The Newt I Came To Know!

Way back in time when I had a secretary - Mary worked for me for 25 years and was my office wife - she would type my memos. My memos then were solely expressions of my views. I could not post the writing of others because no personal computers existed. On occasion, I might refer to articles and books I had read and sometimes would try and capture their essence in a brief synopsis.

I mailed these memos to my clients and friends and Nunn and Newt, who was then teaching college. One day, after becoming a Representative in a District not our own, I wrote Newt a letter and asked to meet. This was sometime in the mid '70's and he had a staff member call and we did meet at the then Hyatt Perimeter Hotel for breakfast in north Atlanta. After that meeting we became "Friends of Newt" members, campaigned for him, had him to our home for one of the "FON" meetings and went to D.C. where he gave us a personal tour of The House, personal briefings etc. By then he had become Speaker.

We remained involved until he resigned and during that time we met with him when he was supporting Dick Cheney for his brief run for the presidency and a series of other politicians who Newt was supporting. To this day, I keep a host of pictures of these various meetings under the glass top on my desk. Since moving from Atlanta, I have not had any contact with Newt, though he continues to receive my memos as he will this one.

So who is Newt in my eyes? First, and I say this not out of disrespect, Newt has a big head and an ego to match. His head is a fountain of creative ideas, some good some not. No doubt age has tempered him as it does us all but I have no doubt he still has an ego that drives him because you cannot believe you are capable of being president without one. Newt has a 'Peck's Bad Boy' smile that always left me curious - was he sincere or was he not. It is still there,

My own current Representative supports Newt and has been throughout this current campaign and I tip my hat to Jack Kingston for his loyalty and insight.

There is no question, Newt understands history. When he lectured at Reinhardt College in North Georgia, I took my son to one of his classes so he could experience what a 'real' professor was all about.

Newt was a brilliant and also ruthless Speaker. His accomplishments, during his brief tenure, were remarkable and helped get Clinton re-elected because 'ole Bill' was flexible enough to understand Newt was pushing/leading him in the right direction. Newt's "Contract with America" was considered explosive by the liberal press and media folks. They dubbed it a "Contract on America." and Time Magazine portrayed Newt as "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" in one of their December issues. Why? Because Newt favored the end of destructive Welfare. I keep a copy under the same glass on my desk and when you read it today it is benign compared with the vitriol heaped upon it.

Newt understands where Liberals and Progressives have taken us and will prove a worthy debater should he have the chance against Obama as long as he stays on message and does not try to get too intellectually cute. Newt is capable of taking a complex issue and distilling it down to its essence in an understandable way that is truly remarkable. He is a great phrase maker and, as I said earlier, an even greater teacher.

Newt is, in many ways, what our nation now needs. The question is whether, first Republicans and then the nation, will understand that and be forgiving of some of his past baggage and the fact that, like Palin, he resigned and deserted' the cause' so to speak. The Democrats were gunning for Newt because he brought their man 'the head of the Armed Services Committee' down - John Tower I believe it was, because of Tower's alcohol problem when he was nominated to become Sec. of Defense. Newt succumbed to the 'gotcha game' that politicians play to the detriment of the nation but that is the ugly and ruthless side of politics because personal power, all too often, is what it is about. Obama and his crowd of thugs are masters at it.
Romney is no match in my opinion for what they will throw at him should he become the cnadidate whereas, Newt is and more than capable of throwing it back at them. Poor Herman has been 'caned' by the Chicago crowd and probably cannot recover. So much for Conservative Blacks seeking high office.

It will be fascinating to watch Newt in the ensuing months. As he rises in the polls has he matured enough to avoid letting that big head and ego bring him down again? If he has and becomes our next president he could become another Reagan because, as I wrote earlier, Newt understands what needs to be done and is a superb politician capable of achieving true greatness and bringing our nation back from the precipice that Obama is leading us over.

If Newt is the Republican choice and can endure the slings, arrows and garbage thrown at him again by a liberal press and media doomed to defend their messiah and the Obama albatross they helped place around our neck, our nation could recover over time but only after the kind of pain and suffering Newt will impose because he has the medicine we must take.

The medicine Obama is prescribing is also causing pain and suffering but no hope for remedy.

Time will tell. It usually does. Stay tuned! (See 1 below.)

Dick
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1) Gingrich's turn: The eye of Newt
The former speaker’s debate skills are a major reason for his rise, the author says. By JEFF GREENFIELD

If you want to understand one big reason why former House Speaker Newt Gingrich star is rising in the Republican presidential race, you have only to look at a couple of answers from Saturday night’s South Carolina ”commander in chief” debate.

When asked by National Journal’s Major Garrett, “How would you think outside the box” on foreign policy, Gingrich answered: “I would explicitly adopt the Reagan/John Paul II/Thatcher strategy towards Iran…I would explicitly repudiate what Obama’s done on Agenda 21 as the kind of interference from the United Nations that’s wrong.”

The appeal of the first part of the answer is obvious: invoke three heroes of conservatives and suggest that the Teheran regime can be pressured into collapse.

But “Agenda 21”? I suspect I’m not the only (ostensibly) informed politics-watcher who asked: “What the hell is it? A clothing store? A real-estate company? A spy novel?”

It is, in fact. a nearly 20-year old U.N. “action plan” aimed at “sustainable development” on the local, regional and global level.

In the eyes of some on the right, however, it is — as explained on The Blaze Website — a “cloaked plan to impose the tenets of Social Justice/Socialism on the world,” which threatens everything from single-family homes to private car ownership.

In this sense, Gingrich’s answer was a “dog-whistle” — a response that held great meaning for those in the audience, signaling that he both knew their concerns, and was sympathetic.

This was no isolated incident. As Gingrich has done in just about every debate, again and again Saturday he was operating at a level of tactical and strategic skill far above his opponents. His eye for the mot juste, for the jab or counter-punch that will please his audience, is unparalleled.

Whatever his liabilities as a prospective nominee — and they are legion — Gingrich has climbed back from irrelevancy to contender because he is playing Assassin’s Creed Revelations while his opponents are playing Pong.

Consider a few other examples. After Texas Gov. Rick Perry proposed subjecting all foreign aid to sharp scrutiny, Gingrich was asked if he’d apply that approach to Egypt. It’s hard to go wrong in a GOP debate by taking a slap at foreign aid, but here’s what the former speaker said:

“Candidly, the degree to which the Arab Spring may become an anti-Christian spring, is something which bothers me a great deal…. Christians … are being persecuted under the new system, having their churches burned, having people killed. And I’d be pretty insistent that we are not going to be supportive of a regime which is explicitly hostile to religions other than Islam.”


I'mprepared to take this statement at face value — without imputing to Gingrich any political calculation. So let’s call it a happy coincidence that:

• Self-identified born-again Christians make up a significant majority of caucus-goers;

• Gingrich’s acknowledged personal misbehavior has created a potential obstacle to winning support from these voters;

• Such voters are, to put it mildly, wary of the power of Islam.

So, if looking at this answer through a political prism, you’d likely think: “Not too shabby.”

Or look at Gingrich’s answer to Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), whose question described the debt as a national security issue.

“Actually, senator,” said the ex-speaker-historian, “there are four interlocking national security problems. [debt, energy, manufacturing, and science and technology].”

In the course of his answer, he argued for “a training requirement for all unemployment compensation so nobody gets money for doing nothing.” Then pivoting to energy, he called for “opening up offshore [drilling] and taking some of the royalties “and modernize the Charleston port, which you need for jobs here.”

There may be another political figure who could combine a tough-love approach to the jobless with a pitch to votes in a key primary state, but, offhand, I can think of exactly one: Gingrich’s old partner-nemesis, Bill Clinton.

The former speaker’s debate skills are not the only reason for his rise. In a sense, he is following the same path as Sen. John McCain did four years ago after his campaign was deemed dead: retreat to higher ground; take the long view; hope that a string of prospective rivals fall by the wayside.

He has been especially blessed by the fact that so many figures who could make the “experience” argument and appeal to the party’s base—former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Perry, — either did not run or have faltered.

As surely as a Kardashian divorce follows a Kardashian marriage, this week’s “Newt Surges!” theme will likely be followed by tough reviews of his record — both personal and political.

For example, why, two years, after his rise to the speakership, were his lieutenants plotting to oust him? What about that ethics fine? Why did he become so toxic that Clinton’s reelection tried to paint him as Bob Dole’s running mate? Somewhere, someone is already resuscitating that old line about those two filing cabinets: the big one, with “Newt’s Ideas,” the much smaller one with ”Newt’s Good Ideas.”

Still, judged simply by the measure of political success, Gingrich has already wrapped up the Performer of the Year award.

Jeff Greenfield has worked as a political analyst at CBS, ABC and CNN. Greenfield now co-hosts PBS’s “Need to Know.” He worked in Robert F. Kennedy’s Senate office and was a speechwriter for him during his presidential campaign.
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