powerful role.

Gingrich did serve in a visible position: he was “a member of the Defense Policy Board, an outside group that periodically advised Rumsfeld, but his real connection was to Cheney.” (Bob Woodward; State of Denial; Simon & Schuster; 2006; page 251) Cheney and Gingrich had both been elected to Congress in 1978, and had remained close friends. Thus, Gingrich was a member of Cheney's Office of Special Plans, the vice president's intelligence group that adhered to a neoconservative world-view.

In this position, Gingrich worked with Cheney, Libby, Paul Wolfowitz, James Woolsey, Richard Pearle, John Hannah, Douglas Feith, David Wurmser, and retired Navy Commander William Luti. (In fact, Luti had previously served as a foreign policy aide to Gingrich.) Gingrich would serve as one of the top supporters of Ahmad Chalabi, including well after the CIA had discredited Chalabi. Hence, Gingrich's role in attending meetings at the CIA's headquarters, along with VP Cheney and Scooter Libby, to pressure analysts (Wilson; page 6), should not be underestimated.

More information on Gingrich's knowledge of, and participation with the unconstitutional power of the Office of the Vice President can be found in the two books quoted from above, along with Woodward's “The War Within” (Simon & Schuster; 2008) and Michael Isikoff & David Corn's “Hubris” (Crown; 2006). There are, of course, numerous other reliable sources of documentation of this.

There are many reasons that Newt Gingrich should never be elected or appointed to any position in government. The fact that he was eager to shut down the federal government while serving as the Speaker of the House is definitely a good one. The business about his advocating the impeachment of President Clinton for behavior that he engaged in is yet another. But most important, I believe, is that Newt Gingrich was an active participant in the Cheney effort to destroy our Constitutional democracy. Gingrich wants to have the shadowy powers associated with the OVP. And that is no joke.

Peace,
H2O Man

Also, power at any cost is not below him.

K & R for the facts!

I think he is representative of that which is the worst in Washington's potential.

be mistaken for being only a jackass. He is, of course, a jackass. But he is much more than that.

In fact, he is likely to be selected as the running mate for almost any republican presidential candidate, at least at this point in time. More, that is exactly what he wants. And while I expect President Obama to be re-elected in 2012, a lot can (and will) happen between now and then. And considering that the electoral vote, rather than popular vote, determines the outcome, it is possible that Newt could become VP.

The thought of it is enough to induce a heart attack.

Gingrich is as dangerous as Cheney was.

It fits very nicely and explains why the Newtie was so quite during the shrubing of America.

-Hoot

I have Joe's book and forgot about that (I stay outraged too much I suppose). Thanks for the reminder.

Very clever and discerning piece. It is, as you say, all too easy to dismiss this nasty man, as a buffoon. You know, I remember interviews with his mom and at the time she struck me as being rather awful. Apple and tree?

K & R

It all makes sense. Especially considering that most of the likely Presidential candidates are such buffoons. I could well imagine a Huckabee-Gingrich administration for example, with Gingrich playing Cheney to Huck's Texas Twit.

I don't underestimate the Corporate Propaganda Service (AKA M$M) to sell damn near anything to the American public. Newt's egregious marital history and Huck's plain old corruption will mean no more than the Texas Twit's AWOL or Cheney's "other priorities"--not even a significant task challenge to a propaganda machine that can make a hero of the Twit and a fake-Purple-Heart bounder of Kerry.

who is more easy to market; the much needed "experienced" VP .... where have we heard that one before?

Huckleberry and Cheney's "issues" are not presented as being as "series" by the media, as President Obama's birth certificate "scandal."

I think 2012 is gonna be a very interesting year on the political scene.

I expect the "Great Recession" will worsen again. All it takes is high energy costs to do that, and they're cranking it up again. Watch for European-level gas prices hitting maybe next summer, which, combined with American distances and the ridiculous fuel economy of our existing transportation base, will make people very unhappy with the status quo and ready to vote Obama out as a "failure."

By the campaign season, the death of Usama bin Laden will have faded as an issue. There are powerful forces looking to tank the economy, and blame the democratic administration. Plus, there will be crises in foreign lands, beyond President Obama's ability to control.

I understand and appreciate those on the left who believe that the president is doing things that appear to be more consistent with the right-wing agenda, than with what the Democratic Party is supposed to stand for. What is important for everyone here to recognize, however, is that the real power is shared by some domestic and international corporatists, and that the future these folks have mapped out does not include anything close to the democratic principles we at the grass roots level work for. There is a huge struggle going on. And while I view President Obama as seriously flawed, I think that the actual alternative is far worse. (And it's not the "think of Palin" nonsense; it's something real.)

it just keeps on undermining America...Kinda sorryass that these creeps have not been called to task by the so-called 'media.'

wrong before...

...for the bump to his speaking fees and book advances.
But reading this, I think you are 100% correct.
He wants to be VP, modeled after Cheney.
The power behind the scenes of a puppet like Sarah or Michele.
That's actually quite a frightening scenario.
I think I will need to readjust my expectations of the man...