The Pot Belly calls the Kettle Black

In the GOP presidential primaries in 2011 and 2012, there were a great many interesting stories.  Some were high points and others were lows.  In my opinion, none of the lows came close to watching Newt Gingrich implode in a burst of self-importance, abandonment of priciple and adolescent behavior.  In other words, Newt went right back to being the same guy who got bounced out of being Speaker of the House by the Republican caucus in the 1990s.  At first, Newt's unquestioned good qualities shone through on the campaign trail.  He is extremely intelligent and he has new ideas all the time.  He is a great debater, always able to frame the issues in a way that put the media in its place.  For a time during the debate season, I thought Newt had actually matured and that he was a formidable candidate.  Then came the melt down.  Early in the race, no one paid much attention to Newt; no one thought he had a chance.  Then, after rising in the polls, Newt attracted the attention of the other candidates, and they went after him big time.  It was then that he fell apart.  He decided to strike back, but he took the typical liberal road to do so.  For example, Newt went after Mitt Romney because Romney had made his fortune at Bain Capital.  I can still picture Newt announcing in somber tones that he thought that Romney had made too much money at Bain.  Newt told America that somehow Romney's investments at Bain should have produced less profit if they were to be considered reasonable.  It was an attack on market capitalism.  It was an attack on the economic positions that form the very heart of the modern Republican party.  Newt was bringing class warfare into the GOP to attack Romney.  Indeed, when Obama repeated many of Gingrich's accusations during the campaign, Newt's conduct during the primaries made the attacks all that much easier to gain success.  Not surprisingly, GOP voters left Gingrich in droves.  In fact, Newt's campaign was destroyed by his own hubris.  Even so, Newt stayed on in the campaign until he became nothing more than a laughing stock, a Pillsbury Doughboy politician who clearly had become stale.  He had to go, but he did not have the self awareness to realize that.

Now Newt has struck again.  I read this morning that Gingrich says that the attempts by Karl Rove to have his SuperPAC support candidates in primaries around the country is, according to Newt, a "Tammany Hall style" plan to have a few billionaires pick all of the GOP candidates.  That view is a joke.  Clearly, Republicans across the country get involved in primaries in many states.  Newt knows that.  Just think how many candidates go to New York or Los Angeles to raise campaign cash even though they are running in a primary in a different state.  Emails go out every day to attempt to raise cash across the country for all sorts of primary candidates.  There is nothing wrong with any Republican trying to help a primary candidate; it keeps the party vibrant.  But, even though Newt knows this, he has to go right to the Obama talking points to attack Rove.  Rove is a "boss", his backers are all self interested billionaires, and the whole enterprise is a Tammany style machine.

I also think it is important to point out that three times since the election, I have gotten calls from fund raisers seeking a contribution for Newt Gingrich's entity (I do not remember if it was a Super PAC).  They told me that Newt would use the funds to support various Republican candidates across the country.  So, not only is this latest outburst from Gingrich totally outrageous and improper, it is also a case of the pot belly calling the kettle black.