The Heat, the Kitchen and Eye of Newt

Newt Gingrich pouted through his concession speech following the Iowa caucuses and his fourth-place finish. He said he would no longer be running to obtain the Republican presidential nomination; he would be campaigning to obliterate Mitt Romney. This is no surprise to long-time Newt-watchers.

This is the Republican whose political action committee, GOPAC, sent out a memo to Republican candidates counseling them to use particular words when describing Democrats, such as “decay,” “betray,” “traitors,” “pathetic,” and “corrupt.”  This is also the guy who, running for the U.S. House, declared, “I think one of the great problems we have in the Republican Party is that we don’t encourage you to be nasty.” Apparently, being subjected to those Gingrich-endorsed tactics now by the Romney-supporting super-PAC political ads is unfair. Newt gives hypocrisy a bad name.

As several others have noted, Gingrich has so much baggage he could found an airline.

Thirteen years after resigning as Speaker of the House, accepting a bipartisan ethics censure and quitting the House in disgrace, it’s hard for WC to event present to feel the slightest sympathy as the Newt whines about the attacks mounted by a Romney-supporting super-PAC.

And remember that up until now Eye of Newt thought Super-PACS, with the candidate’s ability to disclaim responsibility, were a terrific idea. His petulant bleating about negative campaigning was, from an historical perspective, is farcical.

His claim that Romney is a “liar” is a badly sooted kettle calling a pot black, especially Newt himself lied about his $1.6 million deal with Freddie Mac for performing for Newt’s work duties as an “historian.”

There’s a quote, attributed to Harry S. Truman before he became president:

“If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.”

If Eye of Newt can’t take his own medicine, perhaps he should get out of politics.