Newt Gingrich Switches Positions On Position-Switching
Yesterday, would-be-maybe-presidential-something-something-perhaps-who-knows Newt Gingrich had to face down the accusation he had, in a matter of weeks, rather transparently switched positions on whether or not he supported some sort of military intervention in Libya.
It was a pretty understandable piece of Gingrich criticism, because, on its face, it sure looked like he just reflexively opposed whatever President Barack Obama was doing at the time.
Gingrich went on Facebook to try to jam the round peg into the square hole, and it was a mess. But he had to try, because as it turns out, Gingrich is very much opposed to presidential aspirants flipping their positions on anything.
As Judd Legum at Think Progress notes: "In 2004, however, Gingrich repeatedly bashed then Democratic nominee for President John Kerry, saying his flip-flop on Iraq war funding disqualified him from being president."
The money quote, offered by Gingrich to Neil Cavuto on September 17, 2004, goes like this: "You can't flip-flop and be commander-in-chief."
Wouldn't it be hilarious if someone in the media pointed out that Gingrich, who now wants to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency and replace it with an agency less focused on being all regulator-y about greenhouse gases, had previously gone on the teevee to talk about how he agreed with Nancy Pelosi on the issue of climate change? I bet we'd all get a lot of laughs out of that.
But in case you can't wait, here's an item from Alex Pareene, in which he previews/reveals all of the policy statements Newt Gingrich will offer in the forthcoming fortnight.
[Would you like to follow me on Twitter? Because why not? Also, please send tips to tv@huffingtonpost.com -- learn more about our media monitoring project here.]
Loading comments… 
First Posted: 03/24/11 01:30 PM ET Updated: 05/25/11 07:40 PM ET