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

[Hemkit]

Way to use your 'big boy" words, N e w t...

[Meah]

What is with Newt and his fascist obsessions? If there was ever a jerik, a total jerk, it would be the personage of Newt Gingrich. Only jerks leave their wives when they are sick and in the hospital.
He is talking about himself, no?

[jolebo]

Hey Newt, about that "Contract with America". Did you ever get any of that stuff done???

[ralph10]

Bad year for Sheldon Adelson. After losing about 30 Billion dollars because of the Economy, He and Ari Flieschers Freedoms Watch is closing its doors for good. Boo-Hoo.

[franklin opt]

I wis Newt would get his own talk show -- I just love to ha.te him.

[tandrmcdonald]

God forbid, the air is polluted enough!

[BlackYowe]

HIs co-Chair could be Sarah Palin. That would be so much fun, frankin_opt!

[Loki11467]

Excuse me Nootie but we don't listen to swine with lipstick on so go back to your stye.

[redneckliberalpostbush]

here is another GOP flaming A$$**** that needs to retire outta here omg newt you make us puke

[SocActivist]

Yes... Hertzberg was right in denying that there is a "secular fascism" or a "gay fascism". I don't think he was condoning or denying the existence of these attacks on religious activities. He was just denying that it is anything more than a few excesses or abberations.
On the other hand, it seems that Gingrich, while not accusing all gays or secularists of being fascists, is implicitly saying that these incidents are a weight that should be placed on all members of the gay and non-religious communities.

[DubiousAtBest]

Newt is calling someone else a "jerk"?

These people truly live in an alternate universe of their own creation.

[wagthedog1001]

And Newt calling someone else a fascist? HA! HE and his party are the fascists and always have been!

[iPolitics]

Newt serves his ex-wife divorce papers on her hospital bed

[Candyx]

the reason you will never be President Newt!! the left will go to the polls in droves to keep you out of the white house....you betcha! ;)

[scottarino]

Newt will never stop lying. At least you know where he stands..........if you apply the "always lying" rule. Newt's easier to read than a road sign.

[BlackYowe]

Hey anyone besides me remember when Newt said women should never serve in combat because they get "infections" in the trenches? I wonder what he thinks of the women, Monica Lin Brown who won two silver stars by throwing her body over the wounded while under fire? He said some weird thing too about men were meant to be the strong defenders because they hunted giraffes?

[sonomarc]

ya know, the whole republican party narrative is getting pretty tiring. I usually don't follow their logic and, when I do, I find it pretty appalling. Thugs using an institution to get what they want or force others to change.

[tililek]

Is this the time to murmur "It takes one to know one, or at least believe they know one".