Newt Gingrich

Wednesday March 7, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday March 7, 2012

Super Tuesday voters have their say in GOP race

Mitt Romney is angling to solidify his front-runner status and Rick Santorum to keep it a two-man race as voters in 10 states put Super Tuesday’s imprint on the Republican presidential contest. Newt Gingrich just hopes to keep his struggling campaign alive with a strong showing in Georgia.

With Ohio looming large in the Super Tuesday lineup, textbook editor Heather Froelich outside Columbus gave her vote to Romney, saying: “He understands the economy.”

Enthusiasm was in short supply among some of those casting ballots.

Mr. Gingrich got a reluctant vote from Tricia Tetrault, in Edmond, Okla., where she explained her decision this way: “Ronald Reagan wasn’t available any more. What can I say?”

Mr. Santorum got the support of contractor Matt Howells in suburban Cleveland, but Mr. Howells didn’t expect his ballot would count for much.

With 419 delegates at stake around the country, Tuesday’s voting represents a sizable slice of the 1,144 needed to nail down the GOP nomination.

Mr. Romney, who turned back Mr. Santorum in a close contest in Michigan last week, hoped to continue his winning trend. He has won four consecutive contests, including Saturday’s Washington caucuses.

The GOP front-runner, trying to keep his focus on President Barack Obama, used a speech Tuesday before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to argue he’d be more effective at containing Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Mr. Santorum and Mr. Gingrich, too, addressed the committee and faulted the president’s record on Iran and the Mideast. (Source: Globe & Mail)

 

Friday February 10, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Friday February 10, 2012

Rick Santorum momentum building

If Rick Santorum was ever going to reemerge as a serious presidential contender, it had to be Tuesday. And he delivered, with stunning victories in Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri.

Now comes the hard part: raising enough money and building enough organization to compete effectively in the coming contests – two on Feb. 28 and 10 on Super Tuesday, March 6.

The Internet makes the first task remotely possible. Overnight, Mr. Santorum says, he raised a quarter of a million dollars.

“So we’re doing really well and we feel like going forward, we’re going to have the money we need to make the case we want to make,” the former Pennsylvania senator said on CNN Wednesday morning.

But the reality is that the wounded Mitt Romney still has a formidable war chest, outside groups raising big money to support him with ads, and a vast organization. He raised 25 times more money than Santorum in the fourth quarter of 2011. All last year, Mr. Romney raised $56 million to Santorum’s $2.1 million.

After Santorum was declared the winner of the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses, more than two weeks after the fact, his fundraising picked up. In January alone, he brought in $4.2 million, according to his campaign.

Another challenge before Santorum is the continued presence of Newt Gingrich in the race. If Mr. Gingrich were to drop out, Santorum suggests that he would have a clean shot at Romney, as the sole mainstream conservative in the race.

Indeed, Gingrich was not on the ballot in Missouri’s nonbinding primary, and Santorum won a whopping 55 percent, versus 25 percent for Romney and 12 percent for Ron Paul. (Source: Alaska Dispatch News) 

 

Thursday January 26, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Thursday January 26, 2012

Obama’s speech echoes Occupy movement themes

The Crown-First Nations gathering in Ottawa was a classic example of a failure to communicate.

President Obama’s State of the Union speech was widely described as populist for its focus on economic fairness and demand that the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share of taxes.

Linking the dominant themes in Obama’s nationally televised address Tuesday to the mantras of the Occupy Wall Street movement would have been unthinkable five months ago. But in having its message echoed in the State of the Union address, the Occupy movement reached a milestone in changing the national conversation.

When Obama said Tuesday that “if you make under $250,000 a year, like 98 percent of American families, your taxes shouldn’t go up,” Rosenthal said, “it’d be hard not to say that he was alluding to the Occupy movement.”

Obama never specifically mentioned Occupy – and probably won’t, analysts said, because the term remains politically divisive. For some, the dominant images of Occupy are of street activists confronting police and committing vandalism, as has occurred several times after Occupy demonstrations in Oakland.

The movement is also influencing the GOP presidential primary race.

If not for Occupy, said Miller, it is doubtful that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and others would attack fellow Republican Mitt Romney for layoffs at companies run by Bain Capital, the private-equity company Romney founded. But such attacks became more palatable after Occupy took hold, Miller added. “For the Republicans to say that was extraordinary,” Miller said. (Source: San Francisco Chronicle) 

 

Saturday January 21, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Saturday January 21, 2012

Newt’s ex-wife, says he wanted ‘open marriage’

Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich in 1999 asked his second wife for an “open marriage” or a divorce at the same time he was giving speeches around the country on family and religious values, his former wife, Marianne, said Thursday.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Marianne Gingrich said her former husband called her on May 10, 1999, as she was having dinner with her 84-year-old mother and said, “I want a divorce.”

ABC News is planning to air an interview with the ex-wife of Republican Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on Thursday Night. The interview comes two days before the South Carolina primary. (Jan. 19) Video

GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Wednesday said Newt Gingrich showed “arrogance” by suggesting he drop out of the race. (Jan. 18) More On This Story

“Is there anybody else?” Marianne Gingrich recalled saying. “He was quiet. Within two seconds, when he didn’t immediately answer, I knew.”

Two days later, Newt Gingrich gave a speech at a conference titled “The Demise of American Culture” sponsored by the Republican Women Leaders Forum in Erie, Pa. Gingrich extolled the virtues of the Founding Fathers and criticized liberal politicians for supporting tax increases, which he said hurt families and children. In the speech, which was televised on C-SPAN, he spoke often of God, families and values.

“When a liberal talks about values, will he or she actually like us to teach American history?” Gingrich told the women’s group. “Will they actually like young people to learn that George Washington was an ethical man? A man of standards, a man who earned the right to be father of this country?” (Source: Washington Post) 

 

Saturday November 7, 1998

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday November 7, 1998

Gingrich bows to party pressure: Failure to tame Democrats forces Speaker to step down

The dizzying turnaround in Bill Clinton’s fortunes was dramatically underscored yesterday when Newt Gingrich, who led the forces to impeach the U.S. president, decided to resign.

Gingrich’s decision came with stunning swiftness on the heels of an open declaration by frustrated Republicans to dump him as their leader.

“I will not be a candidate for speaker of the 106th Congress, ” Gingrich said in a statement. “The Republican conference needs to be unified and it is time for me to move forward, where I believe I still have a significant role to play for our country and our party.”

Republicans have been in an uproar since Tuesday when they failed to score electoral points despite a last-minute advertising blitz attacking Clinton’s relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

That failure launched a widespread movement to topple Gingrich and his lieutenants. But no one expected Gingrich to abandon a powerful post that effectively made him the president of the U.S. Congress.

“The one thing about Newt Gingrich is that he’s not a quitter, ” said shocked Republican pollster Frank Luntz. “That’s why this is so surprising.”

Gingrich, who had been considering a run for the presidency in 2000, was widely credited with wresting control of Congress from Clinton’s Democrats for the first time in four decades in what became known as the Republican Revolution in 1994.

“The reality is that we would not be in position of controlling the House if it weren’t for Newt Gingrich, ” said Republican congressman Peter King, who supported the movement to oust Gingrich. “But the reality was he became an ineffective leader.”

Gingrich’s consistently low approval ratings made him an ineffective stump campaigner for the Republicans. But few expected his resignation in a year that saw them come close to toppling Clinton.

Although Republicans still control the House and the Senate, the Democratic gain of five seats marked the first time since 1934 that the party in power in the White House added seats in the House in a mid-term election. That failure has been laid at Gingrich’s feet.

A little-known New Orleans congressman, Bob Livingston, who described himself as a “dear friend” of Gingrich, took his stealth campaign against the Republican House leader public yesterday. Livingston said he will challenge Gingrich for Speaker of the House of Representatives.

“I don’t do so lightly, I don’t do so cheerfully, but I do so resolutely, ” Livingston said. “No one has been more loyal to him as Speaker.”

Another rebellious Republican, former NFL football star Steve Largent, said he would join Livingston in the post-election revolt by challenging Gingrich loyalist Dick Armey for the post of House majority leader.

“The Republican party hit an iceberg” on election day, Largent said. “I think the question that is before our conference today is whether we retain the crew of the Titanic or we look for some new leadership, ” Largent said.

The warring among Clinton’s foes came a day after Republicans announced a significant retreat in their effort to impeach Clinton, and Paula Jones and her lawyers also appeared to be squabbling among themselves.

“Obviously, Democrats are sitting back and smiling, ” Democratic consultant Chuck

Todd said, referring to the chaos among Republicans.

Less than 48 hours after a five-seat swing to the Democrats, the Republican controlling the judiciary committee, Henry Hyde, annou nced a fast-track impeachment inquiry timetable that would make Ken Starr the only significant witness. (Hamilton Spectator, D6, 11/7/1998)