George Will: Newt Gingrich "embodies the vanity and rapacity that make modern Washington repulsive."

Conservative Washington Post columnist George Will is not a Newt Gingrich fan:

[Gingrich] embodies the vanity and rapacity that make modern Washington repulsive. And there is his anti-conservative confidence that he has a comprehensive explanation of, and plan to perfect, everything….

Gingrich, who would have made a marvelous Marxist, believes everything is related to everything else and only he understands how. Conservatism, in contrast, is both cause and effect of modesty about understanding society's complexities, controlling its trajectory and improving upon its spontaneous order. Conservatism inoculates against the hubristic volatility that Gingrich exemplifies and Genesis deplores: "Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel."

Who knows, maybe you read that and still think Gingrich is the candidate for you. Check out Reason's candidate profile to find out more.

Comments

[Tim]

Newt Gingrich: asshole.

[Suki]

Yes, but Newt is the last elected person in DC who tried to get a balanced budget. He ended up with a surplus.

[Alan]

Unfortunately he isn't hawkish enough. It's a travesty that Santorum was black-balled by the media and the establishment; either he or Bachmann would have been ideal presidents.

[Pro Libertate]

Of. . .of. . .the United States? Or are you talking about the presidency of something else?

[Episiarch]

I'm guessing this is Jim trying another sockpuppet.

[Hugh Akston]

You may be right. This Alan thing was kinda playing the cement-headed hawk in the Iran thread.

[Apatheist]

It is and he admitted it this weekend after tricking alot of people. I've been alerting people all day but generally the damage is already done. Sloopy is in on it too and helps bait people.

[Alan]

^^humorless spoilsport

[Hugh Akston]

Except that kind of shit isn't funny Jim. We've already got sockpuppets like Tony and rectal and countless others shitting up this blog. Go to 4chan If you want to troll people.

[Gojira]

Oh I don't know, Sloopy and I had some laughs. Sorry you don't think it's funny.

[Apatheist]

As I said in the Iran post, I don't point it out till you've had some fun but I'm not going to sit and watch people get all worked up over a sockpuppet just because it's you. I'm not saying it isn't funny sometimes but at somepoint you have to admit you are trolling (like you did this weekend) so they can move on. They may be pissed instead of laughing but so be it. Do it yourself or I'll do it if I notice.

[Apatheist]

Also it's your own fucking fault for admitting it was you if you intended to keep using Alan. You can always come up with a new troll name.

[Libertymike]

How about folks just using one name and sticking to it?

[Gojira]

The point of keeping the same name was so the people who knew could get in on it, like Sloop did earlier.

Sheesh, you guys take freaking blog comments where a bunch of us who subscribe to frankly fringe political beliefs and do nothing but piss and moan all day about things that will never change so seriously.

Just relax. We're not going to be slaying leviathan today, or tomorrow, or the next day, with our witty sarcasm that no one else is reading, so it's best to just have a little chuckle at eachothers' expense and move on.

[Apatheist]

Hey man you play your game all you want but if you get caught you get caught. That is part of the game too.

[Gojira]

So I guess the lesson for the future is, don't let anybody in on it.

[Lana]

Yes, please let us know. I'm new here and prefer not to have these threads polluted with trolls trying to one-up each other for shock value.

[Gojira]

Oh man, I remember you from HuffPo Lana. Please don't bring your shitty liberalism here. I know it's all the rage in California, but it's really sickening.

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

I can't do it. Too much effort, and it has taken me a couple of years to build the reputation of conscientious and intelligent poster on here.

I'd hate to ruin that reputation delusion after I worked so hard to cultivate it.

[Gojira]

You just have to remember that this is the internet, and nothing any of us does has any effect on anyone or anything else.

Doesn't matter if everybody here hates your or loves you, unless you have a compelling need to be liked.

I think I just got tired of how seriously we all take these things. How outraged anew each day we can get. Nothing is going to change...ever. So there's literally no point to any of this except to laugh and dance while the world burns.

[Apatheist]

I agree with you that they shouldn't bother getting riled up about a troll and I'm sure most of them forget about it within an hour. Doesn't mean that some people aren't affected by it. Frankly I don't give much of a shit but it humors me to troll your trolling. It's trolling all the way down.

[Gojira]

I would disagree with your assessment that people are affected by it, in the sense that they only are if they choose to be.

But I suppose I admire your "it's trolls all the way down" modus operandi. Fits in with my nihilistic point of view.

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

You guys all need to grow up.

[scurries back into hole]

[Tim]

Nothing changes my premise: Newt Gingrich is an asshole.

[wareagle]

were the job moralist-in-chief, self appointed or otherwise, then Santorum and/or Bachmann would have been ideal. As it is, however, they are little more than water-carriers for right-wing social engineering.

[Lost_In_Translation]

wait, wasn't that Paul Ryan...according to Newt?

[Sudden]

As much as I hate to admit it, although I have no love for Santorum's ideal reign of terror in burning teh gheyz at the stakes or pursuing the death penalty against women who have an abortion or bombing schoolchildren darker than a Norwegian, I think of the GOP POTUS field, he might be one of the most fiscally conservative not named Ron Paul or Gary Johnson.

[AlmightyJB]

Except that Santorums a douch. I'd take Bachmann over Gingrich any day. It's very sad when I'm forced to even contemplate those choices.

[Spoonman.]

LOL

[Proprietist]

PfffffffffffffAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAAH! Alan made a funny.

[Kandy]

Newt had nothing to do with the late 90s surplus. He voted against the act that led to it.

[weak, very weak]

[BigT]

The Contract w America was great.

[Suki]

Ending welfare as we know it? You are confusing Clinton, who vetoed it, with Gingrich who got it passed over the veto.

[wareagle]

seems ending welfare, or at least reducing it, would play well here.

[Lost_In_Translation]

Yes, I recall the mighty Newt, railing against the deficit all by himself...or atleast that's probably how he remembers it...

[Old Mexican]

Re: Suki,

Yes, but Newt is the last elected person in DC who tried to get a balanced budget. He ended up with a surplus.

Any idiot could have balanced that budget by substituting the money in the S.S. Trust Fund with "I'll get it back to you" notes. REAL budget balancing requires REAL cuts.

[Kandy]

You fail to understand how Federal hand-jobs work.

Any FICA funds must be invested in Treasuries - thus FICA surpluses result in larger Treasury debt. That is the mutual hand-job. The Fed agencies are just jerking each other off (on SS).

The ludicrous "lockbox" contains $2.6 trillion in Treasuries.

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

The ludicrous "lockbox" contains $2.6 trillion in Treasuries.

Pics or it didn't happen.

[Suki]

Nobody got into the lock box in the ancient times before Newt?

[Brett L]

The US governments total financial obligations have never decreased in the past 30+ years. We have never had a surplus. At best, we didn't have to borrow money for current operations.

[Kandy]

That is incorrect.

There was a $236 billion surplus in 2000.

Debt DID increase due to Treasury sales to the SSA. But assets went up more.

Look into double-entry accounting - the Medici perfected it circa 1500.

[Dhinger McGee]

How else could Bush have squandered it if it didn't exist?

He also inherited a sky high NASDAQ, which he subsequently ran into the ground, and 'lost' two WTC towers (two of two!). I'll never vote for him again!

[Kandy]

Bush was up to that task, no doubt.

[dunphy]

skyhigh NASDAQ= overvalued Nasdaq

it wasn't run into the ground or anything else.

it corrected.

overbought markets ALWAYS correct. often, they overcorrect, because contra ivory tower theory from "economist" who could never make money trading a stock, the market is not rational. that's what makes it fun

[Kandy]

Is that you, Cheney?

Remember your claim, "deficits don't matter".

[Kandy]

Actually, the NAZ peaked in March 2000 at 5000 and was 2600 by the time Bush was selected by the Supremes.

[pffffttt]

Bush was selected by the Supremes

pffttt ... is Dianna Ross even still alive?

[CrackertyAssCracker]

What assets were gained during that time?

[wareagle]

I see the race is on to see who can be the most anti-Newt conservative pundit. Kind of amusing until you consider that substituting "George Will" for "Newt Gingrich" would have precisely zero changing effect on that sentence.

[fish]

Except the last time I checked Will had no interest in running for president.

[Tman]

I disagree. Will hasn't played footsies with the left over the last ten years hoping that someone would pay attention to him.

I admit that they may have some things in common from an ideological standpoint, but Gingrich is about as small-government minded as Barack is, and Will has every right to call him out on it.

[wareagle]

Will is nothing more than an establishment Repub, a man so enamored of the rhetoric coming off his keyboard that he fancies himself as some Bard of K Street. Perhaps worse is his judgment, as evidenced by flacking for Perry, the one man able to make W look Mensa-worthy. I realize the Governor is not a dumb man, but he plays one on tv very well.

Sorry, but in a room of egos, Will's is as outsized as either Newt's or Obama's. Once again, the truth rears its head - the biggest threat facing Repub presidential candidates in almost any election year are Repub pundits in their Quixotic quest for the non-existent perfect candidate.

[free2booze]

Kind of amusing until you consider that substituting "George Will" for "Newt Gingrich" would have precisely zero changing effect on that sentence.

[Don Mynack]

Did you even read the article? Gingrich is the worst candidate possible, based on his track record, and Will points that out. Will's points about Huntsman were echoed in a piece in the American Conservative a couple months back, and still hold true.

I highly doubt Will's ego is larger than Newt's, in any place other than your own mind.

[CrackertyAssCracker]

hmmm .... I disagree. Will, along with Sowell, is one of the two Republican (with a big R) writers that I can respect to some degree even while often disagreeing with.

[Pro Libertate]

I rather like Will. He's wrong plenty, but he definitely is one of the few in the GOP establishment that has a soft spot for libertarianism and shares at least some of our values.

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

^^This^^ And it's a pleasure to read what he writes about baseball.

He truly missed his calling.

[Pro Libertate]

He spoke at a luncheon for some ABA event I attended years ago. He sounded even more libertarian then (Clinton years, I think), and I asked him a question that got a fairly decent libertarian answer. Beats the usual statist bullshit.

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

for some ABA event I attended years ago.

I bet you were a big fan of these guys.

[Pro Libertate]

No, but I did have one of those red, white, and blue basketballs. Should've held onto that one.

[Episiarch]

You had a Harlem Globetrotters basketball? And you let it go?!? What's wrong with you, man?

[Pro Libertate]

The ABA basketball, you infant.

[BakedPenguin]

The Algebra equations on the ball were all razzle-dazzle.

[Episiarch]

You dare laugh at the jesters of dunk?

[Pro Libertate]

Are you kidding? I loved the Globetrotters growing up. Meadowlark Lemon, et al. I even saw them live once.

[Episiarch]

"Ladies and gentlemen, something very strange has just occurred in this basketball match between space clowns and atomic monsters."

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Saw the Globetrotters in 1975 at Richfield Arena. I nearly wet my pants laughing. I was 5, and easily amused.

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

My brother just bought one on ebay (I think) autographed by Dr. J. for $500. He said it was a good deal.

[Pro Libertate]

Mine was just a regular ABA basketball. Long gone now.

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

Relive your childhood middle-age 🙂

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

New ones on ebay for $99. Spam filter won't let me link though.

[Pro Libertate]

Again, my chance for early retirement stymied! My dad is almost 100% certain that his mom threw out the first issue of Superman in the 1970s. Well after it was worth a mint.

[chris]

I had a Green Arrow/Green Lantern comic book from the 70's now worth a fortune 🙁

[Pro Libertate]

I had all of the Star Wars bubble gum cards at one time. My brother did something to ruin them. They're worth quite a bit, or were at one time.

[Episiarch]

A friend gave me these as a gift; they're not even cut apart, so they're all on the same original piece of whatever the hell they're made of. I hate collecting shit, but that's pretty cool, and it's framed, so I just put it up on the wall.

[Pro Libertate]

The only original Star Trek anything I have are the Blish books (in the sense that they're first editions) and some things I bought when Roddenberry was shilling products in the early 70s.

[Episiarch]

That same friend, who was a huge horror/scifi collector, also had a schedule from the very first Star Trek convention. He's much more focused on horror, but he always had a good sense for what things to hold on to.

[Pro Libertate]

People today don't appreciate how different that all was. Fan conventions weren't really a phenomenon until all of those crazy Trekkies got going. Now it's SOP, but back then. . .whoa.

[Episiarch]

Just reading that schedule was revealing in how different it was. They were nobodies to everyone besides the Trekkies.

[chris]

I've heard back in the 60's at the conventions there was a 50/50 chance your wife would end up screwing Asimov.

[Pro Libertate]

I've long suspected that he was a whore.

Not that I'm not a huge fan of his.

[chris]

Compared to Campbell, Heinlein, Clark, Sturgeon, Vance, Bester, Van Vogt and almost any science fiction writer of that period, I found his work to be too simple minded. Never understood his appeal or why he was considered top tier over some of those I named. Maybe his pop science books influenced the sells of the fiction books under his name.

[Episiarch]

I enjoyed the Elijah Bailey stuff, and the robot stuff, but other than that I found the rest of his work to be extremely dry, frequently boring, and sort of ridiculous (Psychohistory? Really?). But I really did like the Bailey stuff.

[chris]

Caves of Steel i would say is worth a read. Plotting keeps it on a good course. Foundation is the pits though. I understand why a Krugman loved that series.

[Pro Libertate]

I love his stuff. Some more than others, of course.

[Eduard van Haalen]

The reason these vintage comics, etc. are so valuable today is that *most* people's mothers threw them away. Imagine if they had all kept them!

[chris]

True that! Mom definitely helped push the price up, I tried to keep her hands off of the Days of Future Past and Dark Pheonix sage because I was old enough to be aware of the market at the time, but she still managed to throw them away. Bitch owes me.

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

I've got a few good first issue albums but that's about it. My brother, otoh, has some pretty cool sports memorabilia. His pride and joy is the 1952 Mickey Mantle Topps rookie card. It's not mint, so don't go apeshit...probably worth around $2k.

[Joshua Corning]

I had a Green Arrow/Green Lantern comic book from the 70's now worth a fortune 🙁

I doubt its value...Aquaman would be worth more....plus the fact that you don't even know which "green" superhero you are talking about will probably downgrade its value considerably...

But then of course you could be totally fucked up and have the first Swamp Thing comic and be sitting on 1000s of dollars.

[chris]

That is not what I meant. It was a team up issue as I doubt any comic fan would have missed, and that very issue is worth a fortune today.

[chris]

issue as I doubt any comic fan would have missed the context of what I meant.

[chris]

This issue:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.....ern_85.jpg

[Bill]

Looks retarded.

[chris]

Don't recall the content, but you're probably right.

[chris]

Ink job was nice though. Neal Adams.

[Hank]

Your definition of "a fortune" is different than mine.

[Hank]

You can buy it for $60 in 9.0 condition here.

[R C Dean]

What Pro L said.

[chris]

Here! Here! His prose can be perfumed at times, but he usually pulls it off as well as anyone this side of that other Chris could possibly hope.

[Cytotoxic]

So Will has an ego...so what? He's really smart and makes an honest argument and writes real good.

[Pablo]

I enjoy reading his stuff even when I dont agree with him which is rare. He is perhaps the most libertarian and intellectually consistent writers among the "mainstream" conservative writers. He's not afraid to call major Republican figures on their BS.

[FTFY]

who can be the most anti-Newt conservative establishmentarian pundit

[Hugh Akston]

It doesn't seem like it really matters who gets the Republican nod at this point, nor does it really matter if that candidate beats Obama in '012. The Bush Administration is the new normal, and everything that follows it will just be differing flavors and degrees of awful.

[Episiarch]

9/11, Hugh. It's a permanent 9/11 administration.

[Hugh Akston]

So the Onion was right again?

[Episiarch]

Isn't it always?

New law: given enough time, all Onion articles will become reality.

[Pro Libertate]

They correctly predicted that we'd start throwing money in a giant hole.

[fish]

They correctly predicted that we'd start throwing money in a giant hole.

Solyndra?

We call that the [SUN] [HOLE]

[Dhinger McGee]

Yes, but did the Onion predict we'd celebrate the bonfire?

On Morning Joe this AM, Rattner showed a new auto sales chart with the Clash for Clunkers spike and claimed it was a success and cost just a few billion. Nobody challenged it, and in fact Scarborough even claimed it 'worked'. That show is filled with self assured idiots.

[dunphy]

if joe strummer wasn't dead, he'd be thrilled

[Bam!]

"That show is filled with self assured idiots." -- No, the world is.

[ChrisO]

GWill is on point until he starts giving a journalistic tongue bath to Perry and Huntsman later in the article. He shrugs off Ron Paul in one word as "isolationist."

I dare say that Ron Paul and Gary Johnson are the only candidates in the race who do NOT embody "the vanity and rapacity that make modern Washington repulsive."

[Old Mexican]

Re: ChrisO,

He shrugs off Ron Paul in one word as "isolationist."

That's the usual AdHom utilized by the intellectually dishonest to attack a non-interventionist. G-Will is no different than the normal universe of neo-con miscreants and talking heads when hurling such a canard.

[dunphy]

it's not an adhom, in that it's not really an insult. it's only perceived as an insult by those that are interventionist (the exact opposite of isolationist)

being an isolationist means - "we don't get involved in shit that doesn't affect us, or that we have no legal authority to get involved in"

that's a bad thing?

[Mike E]

I see isolationism as both the lack of free trade and political entanglements. Whereas I see non-interventionism as lack of political entanglements, but free trade with all.

To me it is a very important distinction. Getting branded as an isolationist makes a person look like they don't live in reality.

[NAL]

Agreed. I actually like George Will, but he's being intellectually dishonest to call Ron Paul an isolationist.

[CrackertyAssCracker]

Hell, it's just code for "commie pussy" the way it actually gets used, by most TEAM BLUE aholes.

So it is definitely an adhom.

[CrackertyAssCracker]

Fuck. I meant TEAM RED. I hate it when I get em confused.

[fish]

George Will: Newt Gingrich "embodies the vanity and rapacity that make modern Washington repulsive."

Finally! A headline from someone in the MSM that is accurate, concise and adequately descriptive.

Well done George!

[T]

I have a comprehensive explanation of everything: people suck, and this tendency is magnified in large groups.

Unlike damn near everyone else, I freely admit I'm not sure how to fix this, but removing as much power as possible from people seems to be a good way to go.

[Aresen]

In other newts, The Donald does his best to out-stupid the rest:

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=47927

[Skip]

Well the Left did say it was a War for Oil approximately 90 bajillion times. Might as well reap some reward.

[Warty]

Anybody catch the cartoon off to the side? OMG MINSTREL HUMOR

[Episiarch]

Note how the excuses made for the cartoon by these people were the exact inverse of joe's argument about the monkey cartoon. When it's their TEAM, they argue one side of the argument; the other TEAM, they switch to the direct opposite argument without the slightest pause.

[Warty]

More loathsome: joe or Newt Gingrich?

[Pro Libertate]

Well, I'm not voting for either one.

[Sudden]

What if Joe changed his name to Joecular Titties?

[Episiarch]

I think "Loathsome Joe" would be better.

[Episiarch]

Newt has more power, so...both of them.

[chris]

What is it with joe and cartoons? Anything to do with the cartoonish belief system of the Yes We Can Pragmatist (check out that link at the bottom of the page) that gravitates the man to controversies involving them?

[Episiarch]

The better question is "what is it with joe?"

[Libertymike]

He thinks that african americans regard him as one special cracker.

[chris]

^this

He's a 'I'm not like the others' rider of a high horse kicking at the windows of a glass tower if there ever was one.

[chris]

I can imagine what joe's pick up technique was in the college bars of yore:

"I'm not like the other guys. I wont rape you."

[Pro Libertate]

This is one thing their critics on the right got, well, right: Pure relativism is a dead end. Once you don't think there's right and wrong or truth, you might as well just hang it all up.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

The "Cheshire" Cain needs bigger ears. Plus, there's only one label. C-

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

plus, bigger lips.

[Herman C.]

a watermelon would be a nice touch

[Gojira]

OT:

Stupid-face NASA discovers habital planet.

Pack your bags!

[Pro Libertate]

Is that habitable or habitual? If the former, very interesting, if the former, why can't I quit you, Kepler-22b?

Over 600 light years away, so we won't be going there until we get warp drive in 2015.

[Gojira]

Hells bells, I've misspelled more words in the last two days than I think I did in the entire preceeding month. I have no idea what's going on, but it is somehow the John's fault.

[Pro Libertate]

As long as the typos are amusing, I don't care. John's frequently border on the neologistic, which is just awesome.

[CrackertyAssCracker]

"Ad Homynym" was my favorite of all time.

[Field Marshall Gill]

How do the people who pay you for sex have anything to do with your spelling?

[Pro Libertate]

I had mercy and let the "the John" comment go, but I knew others would fill the void.

[Gojira]

DAMNIT!!!!!

I feel like Oglethorpe.

[SFC B]

Isn't filling the void the whole point of the john?

[Ted S.]

Is that habitable or habitual? If the former, very interesting, if the former, why can't I quit you, Kepler-22b?

Something's not quite right here. 😉

[arijoG]

I think he meant "habitrail".

[BakedPenguin]

Patri Friedman needs to start working with Space X.

[Brett L]

Possibly habitable. Packing your bags at this point would be a probably fatal leap of faith. At best we can't declare it uninhabitable due to lack of possible liquid water. Mars is in the habitable zone, too but we aren't going to gambol across it without oxygen masks and long johns even at high summer.

[Pro Libertate]

Like we could get there. We barely can manage LEO.

[Episiarch]

We just need Skaidon to merge with the Craystein AI and invent runcible technology in the few minutes he has before it kills him. Simple, really.

[Gojira]

This one says they think the temp. is doable, like 72? or something like that. Honestly I just kind of scanned it and threw it up here.

[Donald Trump]

they think the temp. is doable

Most temps are doable, amirite?

[anon]

Will and I agree on Newcular Titties and baseball.

[Kandy]

Hold on! News pending.....

Dan Quayle just endorsed Newt!

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

It amazes me how these people come out of the woodwork just to jump on the (perceived) winning team.

But this is good news, because when Newt gets deep-sixed b a scandal that most certainly is coming, those guys will have nowhere to go because they will spend the next 3 weeks on talk radio, FNC and CNN talking shit on Mitt.

[Pro Libertate]

I gotta say that the possibility of a Paul surprise seems to be growing more and more.

[chris]

Two months ago I would have likely said unpossible but with the likely event of a Newtcular Titty melt down, and Romney being too nice of a guy to be competitive in the home stretch (see what I did there?), it is becoming more likely.

[chris]

likely likely likely

Damn I hedged up that paragraph of prognostication.

[Cytotoxic]

He has been very steadily gaining. A tortoise in a field of hares rigged with timed explosives.

[not so fast]

When the "Ron Paul wants to legalize heroin" ads start, then you will know.

[Field Marshall Gill]

Seriously? Quayle? Well, I wasn't going to vote for Newt but with an endorsement like that.....I really, really won't be voting for him.

[tarbaby]

He may be a total dweeb, but Huntsman is looking like a more appealing choice by the day - he's an adult, as evidenced by his refusal to join the horse and pony show hosted by Trump on the 27th . . . he actually knows a thing or two about foreign policy, namely China, which will become increasingly important over the upcoming years . . . and he's advocated for deep cuts in defense spending as well as a curtailed role for the Global Police Force that is the America military. And from what I understand, he wants to return tax rates to pre-WWI levels. Definitely worth another look.

[free2booze]

And he has three hot daughters, who aren't afraid to make a fool of themselves. It wouldn't surprise me, if at least one of them shows up on a "Girls Gone Wild" video.

[Eduard van Haalen]

[initiate Mormon joke]

They should find a nice man and settle down.

[end Mormon joke]

[Kandy]

As an Obama supporter my only fear is the free-trade pro-science Huntsman.

Thankfully, the conservative electorate hates Huntsman as much as I like him.

[MlR]

"pro-science Huntsman"

But I thought Hunstman was a fan of the pseudo-scientific global warming cult?

[chris]

I've been under the impression he has been running for VP from the beginning. Given he has been a professional diplomat, and has a decent noggin, we could do worse.

[cagey]

There are a lot of people who complain that there is effectively only one party in the U.S. For the RP to nominate someone who actually served in the Obama administration will not lessen that perception.

Also, Huntsman supports cap-and-trade so he is just a corporatist douche with good hair.

[Cytotoxic]

Get over it. That dog is dead and not the main threat. Huntsman is the man.

[jim bob]

Aren't you a Canadian?

[Cytotoxic]

Yes. So?

[Graphite]

Yes, the main threat is not corporatism, it's the global Islamist caliphate which will surely rise to power the day Ron Paul is sworn into office.

[Old Mexican]

Gingrich, who would have made a marvelous Marxist, believes everything is related to everything else and only he understands how.

But that sounds just like... just like....

... TONY!!!

[Fist of Etiquette]

This cannot be said enough to anyone trying to talk themselves into a Newt Gingrich presidency: Newt Gingrich is big government.

[Joshua Corning]

His rhetoric is big government...but as speaker of the house...you know the actual record of what he actually did as a politician and legislator he was pretty damn small government.

Anyway I playing devils advocate...unless Paul or Johnson wins the primary i am voting for the LP.

Nothing Newt can do at this point to make me cross into the GOP.

[Fist of Etiquette]

For a moment there I thought you were talking yourself into Gingrich.

[Libertymike]

No, he was not small government. What did he do to eliminate the IRS, the income tax, the war on drugs, the DEA, the NEA....... do I need to keep asking the questions the answers to which reveal the silliness of your assertion?

[joshua corning]

He was small government in the actual universe in relation to the actual growth of our government.

This is in contrast with the hypothetical libertarian universe where small government means cutting things not simply slowing or halting growth.

Do I get to keep my secret decoder monocle?

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

Could Ron Paul win California in the general election if pot legalization is on the ballot again?

Discuss.

[Cabeza de Vaca]

No, Cali is hopelessly lost to the sane at this point.

[A Serious Man]

No, because he's not a nanny state left-winger. Granted, he has some strong support in the rural counties (I saw a bunch of Ron Paul signs in the fields near the highway while driving up to SF last summer), but in places like Orange and San Diego counties it's not very libertarian, just traditionalist Republican.

Even if pot were a major issue (and I think it's overstated, just look at how gay marriage ban passed but pot didn't), the Democrats and liberals will just hope that Obama changes his mind on marijuana. They certainly don't give a damn about the Constitution since to embrace states' rights on this issue while ignoring it on others would be hypocritical.

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

I don't know. Since Moonbeam came back into office, a lot of talk about pensions, out of control spending and general lack of liberty (at the hands of the fedgov) have been persistent topics of conversation not only on talk radio and the OCR, but at places like SFGate and the LAT. If ever there was an opportunity for Team Red to steal this state, it's now...especially since BO has gone balls-out on immigrants and pot smokers/sellers.

I may just be betting a boner for no reason, but I genuinely feel excitement for RP in the general election in Cali (if he somehow gets the nomination).

[A Serious Man]

Well I am encouraged by the support Ron Paul has among young people and at colleges, many of which have active Students for Liberty and Youth for Ron Paul groups.

But asking Democrats to vote against their own party in a general is a bit too unrealistic. Obama just needs to come here, give a speech in which he reiterates his dedication to fighting global warming and shit like that, and bam, he's got his base in order.

[Sudden]

True, but much of the TEAM BLUE support in CA is from people that consider themselves too progressive to consider themselves democrats, and yet some of those very same people have certain pet issues that would make RP appeal to them more than Obama (whether WoD, WoT, Wo TEH MECKSIKANZ)

[Sudden]

True, but much of the TEAM BLUE support in CA is from people that consider themselves too progressive to consider themselves democrats, and yet some of those very same people have certain pet issues that would make RP appeal to them more than Obama (whether WoD, WoT, Wo TEH MECKSIKANZ)

[Eduard van Haalen]

So...you're saying they might embrace states' rights where marijuana is concerned?

[dunphy]

no. they will endorse mj because they support mj rights. they won't support it because they see it as a states' rights issue

states' rights = racism to them...

a principled conservative would support the right of states to make their own decision about MJ REGARDLESS of whether he supported legalizing mj or medical MJ.

[Eduard van Haalen]

My joke was that consistency doesn't seem to be a big obstacle to folks like the ones in Calif. So there's a possibility that they may be inconsistently right. Then, after a suitable interval, some progressive intellectuals may say that states' rights may not be such a bad thing after all. Progressives periodically make that discovery when opposing some federal policy they dislike, then the forget it again and go back to denouncing Jim Crow.

[Joshua Corning]

Everything good that exists in California exists out of some form of hypocrisy.

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

I so want to disagree with you and bring up the farmers...but AFAICT, they have all gotten some kind of subsidy in the past.

[Sequoia Redwoods]

Everything?

[A Serious Man]

While I wouldn't put such doublethink past them, I think more likely they will attempt to lobby Obama and the Federal government to relax enforcement of existing drug laws. Again, I don't think of Democrats as very bold or independent thinkers when it comes to defecting from their Chosen One.

[gabe]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXCZVmQ74OA

I'm curious if Paul would win if he did more ads like this.

[Pro Libertate]

Nice.

[Joshua Corning]

Dude!!

Total double post.

....so do we drink now or what?

[Sudden]

It makes me want to drink powerthirst

[Female-Bodied Individual]

Conservatism [is] controlling [society's] trajectory and improving upon its spontaneous order.

Yup, no hubris there.

[Old Mexican]

Re: Female-Bodied Individual,

"Conservatism [is] controlling [society's] trajectory and improving upon its spontaneous order."

Yup, no hubris there.

You're being dishonest.

[Female-Bodied Individual]

How you figure? Perhaps I'm misparsing the sentence, but is it not "conservatism" which is the agent doing the "controlling"? Does the "its trajectory" not refer to "society's" trajectory?

[Fist of Etiquette]

George Will stole my material.

This is all academic, anyway. Mitt Romney is going to be sworn in as president January, 2013.

[FIFY]

Mitt Romney is going to be sworn in as president January, 2013 and sworn at as president February, 2013.

[Joshua Corning]

Does Will hate everyone in the GOP race?

What has he said about Paul or Johnson?

[gabe]

Will would be fired if he endorsed Ron Paul. I am not joking.

[Joshua Corning]

So he has said nothing bad about Paul?

Will has shit talked about every GOP contender but Paul...

Endorsement by silence?

[DK]

As noted above by ChrisO and Old Mexican, Will mischaracterizes Paul as an isolationist. I'd call that an attack.

[gabe]

This new Ron Paul ad is interesting.
It would be cool to see it featured on this website.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXCZVmQ74OA

[Joshua Corning]

I wonder about the poor SOB who posed for the Bureaucrat.

Pause at 0:23

The funny part is that he has the same glasses as Welsh.

[Eduard van Haalen]

The same crazy old uncle who does the Mountain Dew "do the Dew" ads?

[pmains]

I think he's saying he wants to be a Ford F-150.

[Mike E]

I immediately thought Denis Leary Ford Ad

[mems]

Ah-ha! I knew I could find it!

George Will predicted, as reported by the Daily Caller on 05/15/2011 (with video),

I think we know with reasonable certainty that standing up there on the West front of the Capitol on Jan. 20, 2013 will be one of three people: Obama, [former Minnesota Gov. Tim] Pawlenty and [Indiana Gov. Mitch] Daniels.

Pundit credibility, how does it work?

[Ted S.]

Presumably, Obama is going to be re-elected.

[Libertymike]

Epi knows more baseball than George Will.

[dunphy]

nice find! predictive capability is usually strongly correlated with analytical capability

[AlmightyJB]

Maybe so but his comments are dead on about Titties.

[A Serious Man]

Who ya got in a three-way duel to the death? George Will, reanimated William F. Buckley, or reanimated Irv Kristol?

[Eduard van Haalen]

Is Buckley reanimated as Young Buckley? He'd kick all their asses.

[chris]

He was trained CIA. Probably could kill a man by whacking his ears with a pair of flip flops.

[AlmightyJB]

Buckley without a doubt. He could out debate them as well.

[cagey]

Young Buckley endorsed Obama. He's too ashamed to show his face in public.

[AlmightyJB]

As well he should be.

[Eduard van Haalen]

I means WFB as a youngster - 1950s and 1960s. Probably 70s, too.

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

George Will's nose started bleeding just reading Buckley's name.

[Sudden]

That's just because George Will is so libertarian compared to Buckley that he actually started doing hookers and blow.

[cagey]

That's the problem with George Will, he's obviously a man with no impulse control or ... more like, no impulse to control. Hell, he barely has a pulse, let alone an impulse.

[cagey]

Tucker Carlsen could pwn them all, without breaking a sweat.

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

Juan Williams, FTW.

[cagey]

Well, if we're allowed to go team blue, Michael Kinsley. He can wrap his long pencil neck around his opponent like a python.

[dunphy]

jesse ventura. game, set , match.

he doesn't only do fake wrasslin'

[cagey]

No fair using actual pols instead of pundits, but, if you want to go that route, Allen West beats Ventura. West is smaller, but he is younger.

OTOH, Ventura was sf ...

[Sudden]

No way man. Maureen Dowd can kill from range with the banshee shriek.

[dunphy]

when i play Skyrim tonight, I will rename my character "Dowd' and use as many SHOUTS as i can to slay my opponentz

[Sudden]

Ah, Skyrim. I've yet to obtain that one. Been holding off until after xmas for that one, but cannot wait until I get it.

[cagey]

So you think Dowd is a shrieker? I think she is more likely to sob softly with gratitude before falling into a morose silence after realizing she had succumbed to the patriarchy.

[AlmightyJB]

Red heads don't have tear ducts. Oh, and don't piss them off.

[BigT]

Gingrich is awful on several issues. Only infinitely preferable to Obama.

[Guest]

A good case for Newt might go something along the lines of:

Newt Gingrich Mocks President Obama-Hilarious!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BQ6I4bdzGQ&

Also, got the following one in one of those chain emails:

"As an American, I am not so shocked that Obama was given the Nobel Peace Prize without any accomplishments to his name. America gave him the White House, based on the same credentials." -Newt Gingrich

Also, search #5 Nastiest U.S. Presidential Elections in History

Lincoln vs. Douglas, 1860

Yep, even Abraham Lincoln was dealt his share of crap. But he was pretty good at dealing it too. Although it's normal ? and expected ? for candidates to stump across the country in any little small town that will have them, but in 1860 it was considered a little tacky. Stephen Douglas chose this tactic anyway, but claimed that he was really just taking a leisurely train ride from D.C. to New York to visit his mom. Lincoln and his supporters took note of the fact that it took him over a month to get there and even put out a "Lost Child" handbill that said he "Left Washington, D.C. some time in July, to go home to his mother? who is very anxious about him. Seen in Philadelphia, New York City, Hartford, Conn., and at a clambake in Rhode Island. Answers to the name Little Giant. Talks a great deal, very loud, always about himself." 'Little Giant' was a potshot at Douglas' height ? he was only 5?4?. He was also said to be "about five feet nothing in height and about the same in diameter the other way."

Douglas took aim at Lincoln, too, saying he was a "horrid-looking wretch, sooty and scoundrelly in aspect, a cross between the nutmeg dealer, the horse-swapper and the nightman." Another good one? "Lincoln is the leanest, lankest, most ungainly mass of legs and arms and hatchet face ever strung on a single frame."
http://tinyurl.com/3xwuqg

Also, we can just "Churchill" the former Speaker from the WH after he saves us from Obammunism. At 73 I'm sure Newt won't mind getting started on his presidential library after all the adulation we give him when he steps down to make way for the future he helped put us back on the correct path to.

Fact: The establishment on both sides chased Newt out of town - that very establishment from both sides of the aisle more than doubled the debt in the absence of Speaker Gingrich controlling the purse strings. In just 12 years that very establishment more than doubled debt that took over 200+ years to accumulate.