Matt Drudge links to several stories and videos (see here, here, here and here) highlighting Newt Gingrich’s past criticisms of President Reagan. This line of attack has clearly enraged Gingrich, who argues that he was certainly more of a Reaganite than Mitt Romney ever was.
What Gingrich says is true, but in some respects it’s beside the point. What these episodes reveal about Gingrich isn’t that he’s not a conservative; it’s that during the course of his career he’s been intemperate and erratic. He views himself as almost alone when it comes to understanding the world-historical moment he always seems to be living in. He has the courage that others, including Ronald Reagan, lacked. He possesses the insights that others, including Ronald Reagan, were deprived of. Gingrich’s comments were not those of a “loving critic,” to use a phrase from Madison. The former House speaker used words that were lacerating, extreme, and at times insulting.
One Gingrich quote is particularly revealing and hasn’t, to my knowledge, yet been highlighted. But in Steven Hayward’s wonderful book, The Age of Reagan: The Conservative Counterrevolution, Hayward quotes Gingrich as telling the Wall Street Journal that Reagan was “in some danger of becoming another Jimmy Carter.” That is about as wicked a rhetorical blow as one Republican could level against another. And this statement came after Reagan’s first term, in which he achieved historically important reforms.
Hayward recounts one White House meeting late in the second term, after Gingrich laid out complaints about important things the administration had left undone. President Reagan put his arm around the young Georgia congressman, according to Hayward, and said in his typically gentle fashion, “Well, some things you’re just going to have to do after I’m gone.”
This exchange is an illuminating one. Ronald Reagan was not only an unusually principled politician; he was also unusually well-grounded. He was at once idealistic and realistic. He had the ability to do more than give speeches; he had the wisdom to govern well and effectively. He was a man in a hurry, but he was never a man in a rush. There was something deeply reassuring and calming about the man from Dixon, Illinois. He was a conservative, not a revolutionary, in spirit, in temperament, and in his essential approach to life. That was one of his many virtues, and something Gingrich has lacked his entire political career.
That is why some of us, even as we’re willing to acknowledge Gingrich’s strengths and contributions during the years, believe he’s fundamentally lacking when it comes to the character–public and private–necessary to be president.
I guess Newt is no Reagan, but then again, neither is Mitt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnOBCtsZBw4 Greta asks Newt Re Reagan like Carter
Your back pages syntactically are coming in right to left, reversed from older days then younger than that you are now. n n? n nHead scratcher.
So, in other words,you are Romney pushers,is that what I'm hearing? Gingrich is no Reagan and he would be the first to admit it.He is exceptionally well versed in the way the world's governments and their leaders think,in my opinion.He is not one to be conned by our enemies as Obama is or wishes.Romney is steady in his family life and a man of faith,but if your saying that Newt isn't,that can be debated.He has a good marriage w/ Callista as it appears and most likely a god fearing person too.These people who compare what he did and what romney did(in gov't) can see who the closer to Conservatism by the records.One big thing for me personally for me is abortion.How do you not know,especially a Mormon,feel pro-choice and then change 180.This shows a lack of a spirit of God and a Mormon should have that spirit,don't cha think?To blast Gingrich after he manufactured the 10 point plan in 1994 against Clinton,were you old enough,people of the right were thrilled with him and Tom Delay.DeLay was recently aquitted of all the bad publicity and gingrich resigned for teaching a class.Double standards and Rangle and Jackson-Lee stay in Congress and have power.What is going on with "the right" this year?I am not anti-Romney,why are so many anti-Newt in a very demeaning way,at least to me.Reagan's son and rush and O'Reilly can't understand it;I can't either!I just want Obama out,do you?