December 2, 2011 8:49 AM

Lies, damned lies, and virtually anything Newt Gingrich says

(Also published at Firedoglake and Daily Kos)

Next to Romney, Gingrich seems authentic. Next to Herman Cain, Gingrich seems faithful. Next to Jon Huntsman, Gingrich seems conservative. Next to Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, Gingrich actually does look like an intellectual.

People like me are what stand between us and Auschwitz.

  • Newt Gingrich

There’s fudging the truth. There’s prevaricating. There’s lying outright. And then there’s whatever you’d call whatever it is that Newt Gingrich is doing. The current leader in the horse race for the 2012 GOP nomination (don’t worry, it’ll probably be someone else next week) is a serial philanderer, a liar, and a man for whom the term “flip-flop” may well have been coined.

How silly have things become? How embarrassing is the predicament the GOP finds itself in? Well, in the “family values” party, Gingrich’s “zipper problem” and his well-chronicled history of infidelity seems to be the (roundly ignored) 800-lb. gorilla in the room. Gingrich once counseled Republican candidates to demonize their Democratic opponents with words like “sick” and “twisted” (those are actually some of the nicer adjectives). Gingrich has stated that he never, EVER lobbied for Freddie Mac…and then it came out that Freddie Mac paid him somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.6 million for “advice” offered as a “historian.” If you’re thinking that Gingrich might be..um, lacking in integrity and decency, you’ve hit the nail flush on the head.

Gingrich is arguably responsible for giving birth to the ugly, partisan tone that currently exists in Washington. During his tenure as Speaker of the House, Gingrich’s “slash and burn” strategy was designed to do two things: increase Republican power and influence and, by extension, increase his own. Once he left the House, he continued to advise Republicans to frame their opponents in terms that painted them as evil, anti-American, miserable human beings. His approach created the rift which has grown with time and helped to give birth to the Tea Party.

IF Gingrich becomes the GOP nominee, and the odds of that appear to be slim, then Republicans will officially cede any claim to morality and human decency. You can’t expound on the sanctity of marriage when your standard-bearer is a serial adulterer who’s on his third marriage. You can’t talk about “taking America back” when your Presidential candidate is a proponent of the politics of division, demonization, and personal destruction. If Gingrich is the Republican who emerges from the crowded primary field to take on President Obama, Republicans will have officially revealed themselves to be zealots and hypocrites who care all and only about their narrow agenda and their willingness to force it upon ALL Americans. They’ll have revealed themselves to be inattentive, clueless sheep easily propagandized into voting against their own interests. Worst of all, they’ll have revealed themselves once again to be willing to vote against their interests in service of the oligarchy.

There may have been a time when Republicans might have actually had something to offer Americans. The fact that Newt Gingrich is currently the lead horse puts the lie to Republican claims of devotion to their ideals. It’s about power and the willingness of the American Sheeple to participate in their own marginalization and subjugation. And it goes beyond Gingrich; how’s this for a creepy rogue’s gallery:

  • Newt Gingrich is a liar, philanderer, and primarily devoted to his own enrichment.
  • Mitt Romney has no core convictions. He’ll do and/or say whatever he thinks give him the best shot at winning the Presidency.
  • Rick Perry is an intellectual tabula rasa. Either that, or he’s the GOP’s official “self-parody” candidate.
  • Michele Bachmann lives in a fact-free bubble where the mere fact of thinking something and then giving voice to it makes it immutable fact.
  • Rick Santorum is the “missionary position” candidate, a politician who believes that “smaller government” means that bureaucrats will be freed to take up residence in our bedrooms.
  • Ron Paul is a refugee from Planet Reebok with a devoted following of those whose grip on reality gene has been surgically removed.
  • Herman Cain is a performance artist. How else can you explain someone so thoroughly clueless, “holier than thou”, and convinced of his own moral superiority that he believes the mere fact of showing up makes him Presidential timbre. And now…”Women for Cain”? Really??
  • Gary Johnson is…wait, who IS Gary Johnson??
  • Jon Huntsman is the only adult in the group. In today’s GOP, of course, this means he has no shot. None. Zero, Zip. Nada. His daughters are pretty hot, though. That’s got to count for something, right?

I’d like to think that Republicans are serious about presenting a viable alternative to the American Sheeple in 2012. Then again, it’s not like the American electorate has proven to be particularly discerning; how else would you explain eight years of George W. Bush? The only reasonable conclusion I’m able to draw is that this is the GOP’s idea of a joke. They must think that they could put forward a ham sandwich in 2012 and defeat Barack Obama.

Actually, a ham sandwich would be a significant upgrade from the current crop of mediocrities that is the freak show the GOP is foisting upon the American Sheeple.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on December 2, 2011 8:49 AM.

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