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August 07, 2005
Say "No" to Newt Nostalgia
Posted by Nick Beaudrot
To respond to some comments in the Huckabee thread, let me say that in no way am I endorsing the nascent Huckabee '08 campaign. But given the non-McCain, non-Giuliani alternatives (since, let's face it, neither of those guys will get through the primary), I'd rather roll the dice with Huckabee than with Brownback, Frist, Romney, or any other oft-mentioned potential Republican candidates.
A commenter writes on another potential Grown-Up Republican, "I'm alright with occasionally reminiscing about soft spots for Newt Gingrich, but Huckabee is much worse." At the risk of piling on, the burgeoning "Newt wasn't that bad" meme is highly dangerous, because he really was that bad. The are three good things about Newt: he's a significantly more honest conservative than the current bunch; he's learned enough political lessons from the Clinton years that he wouldn't try to dismantle the federal government completely; and he does a lot of reviews at Amazon.com [full disclosure: Amazon.com is my employer]. But it ends there; Newt advocates a completely deregulated market for everything, very few controls on federal spending, would still like to shutter large portions of the government if he could. Whether he would be willing and able to wage war with the likes of Tom DeLay is unclear. Let's not take that chance, please.
August 7, 2005 in Republicans | Permalink
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Comments
To be fair though, why am I linked in that meme? My piece was on how bad he was, and it ended:
"[He was just] as vile, radical, heartless, and ruthless as the modern group, but not as cunning or deceptive. Granted, there's value in honesty, but what Newt's lack of artifice reveals isn't moral, it's what created much of what's poisonous in today's political world. The GOP relies on deception because Newt proved Americans won't stand for their agenda. The GOP can get away with deception because Newt, he of multiple divorces, relentlessly attacked Clinton's character, prosecuted Democrats, and elected a radical Congress through sheer force of invective. Don't thank the guy. Bury him. And all those he's created."
Posted by: Ezra Klein | Aug 7, 2005 4:33:03 PM
You're linked because you (and Matt) contributed to the "Newt Nostalgia is a bad idea" counter-meme.
Posted by: Nick Beaudrot | Aug 7, 2005 5:28:34 PM
You've made Newt sound even better to me. Large portions of the government should be shuttered. After 8 years of making Bill Clinton look miserly with federal spending, Republicans should nominate someone with the guts to propose real spending cuts.
Heck, if the Democrats want to win, THEY should propose real spending cuts. Since Bush is outspending Clinton by close to 40%, there's a lot that could be reduced.
Posted by: Lex | Aug 8, 2005 12:10:58 PM
