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Another Perspective
Yes, Newt Can!
He’s not named Newt for nothing.
The newt, or salamander, is noted for several fascinating features. Many newts have a capacity known as autotomy, allowing it to distract predators by dropping a limb which wriggles and calls attention to itself while the main part of the organism escapes notice by holding perfectly still. Even the ones that cannot voluntarily shed body parts are able to regenerate them when they have been lost through attack or attrition.
The newt uses its colorful vision to locate targets for its own foraging. Few creatures are endowed with this degree of trichromatic vision. Although the newt can spend periods of time underground, resting its eyes, when it reappears on the horizon it takes in the scene quickly. When the newt is ready to pounce, it strikes with its tongue. The only weakness the newt has is in hearing, because it lacks an outer ear.
The newt has long been a symbol for rebirth, due to its abovementioned ability to fashion new organs to replace lost ones. Mythologically, the newt has been described as a creature that is created from the flames. This probably comes from the fact that when rotting logs catch on fire, the newt is often seen scrambling out from its hiding place. In any case, this notion of emerging intact from the inferno has increased its panache as one that can survive — perhaps even thrive upon — adversity.
ALL OF THIS BRINGS us to the present pass in the Republican presidential primary race. Out of the flames of several downfalls and setbacks in his earlier political incarnations, Newt Gingrich has taken a commanding lead in the polls. He has been highly effective in the debate format that has served as the main educational forum for potential voters to learn about the candidates.
After the boisterous Bachmann boomlet bottomed and the populous Perry parade plotzed and the clamorous Cain crest crashed, the evergreen Romney has still failed to ignite the passion of the Republican primary voter. Instead of the thrice-burned thrill-seekers wearing a Mitt to avoid the flames, they have turned instead to the newly reconstituted Newt. In my own state of Florida, Gingrich leads Romney by as much as 48-25 according to the Miami Herald.
Suddenly, a huge fratricidal sortie is launched against Newt by former Senator Jim Talent and other Republicans who hasten to announce that he should not be deemed as a capable and trusted conservative leader. How could a brother be so perfidious? They explain off the record that they have no choice but to leap into the fray to save the voters from their own folly, since Newt is unelectable as President.
To tell the truth, Newt was indeed unelectable for the last decade or more, but that is no longer the case. There was only one possible scenario for him to make this big a comeback and that very tableau has in fact materialized.
The best parallel would be the career of Ariel Sharon. I lived in Israel from 1989 through mid-1994, and there was not a single citizen in the country who thought that Sharon could ever be a candidate for Prime Minister. He was seen as too much of an ideologue; when that was combined with various personal scandals, accusations of accessory to genocide, and being the most universally hated figure within the European Left, he had four strikes against him at the very least. He had a power base in the Likud Party, so he could always wangle himself a ministry when they were in power, usually the most irrelevant and unobtrusive one available.
But the assassination of Rabin against the backdrop of Arafat blowing up the Oslo Accords meant that Israelis were going to put aside all the personalities, the peccadilloes, the peculiarities, the pet peeves and the politics, in favor of one focused expression of confidence in principle and policy and perceptiveness and powerfulness. The debate over whether Sharon lived up to those qualities has been suspended out of respect for his coma, now ending its sixth year, but win he did and lead he did.
The United States of America is now at the same sort of crossroads. People are walking around with a tangible sense that this country is about to crack, that we may never see prosperity again and that our security will shortly be compromised by our ever-increasing indebtedness. The sitting President strides blithely forward into the abyss, beckoning us to follow him down.
The other day we were treated to the spectacle of him standing in his mother’s home state of Kansas and inveighing against small government and individualism as a failed experiment in history… even as Europe, bastion of big government and socialism, crumbles before our eyes. If he fiddles as America burns, can Newt emerge victorious from the flames? Yes, Newt can!
Full Disclosure: Newt Gingrich’s daughter, Kathy Lubbers, represents me as a literary agent in trying to sell my novel, Private Ernest Taylor.
About the Author
Jay D. Homnick, commentator and humorist, is a frequent contributor to The American Spectator. He also writes for Human Events. Here he speaks at the Rally for Religious Freedom in Miami on June 8, 2012.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (44) | Leave a comment
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Dan| 12.9.11 @ 6:22AM
This article is going to send Hillyer into a deeper rabid stage.
But it's the best political assessment out there.
In an ordinary election cycle, Gingrich wouldn't even have announced his candidacy, but after Obama blowing up the country, imperiling everything from our fiscal situation to our very understanding of who we are as a nation, ---------------------------- Gingrich jumped in.
Others stayed out who might have had a better path to the nomination.
And now here we are.
Gingrich about to discuss serious issues with a guy others have scoffed at, but he too is alarmed at what Obama is doing.
Interesting times.
Alan Brooks| 12.9.11 @ 8:55AM
An animal such as a newt cannot lie, however a Gingrich can and does lie- all the time.
It would be better for America to dissolve, as the Soviet Union did, than to elect a colossal liar such as Newton Liar Gingrich.
Simon Templar| 12.9.11 @ 10:03AM
Alan, watch your mouth and what comes out of it.
As much as I detest Obama, I would never wish or think it would be better if America dissolved because he is president. Is that what this has been all about for you liberals? Is this the real agenda?
If you think this nation is so terrible that it should dissolve then seriously leave. Do not give me the typical knee jerk response to that suggestion. YOU DO NOT have any right to work towards it's dissolution without feeling the full force of resistance to those that will defend it. That was a very traitorous thing to say.
I think you owe us an apology.
Alan Brooks| 12.9.11 @ 11:17AM
After your wasting the last decade with president Rove and his veep Cheney, I owe you nothing. And BTW the only people seriously interested in dissolving America were Confederates who lived mostly in the South- not the North.
I wrote that it would be better to dissolve America than to elect a liar such as Gingrich;
Gingrich makes Obama appear as Diogenes.
idalily| 12.9.11 @ 1:51PM
A politician lie? I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell you.
Can we start an Obama Lies List? I'll start.
Most transparent admininstration evah!
Solyndra
Gitmo will be closed first thing
Stimulus means unemployment stays below 8%
Anyone want to jump in?
Clint| 12.9.11 @ 7:25AM
Mr.Neutered has taken over, as The Pillsbury Doughboy, since Sharon turned into a vegetable.
donserge| 12.9.11 @ 7:38AM
Our best and brightest do not/will not run for public office, in large part because of the media anal exam. Events that happened at 10 years of age become headlines. How many of us would even want to go through that or could survive?
idalily| 12.9.11 @ 1:55PM
And it isn't just the exam for THEM. It's their families, too. And then there's the lawsuits and bogus ethics charges to face. And if all that fails, well, there's ACORN and the dead Kennedy voters who will make sure you don't win anyway. If you do get past all that, you get eight years of being called every vile slur in the book. Yeah, sounds like paradise. If the politics of personal destruction in an instant media age are paradise.
Nancy in NC| 12.9.11 @ 7:47AM
Gingrich reminds me of another "lizard"...a chameleon. He changes his color to fit the environment. Right now he wants to appear as a conservative, and for some, he may be. However, as a true conservative that believes in the Constitution, Founding Principles, and limited government I find Newt reprehensible.
JohnK| 12.9.11 @ 11:04PM
And I find you stupid. What a pompous thing to say that I hear all too often, "as a true conservative...."
As if you and you alone are the final arbiter of "conservative" orthodoxy. Or that all who consider themselves to be Conservative must think and act exactly as you do. THAT, is not conservatism. THAT is leftism, statism, and progressivism. Lemmings all. I suggest you reconsider your "true conservative plantation" thinking, and accept the fact not all Conservatives think alike.
Ken (Old Texican)| 12.9.11 @ 8:17AM
Jay,
One thing Governor Perry is known for is perseverance. Persistence if you will. He jokes about trying to marry his wife for sixteen years.
There is a great tape of him visiting with Fox news on their website today.
See what you think.
Ken (Old Texican)| 12.9.11 @ 8:21AM
Jahttp://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/12/08/rick-perry-president-obama-and-war-on-christianity/y,
here is the link to Perry's visit with FOX
bill| 12.9.11 @ 8:51AM
Newt is my #3 GOP candidate after Rick perry and Michelle Banhmann.
Newt is articulate and experienced.
I like Newt when he pledges English to be the official language, and his statesmanship, refusing criticism of fellow GOPers in the debate.
Newt needs to clarify his position on immigration and climate change.
He needs organizations and resources so that he can compete with the Obama machine in case he wins the GOP nomination.
I give Newt a "C" minus.
chuck| 12.9.11 @ 9:50AM
bill,
I think everybody knows Newt's position on immigration, it was well debated, and he has taken the heat for it. Personally, I think it is a decent proposition, but that is neither here nor there.
On climate change, know this, Newt would do nothing about climate change that would hurt the economy. His group was the one that started Drill here, Drill Now, Pay Less. Doesn't sound like a real climate change, stop all carbon emission Nazi to me. And he does admit that the couch session with Nasty Pelosi was, in his words "stupid".
bill| 12.9.11 @ 10:05AM
Newt must pledge to crack down on illegals and secure the border. He must assert that "No amnesty for illegals."
I accept Newt's apology on the climate ad with Pelosi, but he needs to have a plan cracking own on the EPA and the radical environmentalists.
Once again, if Newt secures the GOP nod, I'll defend him to the finish line.
He is articulate and experienced.
He can destroy Obama in the debate.
Newt is far better candidate than Mitt.
loulou| 12.9.11 @ 10:58AM
No he can't destroy Obama in the debate. Newt loses his mojo when confronted with the Democrat enemy. He'll shrivel up on stage with Obama. Mark my words.
Newt wants to be loved by his adversaries. He does not have "eye of the tiger." Newt's fatal flaw is not his multiple marriages. It's his lack of a conservative core.
bill| 12.9.11 @ 11:51AM
That's true.
But if Newt secures the node, we have to settle with him.
He is far better than a radical liberal, Obama.
Newt is a good debater, he is articulate and wise.
If Newt is a psudeo-conservative, then Obama is a back bencher from the Chicago Mob.
Quartermaster| 12.9.11 @ 7:24PM
Well, Obama is a back bencher from the Chicago Mob. The entire Chitown machine is a product of the mob.
And Gingrich is a Pseudo-conservative. He will stab us in the back.
JohnK| 12.9.11 @ 11:21PM
bill, he HAS pledged to secure the border, completely, by the end of his first year in office. His proposals for how to deal with illegals would result in mass SELF-deportation, as well as forced deportation for those involved in violent crimes. He's stated that NO illegal alien would ever receive amnesty or citizenship, save returning to their home country and going through legal immigration.
As for the EPA, his proposal is for their total elimination. He's said that the depth of bureaucracy there is beyond repair. But he's not advocating an abandonment of environmental issues. Instead, he wants to see a pro-free market approach to maintaining environmental standards.
Beyond that, his proposals for entitlement reform, job growth, energy, and a slew of other issues are very well documented at his website, Newt.org as well as through position papers and other publications. It's well worth the time to seek out what he is proposing. Much of it is absolute genius.
Dave | 12.9.11 @ 8:53AM
Something those of us on the right need to remember as we move through this ... process. It seems that, once again, we're not going to end-up backing a true conservative; one that has the necessary stones to step-up Day One and begin the long, slogging march back toward some semblance of national and political sanity. From my vantage point in the cheap seats, it look like we're going to get either Gingrich or Romney to carry the battle flag. But let's face some quick, painful facts: Neither of these politicians are true conservatives. Nah-dah! OK, Newt probably tilts a bit more to this side, than The Mitt, but I've seen the photo of Newt and Hillary seated on the same couch, and evidence of other occasions where he's backed and supported issues that, NOW during a campaign, he's backtracking on. But, not a big deal. It's kind of what politicians running for office ... do.
At best, both these guys are moderates and, should either of them actually beat the current Marxist in Chief, I'll soon be looking for the predictable "hands across the aisle" move that always ends up biting the rest of us in the B-side.
I'll back either one of these people, but in my mind, we'd end up with just another recycled RINO leading us back through the same ol' trashed jungle The Obama's Safari took us through. Our guy'd just take a longer route.
Having said that, it's still early, and you never know if Lazarus might make a comeback.
I can dream.
JohnK| 12.9.11 @ 11:30PM
Dave, I would say that what we should be casting our vote for is not a "candidate," but the "platform" that they have pledged to enact. It's from that that we can hold their feet to the fire once they're in office. As you know, obama in 08 ran on the nebulous "hope and change." Nobody could hold his feet to the fire, because he really never revealed a real platform of ideas. If you have 30 minutes, I'd hope you might watch this one video, and then decide if Newt's overall approach and platform are worthy of consideration.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....e=youtu.be
PJ| 12.9.11 @ 9:04AM
I don't know of any smart, true conservative politician right now, who is also capable of doing battle (verbal or otherwise) w/those countries that are more than a nuisance: Russia, China, Iran, ....
Newt has shown to have most foundational conservative principles based on his past experience, although far from perfect. Yes I too am worried that he may show his liberal & unpredictable streaks if he is elected president.
Yet the pieces are being positioned on the international chessboard for many major conflicts. There is no one in the Republican field capable of handling these situations much less understanding them except for Newt. I am confident that his unpredictability will not surface when he is dealing w/dire international events.
We can rely on Newt to carry out some basic fiscally conservative principles. And that is all I expect from him. He or any other Republican who is elected will also be too busy "restarting the button" after 4 yrs of ridiculousness & illegal shenanigans. (It would be nice if the next president can revamp Social Security, healthcare, Medicare, banking,... according to conservative, free market principles.)
I think people should stop worrying about Newt's flaws & should worry about whether Hillary will throw in her hat for the presidency next yr. She will be able to unify the Democrats & will give any Republican candidate major trouble.
David T| 12.9.11 @ 9:26AM
Funny. Well written. True. Thanks Mr. Homnick
Naturalborn Texicanette| 12.9.11 @ 9:49AM
Ken,
Thanks for posting the site for the Fox visit with Perry. I saw it on Wednesday. If people can see Perry as he really is it might have a big influence on how some will vote. I urge readers here to take a look at it.
I recommend you take a look at it. See Ken's post above of the site.
Might be glad you watched it.........
PJ| 12.9.11 @ 10:23AM
On paper Perry is great. Unfortunately someone like Vlad Putin & other very experienced leaders would walk circles around him. We can't afford that right now.
bill| 12.9.11 @ 10:30AM
Perry is NO Vlad Putin.
You're mixing apple and oranges.
Putin's friend is Obama, an ex union thug.
Dai Alanye | 12.9.11 @ 10:55AM
The point is that Perry isn't used to traveling in fast company. He doesn't appear to have the quick thinking needed either to debate Obama or to deal with hard-nosed tyrants like Putin.
bill| 12.9.11 @ 11:54AM
Perry never used the teleprompter, he's running on his records, not because he is not a good debater.
Obama loves teleprompter, without teleprompter, he is a back bencher in a freshman GVPT class.
Perry is articulate and smart. Obama is a LIAR.
PJ| 12.9.11 @ 6:22PM
Point well taken about Obama though I wasn't writing about him.
Putin does not fear Obama nor does he like him. Putin will not fear the tongue-tied governor from TX.
And I want a president who has a command of the English language. Perry needs a speech coach pronto.
loulou| 12.9.11 @ 11:00AM
WRONG.
I support Perry even though he's soft on illegal immigration.
bill| 12.9.11 @ 1:03PM
I support Perry because he is electable and can defeat Obama in a landslide.
Simon Templar| 12.9.11 @ 9:53AM
Very interesting and thought provoking analogy and article....
It is really strange just how much it fits....
bill| 12.9.11 @ 10:44AM
MY 2012 GOP DREAM TEAM:
President: Rick Perry
VP: Mitch Daniel
AG: Michelle Bachmann/ Rudy Giuliani
Treasury: Paul Ryan
Secretary of State: Rick Santorum/John Bolton
Any one agree with me?
loulou| 12.9.11 @ 11:01AM
I agree. I don't know about Mitch Daniels though.
bill| 12.9.11 @ 11:09AM
Thanks.
Mitch Daniel is the two term governor of IN. Under his watch, IN has the lowest unemployment rate and is becoming the "Right to work State."
He is pro-life, for gun rights, and against same sex marriage.
He believes in American exceptionalism.
diviz| 12.9.11 @ 10:56AM
Newts are also poisnonous, they harm whatever tries to swallow them.
loulou| 12.9.11 @ 11:01AM
Now THAT'S interesting!
Baltimore fan| 12.9.11 @ 11:44AM
Another insightful article by Jay, who always seems ahead of the curve when it comes to recognizing political trends. Indeed, in today's day and age perhaps it's time Republicans jump on the bandwagon and give Newt a chance to bring the country along with him on his revival and emergence from the flames.
bill| 12.9.11 @ 1:52PM
Newt is neither Mitt nor John McCain.
He has some flaws in the past, but he can overcome if he can articulates his stance on fiscal and social issues.
Newt is a good debater, that's a plus.
P Walker| 12.9.11 @ 2:29PM
Remember what we got from the post-Newt Republican Congress .
David| 12.9.11 @ 2:53PM
All conservatives need to take a good hard look at Rick Santorum. Go back into the video archives and watch some of his speeches. He is the only candidate who has been consistently conservative throughout his political life. He knows what he believes, and as well as Newt, he can articulate why he believes it. He is a very good debater.
Melvin| 12.9.11 @ 2:56PM
I don't want to marry or have sex with Newt, so that throws out the arguments of his personal peccadilloes. What he did to his ex-wife that is for God to judge not me or anyone else.
I want someone who knows the most intricate workings of all three branches of government, who can out maneuver those dull dimwits in the Congress and the Senate.
"Well Newt has had ethics charges brought before him." Investigated by the likes of one of the biggest thief and liar in Washington D.C. Nancy Pelosi. This is all the better then, he'll know what to look for when he cleans up the Obama mess. To be sure there had better be investigative committees working overtime from all the graft and corruption of the Obama administration and Pelosi's Congress with Dodd and Frank destroying our Country's finances.
Is Newt the perfect Conservative candidate? Because the Establishment Republikans, and the media character assassinated the only Conservative Candidates willing to run.
So the only one left standing at this present time is Newt. The Conservative Nuclear option would be Ron Paul, my heart says to vote Ron, but my brain says Newt.
Romney has done nothing to earn my vote. I'm sure he's a nice man, and a astute business man, but when I see Mitt, I see both Bushes and their Globalist agenda. I'd sooner vote for Barrack Obama that vote for more Progressive crap from Romney and his Establishment Republikan pals.
This is Newt's last hurrah. He has nothing to loose and allot to gain. He has the knowledge to ferret out the Skull and Bones in Washington D.C. and that his what we need right now. Who know maybe Newt is the man that will give the Establishment and Progressive Elitists the enema they sorely need to get cleansed out of Washington. Like I said earlier Newt doesn't have nothing to lose anymore, so he can unremorsefully piss off allot people that used to be his friends.
gary siebel| 12.9.11 @ 4:30PM
Cute. LOL even. However, you obviously lack political acumen if you think Newt can win the general election.
Newt will make a great sacrificial lamb to the Obama freight train that is just starting to roll out of the yard. Obama will barely have to lift a finger to attack the Nudist because so many others are EXTREMELY eager for that opportunity.
I think Repubs want him just because he bashes the media and makes the Dems so livid. But you have to remember, the battle is for the middle, which is educated, not the extremes. Do you really think people will not be able to recognize that the Nudist has no clothes? Or, to put it another way, to not see that his clothes of righteousness are really filthy rags?
Gussie Fink-Nottle| 1.4.12 @ 7:40PM
Thank you for writing about the subject I'm most passionate about in the entire world... Gingrich!