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Jewish World Review
Jan 9, 2012/ 14 Teves, 5772
Newtonian exceptionalism
By
Dana Milbank
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
LITTLETON, N.H. --- &quo;I think I am a transformational figure,” Newt Gingrich told The Post’s Dan Balz back in 1994 — before his Republicans won control of the House.
Modesty has never been the former speaker’s strong suit. He came in a distant fourthin the Iowa caucus, and polls show that he’ll do no better in New Hampshire on Tuesday. But as he tours this state boasting about accomplishments real and imagined, it’s a wonder all his chest-thumping hasn’t bruised his ribs. “In 1980, I helped design a key part of the Reagan campaign,” announced Gingrich, who was a freshman legislator at the time. “I worked with Reagan in the early ’80s,” he went on, “developing a strategy for the Soviet empire.” Ah, so it was Gingrich, a backbencher in the minority party in the House, who vanquished the Red Menace! “In the late ’70s, working with Jack Kemp, Art Laffer, Jude Wanniski. . . we developed supply-side economics.” That Laffer Curve? It’s really the Gingrich Curve. “I’ve written several novels on the American Revolutionary War,” he adds. “I did two movies.” “I helped create the Hart-Rudman Commission.” The self-adulation envelops him: “largest capital-gains tax cut in history . . . only time in your lifetime . . . as good a campaign by a legislative body that was run in American history . . . largest one-party increase in an off-year election in American history.” Me! Largest! First! Best! Gingrich talks often on the stump about “American exceptionalism,” but his campaign seems to be based on the theory of Newtonian exceptionalism. Some say that he continues his long-shot campaign because he’s driven by his loathing of Mitt Romney — but his attacks on the front-runner have been inconsistent. Some say that he’s trying to provide a conservative alternative — but his candidacy, by splitting the conservative vote, is doing the opposite. A better explanation is that his campaign bus is on an ego trip. No question, the man earned a place in history by leading Republicans to power in the House. But the endless boasts suggest delusions of grandeur. “You want to have somebody who actually changed Washington,” he tells supporters, “and I worked with both Reagan and Thatcher on that scale of change.” Then he went on to create the Internet. The Gingrich pitch in New Hampshire includes his usual collection of wild allegations against President Obama and the Democrats: “Radicalism . . . imperial presidency . . . trying to buy reelection by cutting deals in violation of the law . . . European socialist . . . dictatorial.” He also delights in tearing down the man likeliest to be his party’s nominee: “A Massachusetts moderate . . . tax-paid abortions . . . raised taxes . . . appointed liberal judges.” But the most prevalent theme of his campaign so far is his tendency toward egomania: his boast last month that he was “by a big margin the front-runner,” his likening of his exclusion from the Virginia ballot to Pearl Harbor, and his pride in his $60,000 speaking fees. Evidently, the people of Plymouth, N.H., didn’t realize how lucky they were to hear Gingrich for free, because there were empty seats in the old train depot when he presented his auto-hagiography last week. “Unemployment while I was speaker dropped to 4.2 percent,” he said, neglecting to share credit with Bill Clinton. A woman asked about Social Security. “I was strategic adviser to the president of AARP,” Gingrich informed her. A man asked Gingrich to compare himself with Rick Santorum. Gingrich explained that the difference was his “real experience in working with Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.” “Welfare reform wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t been speaker,” he elaborated. “All of the negotiating at the level of getting [Clinton] to sign it was at my level.” A few more boasts, and Gingrich was ready to move on to a question about the United Nations, which allowed him to brag that “I co-chaired with Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell a United Nations reform task force.” An hour later, Gingrich was in Littleton, in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, and his opinion of himself had only climbed. “We became the first reelected House Republican majority since 1928,” he informed them. A questioner asked if the audience could hear from Gingrich’s wife, Callista, who had been standing silently at his side. “I believe truly that he is the best person to lead our country,” she offered. Stop her! She’s stealing Newt’s lines.
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Previously:
• 01/05/12 Mitt Romney out of control
• 01/04/12 Indecision 2012: In Iowa and the GOP
• 01/03/12 Rick Santorum's curious closing argument
• 12/28/11 A few cracks in my crystal ball
• 12/23/11 A few cracks in my crystal ball
• 12/20/11 Strange brews and views?
• 12/19/11 Cellphone ban would be a distraction
• 12/15/11 Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell and the Malfunction Minuet
• 12/14/11 The presidential auction of 2012
• 12/12/11 Newt's tactics comes back to haunt him
• 12/06/11 Can an anthem save Occupy non-movement?
• 12/05/11 The winner of the GOP campaign: Washington
• 11/30/11 Barney the bully: Congressman Frank's other legacy
• 11/23/11 Jon Kyl's search-and-destroy mission
• 11/21/11 Pay to play, brought to you by Washington
• 11/17/11 Big enough to save the supercommittee?
• 11/16/11 Why Newt Gingrich won't last
• 11/08/11 The 2012 campaign gets seedier
• 11/06/11 A Machiavellian model for Obama
• 11/03/11 The Herman Cain crack-up
• 11/01/11 Cain can --- he will survive
• 10/27/11 Stuntmen of the supercommittee
• 10/26/11 Democrats on the sidelines
• 10/24/11 Rick Perry's birther Parade
• 10/24/11 The birthers eat their own
• 10/19/11 The GOP's middle man
• 10/17/11 The waiting for nothing Congress
• 10/12/11 Sparsely occupied D.C.: Why the movement hasn't caught on
• 10/10/11 Can Obama strike an alliance with Occupy Wall Street?
• 10/06/11 Chris Christie, such a presidential tease
• 10/05/11 Obama and his foot soldiers go toe to toe
• 09/28/11 Cain could deliver
• 09/26/11 Republicans? Mr. Nice Guys?
• 09/22/11 Why Ron Paul is winning the GOP primary
• 09/21/11 I am a job creator who creates no jobs
• 09/20/11 Obama launches a revolution
• 09/19/11 Dems for Romney?
• 09/14/11 ‘Supercommittee’? More than stupor committee
• 09/07/11 Mitt Romney finds his (corporate) voice
• 09/01/11 The infallible Dick Cheney
• 08/31/11 This liberal says Perry is the ultimate conservative candidate
• 08/29/11 Wanted: More bite from Obama the Great Nibbler
• 08/10/11 How Rep. Austin Scott betrayed his Tea Party roots
• 08/09/11 The most powerful man on Earth?
• 08/08/11 The FAA shutdown and the new rules of Washington
• 08/04/11 Lt. Col. Allen West fires a round at the Tea Party
• 08/03/11 Government on autopilot
• 08/02/11 Dems mourn debt deal like death
• 07/27/11 Life imitates sport
• 07/26/11 Obama and Boehner take on Washington
• 07/21/11 Why Americans are angry at Congress
• 07/20/11 The new party of Reagan
• 07/18/11 Rob Portman, the boring Midwesterner who could bring sanity to the debt debate
• 07/13/11 John Boehner's bind
• 07/04/11 Stephen Colbert, Karl Rove and the mockery of campaign finance
• 07/01/11 President Puts Up His Dukes, As He Ought To
• 06/28/11 Rod Blagojevich verdict: All shook up
• 06/27/11 Progressives voice their anger at Obama
• 06/24/11 ‘Mission accomplished,’ Obama style
• 06/22/11 Jon Huntsman's first step toward oblivion
• 06/21/11 Scott Walker finds making bumper stickers is easier than creating jobs
• 06/20/11 A day of awkwardness with Mitt Romney
• 06/06/11 Hubris and humility: Sarah Palin and Robert Gates on tour
• 06/02/11 The Weiner roast
• 06/01/11 Congress clocks in to clock out
• 05/30/11 Hermanator II: No More Mr. Gadfly
• 05/24/11 How Obama has empowered Netanyahu
• 05/24/11 Pawlenty bends his truth-telling
• 05/20/11 Default deniers say it's all a hoax
• 05/18/11: Gingrich gives voice to moderation
• 05/17/11: Donald Trump and the House of Horrors
• 05/16/11: The medical mystery of Mitt Romney
• 05/12/11: The body impolitic: Schock photos should tempt lawmakers to cover up
• 05/10/11: Muskets in hand, tea party blasts House Republicans
• 05/09/11: The GOP debate: America -- and the party -- needs the grown-ups
• 05/05/11: Mitch Daniels, an alternative to scary
• 05/03/11: Obama's victory lap
• 05/02/11: How the journalist prom got out of control
• 04/28/11: Obama's birther day: Why did he lower himself by appearing in the briefing room?
• 04/27/11: Obama, lost in thought
• 04/24/11: Andrew Breitbart and the rifts on the right
• 04/22/11: Ten Commandments for 2012
• 04/21/11: Obama likes Facebook. Facebook likes Obama.
• 04/18/11: Without Nancy Pelosi, Obama is adrift
• 04/15/11: If progressives ran the world
• 04/14/11: Faith in political apostasy
• 04/13/11: One man's revolution is another's political expediency
• 04/11/11: Shutdown theatrics
• 04/06/11: Paul Ryan's irresponsible budget
• 04/05/11: Robots in Congress? Yes, we replicant!
• 04/04/11: Robert Gibbs, Facebook and the White House corporate placement service
• 04/01/11: Haley Barbour, the fat cats' candidate
• 03/31/11: Republican freshmen in House shut down compromise, and possibly the government
• 03/30/11: Coburn and Durbin, the dynamic duo of the debt crisis
• 03/28/11: The Obama doctrine: A gray area the size of Libya
• 03/24/11: Dems as Weiners
• 03/23/11: Obama's quick trip from tyrant to weakling
• 03/17/11: Who's afraid of Elizabeth Warren?
• 03/15/11: The underwear flap over Bradley Manning
• 03/10/11: In Senate's debt debate, talk isn't cheap
• 03/09/11: With Obama's new Gitmo policy, Administration officials had some 'splainin to do
• 03/02/11: Issa press aide scandal is like bad reality TV
• 02/25/11: Jay Carney: Mouthpiece for an inscrutable White House
• 02/14/11: The Donald trumps the pols at CPAC
• 02/09/11: Arianna Huffington's ideological transformation
© 2011, Washington Post Writers Group
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