Monday, November 28, 2011

Gingrich characterizes Romney as from "Rockefeller wing" of the GOP. Reporting was he intended it as a pejorative comment. Was it at all indicative more of who Gingrich is, than Romney?

This Google, yielding this report among other returned items -

Newt Gingrich is calling Republican presidential campaign rival Mitt Romney "a Nelson Rockefeller Republican" who will have a hard time appealing to the GOP's base.
Gingrich also calls himself "a very complicated candidate," telling CNN's "State of the Union" he has to get people to embrace his "campaign of substance."

Seattle Times carrying AP feed; this link.

Politico reports:

Mitt Gingrich, Newt Romney
One of the criticisms Newt Gingrich has faced over the years is a lack of consistency, and a reader flagged this 1989 interview Newt Gingrich did with the Ripon Society, which underscores that fact.

The whole thing is worth a read, but the highlights include Gingrich describing himself as a member of the Rockefeller/moderate wing of the GOP - a true fact (he served as a Southern chair for the former New York governor whose name is now something of an epithet for a moderate GOPer within Republican circles). But it's ironic, since Gingrich recently twisted the knife a bit into Romney as someone in the mold of the Rockefeller wing of the party.

The exact quote:

There is almost a new synthesis evolving with the classic moderate wing of the party, where, as a former Rockefeller state chairman, I've spent most of my life, and the conservative/activist right wing. You have work being done by the Heritage Foundation as well as by such moderates as Tom Petri. Petri has extraordinarily broad support for his living wage concept, which represents an empowerment/citizen choice replacement for the bureaucratic/corrupt, liberal welfare state. [... Moreover,] Let me say first that one of the gravest mistakes the Reagan administration made was its failure to lead aggressively in civil rights. It cost the Republican Party. [...]

Reagan faced memory lapses in his last years, that's been reported, but this Gingrich fellow has his memory lapses before thinking himself fit to be President. Or is it that the man changes convictions as readily as he's changed spouses, each fitting needs at the time?

Some say Romney flip-flops. So - He and Gingrich - are they twin sons separated at birth?

Said a different way, precisely how many wings did Rockefeller have?

____________UPDATE____________
Here's a video online of the Newtster looking as sincere as he can feign, and throwing stones never mind his glass house.

Would you buy Newt's used car? He'd tout all its great features. He'd explain how the other guy's used car has problems - while it in fact is the same make as his.

____________FURTHER UPDATE___________

But wait, Newt, then I said, "Corporations are people."  (photo credit)
UPDATE LINK:  You did support the mandate, then "didn't" - both sides,
one street. Nobody walks both sides of the street like the ol' Newt.