GOP 2012: Perry dropping out; Newt’s scorched-earth karma; and a Final Four debate; Update: Perry endorses “visionary” Newt
Photoshop: Reader Jimmy D.
Phew. So, it turns out:
Rick Santorum won the Iowa caucus.
Newt Gingrich’s ex-wife, Marianne, is getting her revenge. Live by scorched-earth. Die by scorched-earth, eh, Newt?
And Rick Perry is reportedly set to drop out today — removing another body from another GOP debate tonight in South Carolina and freeing up more time for more liberal media bashing, potential Romney gaffes, Ron Paul foreign policy screeds.
Looks like he is set to follow RedState founder Erick Erickson’s advice and endorse Newt:
While closer to Perry than Romney on some points, Perry campaigned on reducing the size and scope of Washington, privatizing social security, and fixing entitlements. Endorsing Santorum may leave Perry in good stead with his fellow evangelicals, but it would fly in the face of the limited government principles he outlines both on the campaign trail and in his national bestseller Fed Up!
Then there is the man who wrote the introduction to Fed Up!, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.
I’m willing to bet that among activists in Texas, Newt Gingrich is more popular than Romney. His message has been rather consistent to Perry’s, including a man on a mission to gut Washington, D.C. While Gingrich lacks Perry’s limited government bona fides, he is the only other candidate in the race emphasizing that business as usual in Washington is not acceptable if the nation we love is going to survive – as Gingrich wrote in his introduction: “Devolving power out of Washington is critical to our long-term survival.” And that’s the truth.
But Erickson wrote the truth back in 2009, when he expressed deep-seated grass-roots conservative discontent and distrust of Newt:
Newt endorsing Scozzafava aligns him with Markos Moulitsas who declared Dede the most liberal candidate in the race.
That aligns Newt with ACORN, which has twice endorsed Dede.
That aligns Newt with Planned Parenthood and NARAL, active supporters of Dede.
That aligns Newt with the SEIU, the AFL-CIO, and a host of other left wing interest groups including the gay marriage lobby.
Today Newt Gingrich stands athwart history and pees on the legacy of 1994, where it is no longer about principles, ideas, ideals, and integrity, but the raw acquisition of power for the sake of power. He aligns with a candidate to the left of the Democrat.
The GOP will not take back power until it repents of its sins that caused it to lose power. And chief among those sins was the abandonment of principle for the sake of power. But when a political party stands for nothing, it fails to stand.
At least we can thank Newt today for declaring himself out of the 2012 race. Or, should he stay in, conservatives at least no longer have to feel under any obligation to stick with him, since he makes clear in NY-23 as he did in MD-01 that he feels under no obligation to stick with conservatives.
Here is the awful GOP conundrum. We have a liberal Northeastern Republican front-runner, Mitt Romney, who can’t articulate conservative principles. And we have a Beltway insider with massive moral baggage, Newt Gingrich, who believes he’s above living conservative principles. Via Hot Air:
[Ex-wife Marianne Gingrich] kind of guessed it, of course. Women usually do. But did she know the woman was in her apartment, eating off her plates, sleeping in her bed?
She called a minister they both trusted. He came over to the house the next day and worked with them the whole weekend, but Gingrich just kept saying she was a Jaguar and all he wanted was a Chevrolet. “‘I can’t handle a Jaguar right now.’ He said that many times. ‘All I want is a Chevrolet.’”
He asked her to just tolerate the affair, an offer she refused.
He’d just returned from Erie, Pennsylvania, where he’d given a speech full of high sentiments about compassion and family values.
The next night, they sat talking out on their back patio in Georgia. She said, “How do you give that speech and do what you’re doing?”
“It doesn’t matter what I do,” he answered. “People need to hear what I have to say. There’s no one else who can say what I can say. It doesn’t matter what I live.”
Noseplugs, anyone?
***
Perry post-mortem: I see that Team Perry is already blaming “fringe” pundits for exercising inordinate influence on voters.
Newsflash: Perry did himself in. All by himself.
***
Should be quite a Final Four debate tonight. Will the Non-Romneys focus more on each other? Or the lib CNN moderators? More SuperPAC-a-palooza whining? Submit your debate questions here.
***
Update 11am Eastern Rick Perry announces suspension of his campaign. Throws endorsement, as expected, to Newt Gingrich. Absolves him for not being “perfect” and preaches redemption ahead of Marianne Gingrich “open marriage” interview with ABC News.
Perry: Newt is a “visionary” who can “transform our country.”
How about less transformation and more restoration?
Perry’s last words: “I have just begun to fight” for conservatism.
Good to know.
And now…Rick Perry can now make Washington more inconsequential in Americans’ lives — by making it more inconsequential in his.
***
Flashback video via Drudge Report: Perry slams marital cheaters. “If you cheat on your wife, you’ll cheat on your business partner:”
See what others have said
Note from Michelle: This section is for comments from michellemalkin.com's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that I agree with or endorse any particular comment just because I let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with my terms of use may lose his or her posting privilege.
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
 |
Obama’s latest campaign angle: I’ve been saving America from wild Republican debts
May 24, 2012 04:33 PM by Doug Powers
55 Comments
Biden: Tea Party stopped us from growing the economy
May 23, 2012 01:55 PM by Doug Powers
44 Comments
Catholic lawsuit against Obamacare mandate cites 1993 legislation written by Ted Kennedy and Chuck Schumer
May 22, 2012 04:35 PM by Doug Powers
48 Comments
A 2012 campaign must-read: The conservative survival guide to Mitt Romney
May 21, 2012 10:23 AM by Michelle Malkin
159 Comments
Biden: Hey, I don’t blame people for voting for a convicted felon instead of my boss
May 18, 2012 01:21 PM by Doug Powers
73 Comments
Elizabeth Warren touted Cherokee heritage in 1984 collection of recipes
May 17, 2012 10:26 AM by Doug Powers
124 Comments
Categories: 2012 Campaign,GOP,Mitt Romney,Newt Gingrich,NY-23,Ron Paul
JustOneMinute
» Barack, Youthful Leader!JustOneMinute
» Patterico And The Brett Kimberlin GangBabalu Blog
» U.S. Manned Space Flight in The 21st CenturyVillainous Company
» Must Read Post of the Day. Possibly, the Year
On January 20th, 2012 at 11:40 am, Misscheryl said:
Chris Wallace is a liberal as is Shepard Smith. It’s time to boycott Fox “news.”
MAN I COULD NOT AGREE MORE!!!
somehow the FOX folks are really SLIPPING….some one on the top is moving to the middle very FAST…and it shows in everyone’s rhetoric and snippiness.
happyscrapper:
I’m starting to belive that I was wrong and you guys are right: Phil’s a lost cause. Make him a troll and ignore his rants. Damn, that took a lot out of me.
It’s not so much that he’s trollish (at least not my concept of a troll), it’s that he’s so egotistical that he thinks that every one of his pronouncements should be accepted at face value and remembered in perpetuity. Any attempt to delve into his thinking or to get a confirmation of something he’s said before is taken as a rank insult, and generates an automatic rant.
Another thing I wanted to mention. I may have missed some of the posts here, as I have been really busy and got behind! But does anyone else see the fumbling and bumbling lateley of Mitt Romney? After all his plastic, very prepared answers, he now stutters and stammers when asked about Bain, The Caymans or his tax returns. Why?? Where are his handlers? Why doesn’t he have one of his very practiced responses all ready? I don’t get it. Is he crashing and burning? Is he exhausted? Whatever the reason, he should be ready for those questions by now!
It was the right first question. It was what was on everyone’s mind. By bringing it up right off the bat it gave Newt a chance to clear the air so they could go on to things that mattered.
That being said, I loved Newt’s response. It was just right. The question would not have needed to have been asked if the ‘journalists’ throughout the media weren’t making it the story of the week.
I am happy to see I am no longer a “ditz”! Thanks!! It is really a shame that Phil lost his way. He did have some good posts way back before he went off his meds and got hung up on his 3rd party rants. We got his opinion about it right away, had discussions, understood his position, then thought he would back off. That never happened. In face, every single post has been a tirade against the “nose holders” and those not willing to assure Obama’s re-election by going third party. Insults because we disagree. I am sorry he turned into such a disappointment. At the beginning, I told him I really liked a lot of his views. After a while, he lost me entirely.
Anyway, back to business and enough of PP.
I am still praying for someone to step in and run for POTUS even at this late date. If it is the RIGHT person, we could still do it!! Jim DeMint, or that very handsome blond guy whose name escapes me because he has been missing lately! You know who I mean. Couldn’t someone PLEASE step in and rescue us??? It is not too late!
Thus the beginning of the rumbles of a brokered convention. The Republican establishment is getting very nervous about Romney’s inability to respond to Newt’s attacks. (You’re listening to Rush too?)
Now that Newt has opened the door and chastized the media for NOT VETTING OBAMA, can we PLEASE start asking more questions about him?? The candidates need to bring this up at every debate. Where is the media vetting of Obama?? Folks, this has not been done! What are they afraid of? Obama has to be taken down, and most people don’t understand how completely the press has covered for him and covered up his past. We need answers and we need them NOW!
You betcha!! He is my first love! Rush is also listened to by the WH, you can count on it! They want to shut him down, but it’s not going to happen. I pray for his safety.
By the way, if Rush says we can’t have a brokered convention because people are afraid to smoke a cigar, I am willing to smoke a cigar!!!
Rush is now talking about a pipeline from Montana to a Texas refinery that Obama wouldn’t be able to stop. This is getting better every day!! It would go from the Bakken (sp) drilling field in Montana, to Texas thus eliminating the need for Obama’s approval because it wouldn’t be coming from Canada. THEN, once that is built and working, it could be connected to Canadian oil and go from there. This sounds like a great idea! And Canada would wait for us.
The main hold up right now is the State Department. Everybody else has already approved the line. Smart businessmen figuring a way to get around government interference.
How can you make deals in smoke filled backrooms, if you can’t smoke indoors anymore?
Why in the &#^$ is the State Department involved? It’s Canada, not Zymbawaie. Constitutionally they have no say in this.
Even if, a big if, the states are able to pull this pipeline off, the epa is going to do even more damage than they already are with regulations, fines, refusing to give permits for new refineries here in TX and other states! The epa is doing the evil work to stop things bho can’t!
L
I think it’s exhaustion. AND stress due to the fact he thought he’d have a MUCH easier time of it. It’s obvious conservatives aren’t in love with Mitt or any of the other 3 up there.. And it’s becoming obvious to him that he can’t get to that breakaway point (as Herman Cain said about Santorum on Rush today). He’s been making mistakes, not on his game, which IMO is not a good sign for him. I am very interested in how it’s going to play out in SC. Then on to FL…I still don’t know who I’m voting for in the primary. This is one election that just makes me want to throw up.
I still have the stains on my shoes from 2008.
Exactly!! And I would be willing to destroy my health to get a brokered convention!
I know at least one thing about Santorum:
After winning 2 US Senate elections in Pennsylvania, he lost by over 700,000 votes, receiving 41.3 percent of the vote to Casey’s 58.7 percent, the largest losing margin for an incumbent Republican senator ever. [Wikipedia, for what that's worth] Over 17 percent! A drubbing. I conclude he is not a great vote getter even in his own State after 12 years in office.
I know Santorum was well educated… also has a law degree.
I know the other three (bye, bye to Perry– we hardly knew ye, sarc/) are all very well-educated and have signs of being very intelligent. Romney has both an MBA and a Law degree from Harvard; Newt has a Ph.D. in history from a fine University (Tulane); Paul has an MD from Duke.
NoBama has an education pedigree too, and I maintain he is also very intelligent. What he is, my opinion, is ignorant. Ignorant of so many things a President should know or should have learned: world and political history, geography, business, economics, energy, which end of a hammer to hold — any clue as to how to allow the country to succeed… perhaps responsible is his living with a bong as he/his ghost writer admits in his “Autobiography.” Weren’t other drugs also hinted? Somehow this child of 3 cultures, Hawaii, Indonesia, and Kenya missed out on a grounding in USA history and tradition.
He somehow afforded or was given 7 years at Hawaii’s famous private prep school (covers all grades) Punaha). Today’s price is $18,400 tuition/year.
He was accepted by a very hard to get into college in the L.A. area of California. How many of you can name it? Not in the press much…. it is Occidental College, 2,000 or so students with annual costs per pupil (again today not 1979) of $58,400. Phew. On their website, he is trumpeted as a famous student there and credited with transferring to Columbia U. after two years. He is shown by Occidental ’79–’81. School starts in the fall, finished soph. year in spring. This fits. But Columbia, about 4,000 students, has him (complete with picture up with Alexander Hamilton as famous alums)studying in 82-83. There could be a missing year there… perhaps when he went back to his high school drugs. My point, nobody seems to know. Did he flunk out of Occidental? How does he transfer two years in to an Ivy League School? Why? Very difficult to do, admissions wise, and Columbia today charges about $56,000/yr. Both of his colleges were always at the top of the price scale. Who paid? Darned hard to get a scholarship as a transfer student. He have superlative grades? How to get into Harvard Law? What grades? He got the Law Doctorate with one of the cum laudes, so he must have had good law school grades. As I said, intelligent. A Socialist, certainly at a minimum, so not so bright on that dimension.
Excepting Paul, who seems right out of the hall line for supper at the geriatric home with inappropriate cackling and laughing at the most serious times of both questions and his responses, there are now 3 candidates from which I’ll be forced to choose in a few weeks for the Florida Primary. I cannot see Santorum as a great campaigner. I also ask, which almost no one considered before about Obama, who does Santorum know, who could serve in the cabinet, etc.? Both Romney and Gingrich can provide skill and a background in government industry, or both.
Hate to upset the few, conservatives as I am, who think a third party or Dr. Paul deserve a vote out of protest, a vote for other than Romney or Newt is a vote for Obama.
– color me a big “Nose Holder” … It is Obama who is the enemy, noble protests to the contrary. Handled right, a campaign against Obamanure could lead to a crushing landslide and deal his Socialism and Alinskyism a major blow… or at least delay for a number of years. Yeah, they’ll be back.
FWIW,
Source
Mm, that’s not really accurate. A person can think for herself and still arrive at different decisions than yours. But, think what you want. *shrug*
Then you can explain why you support the socialist positions you support when the following are empirically measureable facts:
** Not one socialist society has ever sustained itself while bringing prosperity to the people it governed.
** Every socialist society became more tyrannical over time as it consolidated its power. Brute force was substituted for the will of the people.
** Every socialsit program since FDR has either failed or is in the midst of failing, based on any acceptable accounting standards. the Poverty Program has decimated the black populatio and is destroying the family unit, the foundation of every healthy society in the recorded history of this planet.
Despite these facts, people of your persuasaion continue to believe that somehow, someway socialism will work and a free society will be maintained. When they are proposed you believe the promises and embrace them.
I find no logic in the thought process that leads to that beleif system.
Be careful what you wish for. Remember NY-23. When you let a bunch of (generally moderate establishment) dealmakers and power brokers pick your candidate for you, you’re probably going to be disappointed.
Stacey, MY point was that you indicated you wanted Gingrich to win the nomination because he was beatable, which tells me you plan to vote for Obama. My comment was about my disappointment in your still backing that Marxist who is destroying this country, even after reading MM’s blog. You certainly CAN think for yourself and arrive at your own conclusions, and more power to you. But if your conclusion is more of the man who is completely trashing our constitution and ruining this great nation, then you haven’t learned a thing here. You might be happier over at Huffington. It kills me to hear people say they still support Obama! What he is doing is so unbelievably transparent! You’d have to be totally blinded by ideology not to see it!
And please don’t go all “Nobody likes me” on us. If you can give good solid arguments as to WHY you support Obama, I want to hear them.
He knows which end of the hammer to hold, he just can’t remember which hand holds the hammer and which the sickle….. Barrrrump Bump.
Confirms what I just said to Happy.
So…I don’t have to take up cigar smoking in order to save the country? Whew!! That was close!
Happy birthday to me happy birthday to me happy birthday to me eee happy birthday to me. For my birthday, which is tomorrow I want Newt Gingrich to win SC. Please and thank you.
Early Happy Birthday to ya, neighbor!
Thanks back neighbor!!!!
happycrapper:
I’ve never considered you a “ditz”. Funny as hell? Yes. No nonsense? Yes. Thoughtful? Yes.
Now let’s see if Brian Ross has the gonads to go after Obowtome with the same gusto as he’s gone after Newt and Romney.
Ahem!
I suspect he sees himself more as a crook and flail guy. Kinda ironic given his propensity for associating with crooks and flailing about when forced to do without his TOTUS.
txvet2:
I mean happyscrapper.
SORRY. SORRY. SORRY. My bad, happy.
If Newt is the GOP nominee, and he doesn’t choose a solid conservative as his VP running-mate, then I’ll vote for a third party candidate for the first time in my life. I won’t vote for someone who will certainly oversee the destruction of my country, just as Obama certainly would. Gingrich is a PROGRESSIVE/COLLECTIVIST, with few differences from the sock-puppet-in-chief. It won’t matter if he slows the progression towards our destruction or not. We need to STOP that progression and turn around, and Newt is NOT going to do that.
Yes indeed, Txvet2. Well added, the sickle to go with the hammer! As I’m sure you got, I meant that he hasn’t even had a summer job, college job, any job… not to mention being a carpenter’s helper/carpenter as I was & actual restaurant line cook, waiter, short-order cook, etc. Hot, physical labor one needs to get up early for, and to be on time. He wouldn’t know, even today, what the sickle/scythe was for. Farming? Probably drove by one once . . . Now that black and red flag & “Comrades . . .”
No proof of that, all of the records are sealed.Too much information is missing, out right lies, or does not exist for any of it to be believed. OBambi is a fraud.
And just who or what is this “Happy Crapper” you refer to?
thejim:
That was a terrible misspelling on my part of happyscrapper.
Altough I could say PP is a happycrapper. He’s full of crap, and happy about it.
:bonk:
I didn’t even notice the spelling! I remember a guy named Bill Grant (I think) who kept referring to me as happys crapper. He was very mean and sarcastic and was finally banned. But I know you didn’t do it on purpose, CH! Right? Right?
happyscrapper:
Heck, no! Go back to #431. I was praising you. I hope you and me are OK. It was a misspelling, nothing more, happy. I think I deserved to skillet hit. SORRY,
Oh my gosh CH, you don’t really think I would get mad about something like a typo, do you??? I was too busy reading your compliments to even notice the spelling. And I thank you for them! Made my day!
Glistening pecs.
It doesn’t matter who we nominate, Stacey.
The end result will be the real change over 55% of the nation is looking for.
People could care less about what happened 10-15 years ago when they have no job and can’t pay their bills.
Each of the republicans brings a strong conservative leadership skill and if Newt gets it, you’ll be wishing he hadn’t after the first debate.
Like I said, though, it doesn’t matter.
That is an insufficient explanation.
Being “subordinate” if you wish to use that adjective and inferior are two very different things.
Listen, I’ve done distance and on-line dating counseling for nearly six years, and no woman, even a lesbian feminazi, will repsect a man who cannot lead.
If being a follower means being subordinate in your world, so be it, but I know all to well what the secular birth-rates are and the confused concept of gender identity to make extreme minorities feel good is impacting the civilized world greatly.
In fact, in some cases, women lead and the men follow. It’s just not very well documented.
You might also consider very carefully, Ota, where most of our immigration comes from. A lot of people on your side of the fence clamor for open borders so they can organize them to vote democrat, but in their zeal they seem to forget where these people come from.
Gee, that’s funny. I thought our founders were just a bunch of slave-owning white men who were too enlightened for religion.
Liberal rule #4553: Whenever something negative about America’s past is an issue, claim the nation to have Christian roots whereas anything good about America’s past is because it’s a secular nation.
That is an insufficient explanation.
Being “subordinate” if you wish to use that adjective and inferior are two very different things.
Listen, I’ve done distance and on-line dating counseling for nearly six years, and no woman, even a lesbian feminazi, will repsect a man who cannot lead.
If being a follower means being subordinate in your world, so be it, but I know all to well what the secular birth-rates are and the confused concept of gender identity to make extreme minorities feel good is impacting the civilized world greatly.
In fact, in some cases, women lead and the men follow. It’s just not very well documented.
You might also consider very carefully, Ota, where most of our immigration comes from. A lot of people on your side of the fence clamor for open borders so they can organize them to vote democrat, but in their zeal they seem to forget where these people come from.
Gee, that’s funny. I thought our founders were just a bunch of slave-owning white men who were too enlightened for religion.
Liberal rule #4553: Whenever something negative about America’s past is an issue, claim the nation to have Christian roots whereas anything good about America’s past is because it’s a secular nation.