Newt Gingrich: Too Corrupt for the Presidency

Newt Gingrich's passion for ideas has corrupted his soul. He will bend any rule, broker any deal, and defy any kingpin to move his agenda.

by Paul Benedict

The man has been marred beyond recognition. The shape of his past allegiances and committed advocacies have become shredded beyond recognition. His media specter is no longer even plainly human, but the man slogs on. Instead, of the historic Newt we see a ruined man heaving his weight across the air waves,  a politician in a broken form that embodies America’s worst fears. But beyond the slicing rips of misrepresentation, the skeletal error of his ways still peaks through—the man just thinks too much. Even worse, he thinks ideas are more important than politics. He’s an idealist damn him. That is unacceptable in American government today.


Gingrich was despised and rejected by the Denny Hassert K-Street wing for good reason. The man was a damn fountain of new ideas. He spouted a plan a minute. How can one keep sophistry alive when one must learn to discuss and advocate a new position every day? It is as though Newt actually expected congress to hold independent conservative ideas based on their merits rather than their source. That of course is absurd. Such a man would make a laughing stock of the party if he ever occupied the oval office. But Gingrich’s utter wickedness lay not in his criticism of presidents who lie under oath but in his unfailing arrogance. Newt Gingrich had the audacity to spread his ideas while in congress. Not only did the man write books for money, but he had the nerve to pass off his classes in political organization as a public service! It was the man’s greatest sin, a sin that cannot be denied. How dare he corrupt his office by spreading political thought on the side? It is but a worn, impoverished, and threadbare excuse for Newt or anyone else to claim that educating a nation about liberty actually costs money. There are right ways and wrong ways to make money in congress. Insider trading is right. Teaching people something is an outrage!
Usually Newt’s ideas are Reganesque, but that is absolutely no excuse for the man’s idealism. During the Florida primary debates Newt even echoed JFK’s vision of American exceptionalism in space. For instance, it’s plain, even through the smoke and debris of battle, that something is horribly wrong with Newt’s association with Fannie and Freddie. The odds are that he, in fact, took money to advocate, guess what, ideas. Ideas… ideas… ideas. The man will not be silent about them. Whether his ideas on Fannie and Freddie are right or wrong makes no difference. All that matters is that he got paid for having them and advocating them. That’s just wrong. Whether or not the American taxpayer would have been spared billions upon billions in debt if Fannie, Freddie, or congress had actually listened to those ideas is just not the issue. The truth remains. The ex-Speaker kept on speaking and got paid, somehow, even though no one was listening. It’s simply intolerable. It’s a disgrace to America and a disgrace to conservatism.
America, the worst is yet to come. Newt will not quit showing up at debates. He will not back Romney. Furthermore, he has one more horrid idea up his sleeve. This is it: he will ally himself with Ron Paul and the Libertarians, and in a brokered convention, steal the nomination! He will commit himself to auditing the Fed and to returning the dollar to the gold standard. Does Newt believe in the gold standard? No! He is a Friedman disciple from way back, just like Reagan. Do you see what I mean about this man? He will do anything to continue to advance his ideas on budget reform, judicial reform, health care… Oh forget it, you’ll have to go to Newt.org for the rest of the Tea Party radicalism.
What will Newt say when he solicits the Libertarian twenty percent? Oh, maybe he’ll say Regan always favored what Kudlow calls “king dollar,” and that now, via a gold standard, America can insure this for future generations. He’ll probably adopt Ron Paul’s ideas about how ending inflation allows the business class, the middle class, the true free market entrepreneurs, to succeed. Newt of course, will have to explain his change in position. Perhaps, as his friend David Stockman has already telegraphed, he’ll say Friedman was wrong not to anticipate the evils centralized governments unleash when given liberty. He’ll probably say that because the Fed has such a concentration of power, and is plainly involved with international allegiances, that it can no longer be entrusted with the Friedman truths.
What is even worse than saying he’ll support tying the dollar to gold, is that he will have a plan for doing it, reasons for doing it and a clear sales campaign. The cursed Libertarians will love it. Will they actually fall into the Gingrich trap? Yes… Do you know why? It’s because Ron Paul is almost as insanely suicidal for his ideas as Newt himself. For twenty years Ron Paul knew no one believed him. Did that matter? Did it matter how impossible it was for him to raise money to communicate his political ideas to the nation? No. That is so Newt. And that’s the final proof that Newt is too corrupt to ever be president. A man that thinks has no place in government, and a man who cares about what he thinks has no place in America at all