2012 GOP Presidential Campaign -- "This individual's going to accuse me of an affair for an extended period of time."

“I like Barney Frank’s quote the best, where he said ‘I never thought I’d live such a good life that I would see Newt Gingrich be the nominee of the Republican party,’” Pelosi said in an exclusive interview Friday. “That quote I think spoke for a lot of us.”

Pelosi didn’t go into detail about Gingrich’s past transgressions, but she tipped her hand. “One of these days we’ll have a conversation about Newt Gingrich,” Pelosi said. “I know a lot about him. I served on the investigative committee that investigated him, four of us locked in a room in an undisclosed location for a year. A thousand pages of his stuff.”

Pressed for more detail she wouldn’t go further.

“Not right here,” Pelosi joked. “When the time’s right.”

i think this is meant to be entertaining

Newt paid a $300K fine and was reprimanded by the House (the only time in history a Speaker has been reprimanded) for misuing campaign finds. Add to that his Freddie Mac lobbying and he'll look exactly like the 'inside-the-Beltway' operator the base professes to loathe.

I'm sure there's plenty other things to add to that pile

But if she really wanted him to win, why would she say she has damaging secrets about him? Unless she wants people to think that she doesn't want him to win.

― o. nate, Tuesday, 6 December 2011 18:10 (33 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink

Because you learn to build something good up before you use it? TV shows don't throw out all their storylines within the first couple episodes - they build to the reveal to make it seem more important and/or hilarious. And when it comes to Newt, it should be pronounced HI-Larious.

honestly tho, newt has like 8 things on public record that could have taken down a politician

on the one hand I don't doubt that there are more, otoh what would it take to be 'shocking'? maybe he killed a dude

I think it's a very real possibility that Pelosi wants the base to be enthused about their candidate and then have him/her get kicked in the nads and leave them with either Romney who nobody loves or, possibly in a fit of pique, someone even easier to defeat like Gingrich.

From my anecdotal experience the Republicans I know are getting dispirited and embarrassed by their choices. They were (even the more rational ones) fighting mad a year ago. Now they're tired and uninspired. It's one thing to rail on about corrupt unions and politicians who don't understand basic (classic liberal) economics but now all their liberal friends are having a field day teasing them about Cain and Bachmann and Gingrich.

well you also know republicans who live in san francisco

honestly tho, newt has like 8 things on public record that could have taken down a politician

Maybe Newt has a bit of the "teflon" gene that Reagan famously had? If so, he may be a more formidable opponent than he appears.

like there are people who are probably isolated from the 'cain and bachmann are insane human beings' narrative

Maybe Newt has a bit of the "teflon" gene that Reagan famously had? If so, he may be a more formidable opponent than he appears.

haha – he doesn't and he isn't.

honestly tho, newt has like 8 things on public record that could have taken down a politician

on the one hand I don't doubt that there are more, otoh what would it take to be 'shocking'? maybe he killed a dude

― iatee, Tuesday, 6 December 2011 18:54 (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink

oh come on, anyone on camera talking to him just needs to answer every question with "ok thats great but didnt you leave yr wife while she was dying with cancer to go be with yr mistress". every answer. just one time. one time between now and next november. they dont even need new shit. just actually play the old hits.

haha – he doesn't and he isn't.

^^^

Newt is a nerd who is pretty awkward/combative. Reagan was an actor.

Reagan's image was avuncular. Newt's image is all angry smartass.

This is very much a battle for the soul of the Republican party. Will it defer to its guts or its brains? The smarter Republicans out there know that the guts are notoriously impervious to reason, riddled with fear and loathing and not often appealing to a majority of voters. If you need any proof of what always tacking to the right gets you, just look at the GOP's standing in California. The last major position they held was by a movie star who parachuted into the governor's office via a recall, not by way of primaries.

My conservative parents, who after a 2008 filled with tumult and portents of doom, have not paid too much attention to primary season but they were embarrassed by Cain's non-response to the Libya question and Perry's fumbling. They have said many times that they hate every option.

This is very much a battle for the soul of the Republican party. Will it defer to its guts or its brains?

Not to be tetchy, Mike, but this is the sort of question TV pundits ask every cycle about both parties.

Reagan's image was avuncular.

This^^^

The Gipper could smile and tell an anecdote all while his administration was up to no end of mayhem. Newt actually likes being the smartaleck dick.

i don't feel sorry for conservatives who have no option, or feel like they don't.

Primary season requires ideological battles; you're going to see the worst of the party. The GOP has been in a primary cycle since 1988.

This is very much a battle for the soul of the Republican party. Will it defer to its guts or its brains?

as with the Dems, its bowels.

i don't feel sorry for conservatives who have no option, or feel like they don't.

I told them as much when Huckabee won Iowa in 2008 and they were filled with croakings of doom: "your party has spent the last thirty years courting people like Huckabee. Now you get what you deserve."

but this is the sort of question TV pundits ask every cycle about both parties.

You're right of course. I just think it's getting worse for them. They have so many shibboleths that are enforced so rigidly, that everybody is in danger of being accused of a RINO for not staying in lockstep with the hivemind. It's a kind of dictatorship of the idiotariat.

*defecates furiously*

eh I can imagine that newt is seen as 'the brains' by some people, and he definitely does his best to promote that image. he drops big words, references history pretty often, etc. etc.

heys guys how do you continue to put up with morbius? that guy is the worst geir-bot in these threads.

they can't pass up the handjobs

Cuz most of us are in these threads?

well morbs isn't a crypto racist so there's that

The Gipper could smile and tell an anecdote all while his administration was up to no end of mayhem. Newt actually likes being the smartaleck dick.

I think Newt plays to the image of himself as the smart-aleck though. He does it with a wink that signals to his base, "Just watch - this'll really piss them off." (It doesn't need to be said that "them" is the elite liberal media.) So he can get away with saying things that would sound harsh or cruel coming from someone else.

but the base doesn't mind if he sounds harsh or cruel! You're right though.

i am still clinging to the notion that newt's erratic assholishness and lack of organization will ruin him and romney's immense amount of money, inside support, and robot will to be a perfect candidate will last through all of it.

but the crazy surge this close to a primary is pretty wild i must say. he could fuck it up in a month, sure.

maybe there's some kind of "crazy shit bradley effect" where GOP caucus-goers talk winger game to pollsters but won't want to go all-out on the day of.

base loves harsh/cruel. independents/"swing voters" do not. ergo Newt is doomed.

the other problem is that Newt can ONLY play harsh/cruel. unlike Dubya, who could muster tearful repentance, macho bluster, and simple-minded sympathy in equal measure, Newt only has one setting: scorn.

yeah, that recent softspoken "morning in america" commercial of his is so hysterically out of character

and there's the other major problem with Gingrich, money

nlike Dubya, who could muster tearful repentance, macho bluster, and simple-minded sympathy in equal measure

You sure you don't mean Rod Steiger?

little known fact: Dubya travelled back in time to play the role of Jud in the screen adaptation of Oklahoma!

Congressional Ethics Committee's investigative report on Gingrich released

Looks like this was discussed upthread, but I don't get Pelosi's logic--why sabotage the guy you want to win? Unless, as some of you suggested, she thinks this will rally Republicans around Gingrich.

she probably isn't playing three-dimensional chess and enjoyed the opportunity to lol at gingrich

I wish somebody would start a game of three-dimensional chess with Perry. I think that would be fun.

why sabotage the guy you want to win? Unless, as some of you suggested, she thinks this will rally Republicans around Gingrich.

Dems don't have a lot of muscle to flex in GOP primaries. this won't sabotage him. it will have the simultaneous effects of a) probably motivating the base (who hates Pelosi) and will see any attacks from her as vindication of Newt's threat and b) it will act as a harbinger of things to come for independents/swing voters who may only be starting to pay attention to Gingrich. win/win for the Dems.

let's keep in mind that like .01% of the american voting population are aware that this event happened

That's like four-dimensional chess...I'm two dimensions behind, but I like it. (xpost)

Hooray! Wait...:

"A lot of people agree with me and find it amazing," Trump said of the eligibility controversy. "It's miraculous how this birth certificate just appeared."

He said many people have questioned the birth certificate's authenticity.

"It's strange that after years all of a sudden it appears," Trump mused. "How come there are no records his mother ever was in the hospital?"

He noted there are records of other births in the Hawaii hospital at the time.

"There's no record of Obama or his mother," he said.

Trump added that members of Obama's own family have pointed to different hospitals in Hawaii as being his birth location, and his grandmother reportedly made statements linking his birth to Kenya.

"I have real questions (about Obama's eligibility)," he said.

I think it might just mean that in the end the base will be depressed. They'll end up with Mittens after all the others have flamed out and all their enthusiasm has been spent

Huntsman walks back climate change stance. that's cute... he thinks he's going to get to go to the ball when Newt shits the bed

(and hell he just might. so that'll show me)

eh I can imagine that newt is seen as 'the brains' by some people, and he definitely does his best to promote that image. he drops big words, references history pretty often, etc. etc.

He even has a bona fide Ph.D.!

it's not inconceivable w/ the dynamics of this race. I mean I don't expect him to get the nom, but if you woulda asked any of us "will cain or gingrich at any point be the frontrunners" some months ago, we woulda laughed. he's trending up on intrade, at 8% atm.