The Establishment Vs. Newt: A Long List Of Republicans Who Want Anybody But Gingrich
As a former Republican House speaker and veteran of the culture wars of the 1990s, Newt Gingrich understandably earned his share of liberal detractors. But who knew how many enemies he’d made among the Republican political elite? As Gingrich’s recent surge in the polls moves ever closer to bearing electoral fruit in the Iowa Caucuses, it’s fair to say that the GOP political establishment is freaking out. Here’s just a sampling of the nice things Newt’s Washington colleagues have had to say about him lately.
George Will: “Gingrich … embodies the vanity and rapacity that make modern Washington repulsive. … There is almost artistic vulgarity in Gingrich’s unrepented role as a hired larynx for interests profiting from such government follies as ethanol and cheap mortgages. … His temperament—intellectual hubris distilled—makes him blown about by gusts of enthusiasm for intellectual fads, from 1990s futurism to ‘Lean Six Sigma’ today.”
Wall Street Journal Editorial Page: “In Mr. Gingrich’s telling, his ideas are bold and even radical, but the irony is that they’re often much less revolutionary than his rhetoric suggests. … Take Mr. Gingrich’s 49-page manifesto on entitlement reform, which his campaign rolled out shortly before Thanksgiving. It is a fundamentally Newtonian document, both in its ambition—it promises to ‘reduce federal spending by half or more’—and in its lack of discipline.”
Gene Healy, Cato Institute vice president: “[Gingrich is] Mitt Romney with more baggage and bolder hand gestures. … It seems that, if you clamor long enough about “big ideas,” people become convinced you actually have them. But most of Gingrich’s policy ideas over the last decade have been tepidly conventional and consistent with the Big Government, Beltway Consensus. … There’s no denying that Newt is smart, but there’s a zany, Cliff Clavin aspect to his intellect. At times, Gingrich, who’s written more than 150 book reviews on Amazon.com, sounds like a guy who read way too much during a long prison stretch.”
Karl Rove: “He is the only candidate who didn’t qualify for the Missouri primary, and on Wednesday he failed to present enough signatures to get on the ballot in Ohio. … [It’s] embarrassing to be so poorly organized.”
Ramesh Ponnuru: “Conservatives who dislike George W. Bush’s compassionate conservatism have Gingrich to thank for it. After Gingrich lost the budget battles with President Bill Clinton, it took 15 years for any politician to take up the cause of limited-government conservatism that he had discredited. Although Gingrich isn’t solely responsible for the Republican policy defeats of those years, his erratic behavior, lack of discipline and self-absorption had a lot to do with them.”
Charles Krauthammer: “Gingrich has his own vulnerabilities. The first is often overlooked because it is characterological rather than ideological: his own unreliability. Gingrich has a self-regard so immense that it rivals Obama’s—but, unlike Obama’s, is untamed by self-discipline.
Representative Peter King: “He’s too self-centered. He does not have the discipline, does not have the capacity to control himself.” If Newt were elected president, “The country and congress would be going through one crisis after another, and these would be self-inflicted crises.”
Christopher Barron, head of GOProud: “Newt is the establishment. He’s antithetical to what the Tea Party is talking about.”
Senator Tom Coburn: “There’s all types of leaders. Leaders that instill confidence, leaders that are somewhat abrupt and brisk. Leaders that have one standard for the people that they’re leading and a different standard for themselves. I just found [Gingrich’s] leadership lacking.”
Jennifer Rubin: “[W]hen he does think big, it is often in clichés. … When not predictable, Gingrich’s ideas can range from irresponsible (go see his website for the list of tax cuts, but no talk of spending cuts) to the crazed.”
Ross Douthat: “[Gingrich’s] candidacy isn’t a test of religious conservatives’ willingness to be good, forgiving Christians. It’s a test of their ability to see their cause through outsiders’ eyes, and to recognize what anointing a thrice-married adulterer as the champion of “family values” would say to the skeptical, the unconverted and above all to the young.”
Joe Scarborough: “When [Gingrich] puts on his political helmet he is a terrible person. … Let me tell you something: the Republican establishment will never make peace with Newt Gingrich. They just won’t! They won’t. This is an important point. Because the Republicans I talk to say he cannot win the nomination at any cost. He will destroy the party. He will re-elect Barack Obama and we’ll be ruined. That’s going to happen. I mean Newt Gingrich would possibly win 100 electoral votes.”
By: The New Republic, Staff, December 9, 2011
GOP Still Clueless About Resentment Of Inequality
In his New York Times opinion piece, “Let’s Not Talk About Inequality,” Thomas B. Edsall does a good job of tracing the change in public attitudes toward Republican economic policies in the wake of the 2008 meltdown.
Edsall quotes Gingrich’s and Romney’s pious pronouncements about workers needing to “become more employable” (Newt) and achieving “success and rewards through hard work” (Mitch), which is a little hard to digest, coming from a guy who gets six figures for a speech and another who made his fortune in hedge funds. This in “an American economy sharply skewed towards the affluent, with rising inequality, a dwindling middle class and the persistence of long-term unemployment.”
Not all Republicans are quite so clueless. Edsall quotes GOP framing guru Frank Luntz, “I’m so scared of this anti-Wall Street effort” because “they’re having an impact on what the American people think of capitalism.” Edsalll also quotes Democratic strategist Geoff Garin, who explains “…The Republican/Tea Party narrative about the economy has been superseded by a different narrative – one that emphasizes the need to address the growing gap between those at the very top of the economic ladder and the rest of the country.”
Garin cites poll data indicating stronger support for “a set of policies generally favored by Democrats calling for the elimination of tax breaks for the rich and tougher regulation of major banks and corporations” and that the public believes the federal government should “pursue policies that try to reduce the gap between wealthy and less well-off Americans.” He also cites polling data spelling big trouble for the GOP:
The job ratings of Republicans in Congress have tanked at 74 percent negative to 19 percent favorable, dropping more steeply than Obama’s, which are 51 negative-44 positive. But the Post survey also found that congressional Republicans run neck and neck with the president when respondents are asked “who would you trust to do a better job” on handling the economy (42-42) and creating jobs (40-40). On an issue on which the public traditionally favors Democrats by wide margins, “protecting the middle class,” Obama held only a 45-41 advantage over congressional Republicans.
Republicans are scrambling to figure out how to blame Democrats for worsening inequality, explains Edsall. But “The issue of inequality is inherently dangerous for Republicans who are viewed by many as the party of the upper class.” Further,
An Oct. 19-24 CBS/New York Times poll asked respondents whether the policies of the Obama administration and the policies of Republicans in Congress favor the rich, the middle class, the poor or treat everyone equally. Just 12 percent said Obama favors the rich, while 69 percent said Republicans in Congress favor the rich.
And when Ryan’s budget scheme is explained to voters, they “are horrified by it,” according to Garin. Edsall marvels at the GOP’s blindness in making it possible for their two front runners to get bogged down in arguments about how much more to give the wealthy while weakening Medicare benefits for the middle class — “in a climate of stark economic adversity for millions of unemployed Americans.”
Edsall is right. Democrats could not have hoped for a more self-destructive scenario in the Republican camp. If Democrats can project a credible message that offers hope for a better future for middle class voters in the months ahead, the optimism that has begun to emerge in Democratic circles will be justified.
By: J. P. Green, The Democratic Strategist, December 13, 2011
The Ohio Tea Party’s Big “Obamacare” Fail
Ohio tea partiers will finally get their big moment at the ballot box on November 8. That’s when Ohioans vote on Issue 3, a referendum spearheaded by tea party groups that would amend the state constitution to ban any law or rule requiring that citizens buy health insurance. The intent is obvious: to rebuke President Obama by blocking the individual mandate—the part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that requires Americans to buy health insurance or pay a fine. Issue 3 was also seen as a way to fire up conservative voters in an off-year election when the fate of Gov. John Kasich’s anti-union SB 5 bill is on the line.
But the measure backfired. Not only won’t it block the ACA’s individual mandate, but it’s so vague, legal experts say, that it could have the damaging, unintended effect of undermining key public services and regulations in Ohio, including blocking the state’s ability to collect crucial data on infectious diseases. If passed, it could also spark a wave of costly lawsuits, with taxpayers likely footing the bill. “It’s extremely sloppy and extremely overbroad,” says Jessie Hill, a professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. “I hesitate to say whether these potentially extremely troubling consequences were intended or whether the amendment was just misguided.” And if you trust the polls, Issue 3 isn’t even energizing Ohio conservatives.
Issue 3 is the brainchild of the Ohio Liberty Council, a coalition of tea party chapters, 912 groups, and other liberty-loving activists. The Council tried to put Issue 3—which it calls the “Healthcare Freedom Amendment”—on the ballot in November 2010, but fell short in the signature-gathering process. This year, the group redoubled its efforts and managed to gather nearly 427,000 signatures, enough to put the issue before voters. (The Liberty Council did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)
The amendment, endorsed by Ohio Right to Life and Republican state Sen. Bob Peterson, was pitched as a direct response to Obama’s Affordable Care Act. An early pamphlet (PDF) created by the Ohio Project, the grassroots group created to promote the amendment, focuses entirely on defusing “the new federal health care measure passed by Congress.”
But if Issue 3 passes, it won’t affect the Affordable Care Act. Richard Saphire, a professor at the University of Dayton Law School, says passage of Issue 3 might deliver a symbolic rejection of the individual mandate, but legally it would have zero effect, because Article VI of the US Constitution says that federal law trumps state law. “It’s very defective,” he says. “Folks that come out and vote for it, probably most of them are going to think they’re going to accomplish something that they’re not going to accomplish, which is prevent federal law from going into effect.”
Issue 3 supporters now concede this. But they insist the measure will still prevent a Massachusetts-style, state-based individual mandate from becoming law in Ohio and will set the stage for individual Ohioans to challenge the Affordable Care Act in court. Ohioans could say “you are fundamentally restricting our liberty and property here, and there was no due process,” Chris Littleton, a cofounder of the Ohio Liberty Council, said at an Issue 3 debate in late October.
While Issue 3 won’t derail “Obamacare,” it would have potentially “massive and disastrous impacts” on health care delivery and public health regulation in Ohio, says Case Western’s Hill.
A report (PDF) cowritten by Hill and released by Innovation Ohio, a liberal public policy group that opposes Issue 3, found that the amendment’s overbroad language could undermine a slew of programs that include some form of mandate. The amendment reads, in part:
No federal, state, or local law or rule shall compel, directly or indirectly, any person, employer, or health care provider to participate in a health care system.
Although the amendment would exempt laws in place before 2010, any new reforms to, say, workers’ compensation, which requires employers to buy insurance in case of workplace injuries, would violate the measure. State law also requires that public schools pay to immunize students whose families can’t afford it; reforms of that program would be blocked under Issue 3 because the immunization requirement is a type of mandate, according to the Innovation Ohio report. The amendment, the report noted, would likely render unconstitutional a key reporting element in a state law to regulate so-called pill mills, because it compels “participation” in a “health care system.” And Issue 3 would handcuff the state’s ability to gather data on infectious diseases including HIV and influenza for the same reason.
Hill and Saphire both say Issue 3’s passage would likely set off a wave of litigation aimed at discovering the true meaning and reach of the amendment. And it would be Ohioans, Hill says, footing the bill for those lawsuits.
Issue 3 isn’t getting much love from Ohio opinion makers, liberal or conservative. Despite its opposition to the “deeply flawed” Affordable Care Act, the conservative editorial board of the Columbus Dispatch, the state’s largest newspaper, urged a “no” vote on the measure. Arguing that state constitutions should not be subject to “short-term political gamesmanship,” the Dispatch wrote that “trying to counter the federal law with an ineffective amendment to the Ohio Constitution is a bad idea. This is not where that battle should be fought.” Every major newspaper editorial board in Ohio that’s taken a position on Issue 3 has opposed it.
If recent polls are any judge, Issue 3 hasn’t done much to mobilize conservative voters, either. An October 28 survey by the University of Akron Bliss Institute of Applied Politics found that 34 percent of respondents favor Issue 3 and 18 percent oppose it. The remaining 48 percent remained undecided less than two weeks before the vote. More importantly, the Akron survey found much more enthusiasm around Issue 2—which polls suggest will be defeated, repealing Kasich’s SB 5 bill—than around Issue 3, which polls suggest will pass.
If Issue 3 becomes law, it wouldn’t be the first time voters approved an amendment to a state constitution that didn’t serve its intended purpose, Saphire says. After the US Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional, a handful of states passed symbolic amendments expressing opposition to the Brown decision. The Supreme Court is expected to decide the fate of the ACA’s individual mandate in its upcoming term. If the high court decides to uphold the law, Ohio tea partiers—Issue 3 or no—will have to buy health insurance or pay a fine.
By: Andy Kroll, Mother Jones, November 3, 2011
Mitt Romney: The Corporate ‘Person’ And The One Percent
For Mitt Romney, the fundamental argument underpinning his presidential candidacy is his experience as a top executive at Bain Capital, the huge Boston-based private equity firm. That is especially true now because he must disown his most important achievement as Massachusetts governor — health care reform — in order to assuage the Tea Party extremists in his own party. But what does his business career tell us about the economic policies that might be pursued by the Republican front-runner — and about his worldview? Much could have been gleaned from the career history of George W. Bush, if only voters had paid closer attention to the unflattering reports of his experience as oilman and baseball team owner that accumulated in 1999 and 2000.
As the stories behind Romney’s success unfold in the coming campaign, the answer is likely to be that Bain Capital has prospered during the past quarter-century promoting a harsher brand of enterprise — one that ruins communities, impoverishes workers, and exports American jobs, all in the name of shareholder “value.”
In the current issue of New York Magazine, reporter Benjamin Wallace-Wells begins the process of unpacking what Romney and his colleagues in management consulting and private equity have wrought upon the U.S. economy. Wallace-Wells opens his narrative with a telling recent anecdote from the campaign trail in Iowa, where Romney lectured a disbelieving crowd on the issue of corporate personhood. When a heckler urged raising taxes on corporations, Romney replied with condescension: “Corporations are people too, my friend….”
Of course in the strictest sense he was right: The management, shareholders, and workers of every corporation are indeed human beings, and it is to those human beings that the money earned by corporations, after taxes, is paid. But as Wallace-Wells discovers, Romney and company have done much to change how those earnings are apportioned, encouraging massive increases in the amount appropriated by management and huge reductions in wages and benefits paid to workers. Creating incentives for managers to maximize stock prices — which would explode their own compensation — simultaneously undermined old-fashioned corporate responsibility toward employees, communities, and the nation as a whole. The deepest implication of the consultant creed that Romney represents is an ugly Darwinism — or so Wallace-Wells suggests.
But as consultants, there was only so much that Romney and the Bain crowd could do to change any corporation. Wanting to put their theories into practice, and sensing that big profits could ensue, they formed Bain Capital, whose record in corporate takeovers and turnarounds became the envy of the industry — and the ruin of thousands of workers and their families unlucky enough to become collateral damage.
The improved efficiency and productivity of private enterprise over the past two decades certainly were not without benefit to society, in lower prices, better technology and even, for a while, higher employment. But the perfect “alignment” of incentives between corporate managers and shareholders, without any regulatory brakes, led to worsening economic inequality, executive recklessness, stock manipulation, and a laser-like focus on the short term — in short, all of the ills that underlie American economic decline. Those same incentives have been trained on the political system to ensure decisions that benefit those same overpaid, seemingly sociopathic bankers and investors — now known as the “one percent.” They could scarcely hope for a more sympathetic candidate than the man from Bain.
By: Joe Conason, The National Memo, October 25, 2011
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