Newt Gingrich: Hendrik Hertzberg A "Jerk"

Politico caught up with Newt Gingrich and asked him about comments that fueled an on-air fight between Bill O'Reilly and New Yorker writer Hendrik Hertzberg:

"I thought that was funny. I thought the fact that O'Reilly played unedited the entire walking interview with Hertzberg--who is a total jerk--was just funny. If you go back and look at what I said, it was a very narrowly focused reference to people who were invading churches and in one case surrounding a 65-year-old person and harassing her about wearing a cross. Now, in my judgment, people who do that are fascists. And whether they are fascists on the right or fascists on the left, they're fascists, because they believe in imposing their views on you, outside the law, or they believe in using the law to force you to change who you are. And I'm opposed to fascism of any kind."

O'Reilly sent a camera crew to ambush Hertzberg, calling him a "far-left zealot" for his writing on Gingrich.

Comments

[fishgirl26]

Really Newt???? "And whether they are fascists on the right or fascists on the left, they're fascists, because they believe in imposing their views on you, outside the law, or they believe in using the law to force you to change who you are. And I'm opposed to fascism of any kind." Hmmm......this sounds like the far right and their views on abortion. So the far right, evangelical nut jobs out there that bomb clinics, harass clients of these clinics are facists. Thanks Newt for verifying that point. BTW, Gays aren't trying to make you gay, they just want the RIGHT to marry.

[honeydiva]

newt is an over the hill tadpole. go away.

[Maxiesid]

Newt needs to look up the word 'fascist'. But like most of his party, he doesn't bother with the whole 'think before you speak' policy. We all know that they feel that thinking is an elitist waste of time. Good thing they have managed to dumb down their supporters to the point that the supporters dont even realize how stupid their leaders are. I mean, really... Gingrich calling anyone else a jerk? What a joker this guy is!

[raechel]

One person strongly, even abusively, expressing his opinions is a jerk. Unless he's saying the government should be forcing people to adopt his point of view, he's not a fascist. Gingrich doesn't seem to have much of an idea what 'fascism' means, so I guess he's using it interchangeably with "really, really bad." Therefore we can reduce this "important" news item to: Gingrich thinks it's really, really bad when people try to impose their ideas on him. That was worth my time.

[janecc]

My mother would say "isn't that the pot calling the kettle black."

Well, isn't it?

[avalanch112]

the good thing about these guys is that most of them are old. they will be gone soon.

[protagonia]

When a jerk calls you a jerk, it cancels itself out.