Ward on Words

Apparently Newt Gingrich's top campaign team members resigned en masse , frustrated to work with a man who'd rather vacation with his wife than hit the campaign trail. He's alienated the House Republicans by trashing Paul Ryan's "Prosperity" plan. He's alienated those who believe the marriage contract is binding, and not something to be tossed aside (especially when the wife is in the hospital being treated for cancer.) He's alienated working class Republicans with his half million dollar loan from Tiffany's. And now he's alienated the top tier of his campaign staff. I myself will never understand the enormity of the Newtonian ego, nor what props it up, seeing as a reality-check would pop it faster than a pin. But what passes for reality on Main Street seems but a strange dream to those in DC. Thus Newt remains a candidate in name only, a man with no hope of winning at all.

[ Yes, there is the intentional hint of Ayn Rand in the headline, for those who are wondering. Because why not evoke John Galt when talking of Paul Ryan?]  But it's a fair question to ask - this "who is Paul Ryan" question, since he seems to have seized control of the GOP's platform of late. He's so out in front of the curve that Newt Gingrich, a man who aspires to be the GOP nominee for president, slammed Ryan's Medicare reform plan, which has been adopted by the GOP-dominated House. Referring to the Ryan plan, Gingrich said he was "against a conservative imposing radical change." [ Why do I believe that Newt's campaign is not long for this world? ] A Product of America's Dairyland What we know about Ryan: that he comes from Wisconsin - a Midwestern state with an economy that wears its cheesehead proudly. Yes, there's a mix of agricultural, industrial and dairy in its economy, but Wisconsin brands itself as "America's D...

Fasten your seatbelts - the war for attention in 2012 has begun! Newt Gingrich is apparently taking his contract with America seriously once again. He's running for the nation's highest office. He's not one to let serving divorce papers to a woman undergoing cancer treatment stop him from such a noble pursuit. Mother Jones has pulled together some Newt bombs - utterances made by Gingrich over the last 30+ years. Let's take a look! And let's consider if a man with this rhetorical history should serve as the leader of the world's most powerful country... 1978 In an address to College Republicans before he was elected to the House, Gingrich says : "I think one of the great problems we have in the Republican party is that we don't encourage you to be nasty. We encourage you to be neat, obedient, and loyal and faithful and all those Boy Scout words." He added, "Richard Nixon…Gerald Ford…They have done a terrible job, a pathetic job. In...

He's been divorced twice. Served the divorce papers to the first wife when she was in the hospital being treated for cancer. Then married a second time to the woman he'd had an affair with while married to the first. Then he dumped wife #2 for a woman 23 years younger than him. It was an affair he conducted right around the time he was putting the heat on Bill Clinton for his affair with Monica Lewinsky... Three marriages into his life, Newt Gingrich is now a convert to Catholicism (in 2009). The church that will excommunicate parishioners if they remarry after divorce. (Though I guess if you pay the annulment fee, you can pretend the first marriage was a figment of your imagination. Apparently, annulments are booming in the US.) What's even worse than Newt's three marriages? According to the Chicago Tribune , he's apparently now blaming his infidelities on his love of country. Here's how he's quoted in the Chicago Tribun e: "There's no q...