Is Newt the enemy of my enemy?

I would prefer Rick Santorum of all the remaining candidates. However the organized establishment attack on Newt Gingrich says a lot to me about who the establishment fears. I will grant you that Newt has negatives, he is not all that solid on illegal immigration, his campaign is at times a little erratic i.e. the right wing social engineering comments or the Bain Capitol ads, and there are a lot of people who just don’t like him. Perhaps he has the most negatives of any one running not named Ron Paul, but don’t be deceived, he has a long list of positive accomplishments as well, more than anyone else running.  Newt was speaker of the House during those difficult and contentious years when President Clinton fought tooth and nail against several fundamental reforms, and it was Newt who as speaker took up the fight to reform welfare and balance the budget, if you recall the House Republicans shut down the government rather than go along with business as usual and we had the first and so far last balanced budgets in many a year.

Also recall President Clinton vetoed welfare reform numerous times before the republicans forced it through with enough bipartisan support that Clinton conceded. Now of course Clinton claims credit for them, but these victories, not political victories mind you, but actual American legislative victories would not have been attained if John Boehner were speaker back then. In fact imagine how much better off we would be if Mr. Boehner had half the spine Speaker Gingrich had.  

Like I said I am not yet willing to give a whole hearted endorsement to Mr. Gingrich, among other reasons is his history of personal misconduct. I will not say, “Character counted for Clinton, not Newt” (the fact that the Main stream media is perfectly willing to do the same in reverse is of note). I cannot say rather Newt’s finding of Christ is legitimate, that is not my place, but I absolutely must judge rather I believe he is a man of sufficient integrity to sit in the seat of power in the nation that has leadership in the very cause of freedom. There is any number of legitimate concerns about Newt but the blatantly false ads and charges spewed by the establishment are reprehensible at best.

The first ridiculous charge is that Newt was hostile to Reagan. The quote pulled from a special orders speech in which Newt seems to argue against Reagan’s anti-communist policy. What is quoted is Newt echoing some concerns of other conservatives about the implementation of Reagan’s “rhetoric”. The purpose of the speech, and the whole series of special order speeches from which it was drawn was to support Reagan and advance the cause of conservatism. This is diabolical. The second is a quote about Vice President Bush not running as a continuation of Reagan. In the same interview he explains that Reaganism is a set of principles and that they are inclusive and must be advanced. Mark Levin’s site compiles the documentation at http://www.marklevinshow.com/goout.asp?u=http://www.riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2012/01/video-of-newt-bashing-reagan-is-bogus.html

I have said before and will repeat with my dying breath that in order to save this Republic we must defeat the republican establishment as surely as we must defeat Obama. These half truth attacks on Gingrich embolden me in the possibility that I would support him whole heartedly, and my lukewarm feelings toward the Romney campaign are trending downward. As I have pointed out there are any number of legitimate concerns about Newt but the Romney camp has no desire to compare records. You see Newt Gingrich has fought to advance conservativism and when has Mitt Romney done the same? Was it when he pushed through Romney-care? Distanced himself from Reagan? Supported Joe Saunders? Referred to himself as a “progressive”?  

I do not believe the Republican establishment was nearly as happy with the 2010 election as one would think. They look at Christine O’Donnell and Sharon Angle as examples of why tea party values don’t win, but they ignore the fact that without those tea party values they maybe win 30 house seats instead of 60! The intensity with those that I would call the establishment makes me believe that they see conservatives as more of a threat than they do the liberal destruction of the Obama philosophy.

Is a man known by the friends he keeps or by the enemies he makes? Mitt has a lot of the wrong friends and Newt has a lot of the right enemies.

Again my fondest wish is that the Newt-Mitt pile of malarkey will become a hill Rick Santorum can climb to the top. If not, if it comes down to Newt or Mitt, than the enemy of my enemy is my candidate for president.

Until next time, keep on the firing line.