GOP lawmakers decide it’s time to listen to Gingrich

June 10, 2008

At some point, it’s not entirely clear when, the DC establishment decided that Newt Gingrich is an intellectual. He gained a reputation as a “big thinker.” He’s someone whose ideas are “outside the box.”

All of this is rather silly. The former Speaker can bloviate with the best of them, and he has opinions on everything under the sun, but the notion that Newt Gingrich is some kind of “visionary” — which is how David Broder described him last year — is ridiculous.

And yet, his advice is as sought out now as ever.

Newt Gingrich, who led the GOP takeover of the House in 1994, is now coaching Republicans on how to recapture the Senate.

The former House Speaker and icon of the right is quietly expanding his influence in the upper chamber, where he is selling ideas on refurbishing the GOP’s image. Facing the harshest climate for their party in over a decade, Senate Republicans are hungry for his counsel.

“He’s trying to identify a path to victory in the fall,” said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), adding, “It would be wise for us to listen.”

“I refer to Newt Gingrich as the Mount Vesuvius of ideas. He’s got a lot of them — and many of them are very, very good,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the vice chairman of the Republican Conference.

It’s not altogether clear exactly what words of wisdom Gingrich is sharing with Senate Republicans. According to Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), a longtime Gingrich ally who heads the Senate GOP conference, “His general advice is: Be in touch, don’t be just repeating things you heard from the ’70s and the ’80s.”

That sounds reasonable enough, I suppose, but why would Senate Republicans consider Newt a reliable source in the first place?

Are Republicans’ memories really this short? In the late ’90s, Gingrich developed a well-deserved reputation for being something of a nut. He shut down the government (twice) and he pursued presidential impeachment over an adulterous affair (while carrying on an affair of his own).

Among the gems we heard from the Mt. Vesuvius of Ideas were:

* Gingrich suggested that the homeless should get laptops;

* he touted the benefits of an old-school model of orphanages;

* he criticized the notion of women serving in combat roles because “males are biologically driven to go out and hunt giraffes.”

And if we put aside some of his “big ideas,” wasn’t this the guy who led the Republican Party when it lost seats in the ’98 midterms, and was forced from his leadership post when House Republicans decided they didn’t want to listen to his nonsense anymore?

I don’t doubt that the Senate GOP caucus is feeling nervous right now, maybe even a little desperate. But, really. Newt?

If not Newt, who? If not now, when? 😉

  • I’d forgotten about that whacked-out “hunting giraffes” comment. That has me giggling.

    😀

  • “I refer to Newt Gingrich as the Mount Vesuvius of ideas. He’s got a lot of them — and many of them are very, very good,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the vice chairman of the Republican Conference.

    How does this quote even begin to make sense?

  • Well, considering the Repubs nominated Mr. gaffe-amatic after electing W. twice, their intelligence necessarily should be questioned anyway, right?

    John McCain: Your retirement is too secure as it is, don’t you think?
    John McCain: Can’t poor sick children just get a job already?
    John McCain supporting our troops by keeping them uneducated.
    John McCain: Here’s to you, OH, PA, MI!

  • I refer to Newt Gingrich as the Mount Vesuvius of ideas. He’s got a lot of them — and many of them are very, very good,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas)

    And just ask the people of Pompei or Herculanium if you don’t think of Vesuvius as a spring of wonderful things. Oh yeah…

  • I think in GOP circles, Gingrich is as close to an intellectual as you can find. He’s the anti-intellectual’s intellectual.

  • “I refer to Newt Gingrich as the Mount Vesuvius of ideas. He’s got a lot of them — and many of them are very, very good,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the vice chairman of the Republican Conference.

    Good ole Cornyn he’s my senator. Hopefully not for long. Cornyn is just one of many repubs that needs to be shown the exit. Cornyn has a long list of nonsensical quotes like this one. Unfortunately my fellow Texans just refuse to see an alternative to the GOP.

  • 3.
    On June 10th, 2008 at 1:43 pm, Always hopeful said:

    …which proves how desperate they are.

    I like my Republicans like I like my women–desperate. Just kidding!!!

  • I refer to Newt Gingrich as the Mount Vesuvius of ideas. He’s got a lot of them — and many of them are very, very good,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas)

    Well, there is the similarity of spewing out gas and flame and such, darkening the sky and raining damage down upon the landscape for miles around…

  • Adding to #11 – his ideas will instantly kill all living things that they touch.

  • I refer to Newt Gingrich as the Mount Vesuvius of ideas. -John Cornyn

    That might be the single worst analogy I’ve ever heard in my life and quite possibly the dumbest thing I’ve uttered by a human being. Cornyn has really outdone himself with this one.

  • …the dumbest thing I’ve uttered… -doubtful

    lol

    That’s “the dumbest thing ever uttered,” please. See, stupid people make me type poorly.

  • Republicans going to Newt for advice?

    If it weren’t so hot outside I’d think I’d died and gone to heaven.

    Do I need to point out how sad it is that they’re going to this washed-up has-been for help rather than their pResident?

    Didn’t think so.

    Sorry, I don’t mean sad, I mean awesome.

  • Probably about the time he started distributing video tapes of the “history” class he taught at some (IIRC) Ga community college. Teach=Professor=Intellectual. Write a bad novel and some bad history books and them self-promote yourself endlessly to the press and you, too, can be a supreme intellectual.

  • The Answer is Orange (15):Do I need to point out how sad it is that they’re going to this washed-up has-been for help

    Well. let’s take a look at who the media goes when they want Republican “idea” men. Pat Buchanan, Ollie North, Karl Rove, G. Gordon Liddy. It’s not what most progressives mean when they say “recycling the trash”, but it seems to fit.

  • i just hope Cornyn’s right – if Newt can do for the Republican Senate what Vesuvius did for the residents of Pompeii, the country will be in a much better place.

  • @ 1. On June 10th, 2008 at 1:39 pm, Curmudgeon said:
    If not Newt, who?

    How about Gerald Ford?
    I know he’s dead but doesn’t he have that in common with McFlame & his party?

  • Republicans going to Newt for advice?

    If it weren’t so hot outside I’d think I’d died and gone to heaven.

    hate to break it to you, tAiO, but if you think you’ve died and are seeing or hearing Newt’s name (and certainly if Newt is there), you’ve may have taken a wrong turn at purgatory that would also explain the heat.

  • Update to myself @ 19

    Even though no one can find McBush’s heartbeat or detect any breathing, life in candidate McCarcass has been verified by the some who say they saw violent eyelash flickering last week as he blinked wildly from the bottom of the huggy bear, lime green jell-o bowl attraction at Six-Flags.

    will follow up as necessary….

  • Here’s a recent pearl from the Newt Vesuvius,,,

    This is … one of the great tragedies of the Bush administration,” Gingrich continued. “The more successful they’ve been at intercepting and stopping bad guys, the less proof there is that we’re in danger. And therefore, the better they’ve done at making sure there isn’t an attack, the easier it is to say, ‘Well, there never was going to be an attack anyway.’ And it’s almost like they should every once in a while have allowed an attack to get through just to remind us.“

    Only if your hometown is first, Newt, and you’re at home.

  • God I hate that man. Sometimes he says things that get me off my feet saying “Yes! Exactly! Finally someone understands this!” And then when I have gotten excited, he keeps talking and undermines any sliver of credibility he may have just exuded in the previous minute. Its like he was born with an intellectually curious mind, that just happened to receive a conservative/republican education that corrupts it and makes it useless.

  • I prefer to think of Newt as the Titanic: a gorgeous vessel carrying thousands of people of every stripe to America.

    Or the Hindenburg: a vast, towering, floating city of the air, full of buoyant ideas and capable of lighting the dusk sky for miles around.

    Or Old 97: a speeding steam train bringing hope to all the nation.

    Or the Charge of the Light Brigade: with his magnificent blind courage and leadership.

    Or the last season of Twin Peaks: Newt would definitely know who killed Laura Palmer and would turn that knowledge into Republican victory!

  • I liked this:

    “I refer to Newt Gingrich as the Mount Vesuvius of ideas. He’s got a lot of them — and many of them are very, very good,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the vice chairman of the Republican Conference.

    Actually more like an overflowing septic tank of ideas but hey, republicans, listen to Newt! Please! I’m sure he’ll have some crackerjack ideas on how to win in 2010, and 2012, and 2014, and 2016, after which you’ll figure out that he’s just a self-promoting pathological attention seeker and an utter fraud. Maybe.

    Just don’t figure that out too soon, okay?

  • hate to break it to you, tAiO, but if you think you’ve died and are seeing or hearing Newt’s name (and certainly if Newt is there), you’ve may have taken a wrong turn at purgatory that would also explain the heat.

    Newter’s about to lead his acolytes into the fiery pit of eternal political oblivion and I’ve got front-row seats.

    Are you suuuure that doesn’t sound like heaven?

  • “Gingrich suggested that the homeless should get laptops”

    And where, pray tell, are they going to plug them in to recharge the batteries?

  • “I refer to Newt Gingrich as the Mount Vesuvius of ideas[…] said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), […]

    I am struck! struck! by how accurate that comparison is. Vesuvius erupted almost 2000 yrs ago and has remained quiet since, bar an occasional sulfurous burp. For that matter, the same simile could, probably, be applied to McCain with the same accuracy.

  • “He’s trying to identify a path to victory in the fall,” said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), adding, “It would be wise for us to listen.”

    shhhh! didn’t you hear thune? we need to be quiet while gingrich identifies the path to victory!

  • Gingrich had ONE powerful effect on his brethren.

    He told them to shut up about their liberal colleagues in New England.
    He KNEW religious whack jobs couldn’t win there and he had to have the liberals up there to get a majority.

    The Dems are now securing potent majorities because we’re holding our tongues about “moderate” Southern Democrats. If it means the Democratic agenda gets a voice, that’s precisely what we must do.

    Newt may be spouting vagaries yet whispering that they need to placate the religious right but explain that they need to help liberals win in liberal areas if God’s work is to be done.

    Don’t assume private Newt is the same as Public Newt.

    Underestimation is a recurrent problem we have had.

    If ALL of these people are stupid, why have their flunkies beaten us over-and-over-and-over? At what point should we doubt our overwhelming superiority?

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