David Axelrod Calls Newt Gingrich The 'Godfather Of Gridlock'

President Barack Obama's chief campaign strategist, David Axelrod, called Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich the "godfather of gridlock" Monday on MSNBC's "Daily Rundown."

MSNBC host Chuck Todd asked Axelrod, "Why are you the only ones attacking Mitt Romney and not the Republicans?"

"Jon Huntsman is attacking him in New Hampshire," he said. "I was amused by the Newt Gingrich ad because he talked about how he's going to bring the country together to solve problems. You talk about the godfather of gridlock here. The guy who two decades ago really invented the kind of tactics that have now become commonplace in Washington. So, this is a whole new Newt," he said.

"We heard it here first, it's the Obama case against Newt," said Todd.

"Well, I think it may be the public's case against him. I don't think people want to go back to that," replied Axelrod.

In previous television appearances, Axelrod has primarily attacked Mitt Romney.

Vice President Joe Biden also mentioned Gingrich in an interview with reporters Sunday in Athens with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. "I don't want to sound like Newt Gingrich," said a smiling Biden, according to the Wall Street Journal. "I don't want to sound like I'm inflating my importance or relationship with him," he continued, referring to the prime minister. "But we have listened to each other. And he was genuinely listening to my perspective and wasn't challenging it."

 

 

Comments

[kriskrinkel]

12:26 PM on 12/06/2011

so that would make obama the father of complete failure....

[Mister Grumpy]

12:29 PM on 12/06/2011

So if McCain was in the White House, would that make him the Grandfather of failure?

[kriskrinkel]

12:58 PM on 12/06/2011

he is not in the white house...its all obama...failure

[ConservativeChampion]

11:27 AM on 12/06/2011

I cannot wait to send Axelfrod back to being a his business which specializes in astro turf which is really just a nice way of lying to people and misleading them.

I guess one could say "just like he does now".

[Wmof2011]

11:31 AM on 12/06/2011

If you think he's lying, do some research.

[seriousbidness]

11:20 AM on 12/06/2011

Every time I see Newt and he begins talking his inflection and voice just remind me of someone who is completely out of touch with America. I don't see how he's going to win the nomination let alone the presidency.

I always think he's going to start defending why he deserved a $500k tiffany's revolving door.

[scottwarhar]

09:43 AM on 12/06/2011

The Teapublicans will give us a serial pay to play politician or a flip flopping corporate raider that downsizes and ships jobs overseas.Either way neither one of these individuals believes in anything except to continue the vacuum up economic policies with the trickle down misery effect of the Teapublican Party.The new Republican party wearing costumes to hide from the fact they are the same old republican party.Do I hold my little finger in the air when I sip my cup of tea if I ever join your movement and are those costumes made in China or the USA.It must be nice to be in bed with the banking and wall street lobby supporting 100% o0f the policies that created this recession in the first place..

[nlkennedy]

09:21 AM on 12/06/2011

Axelrod runs like a bull all over Chuck Todd.

The dude is a pro. It must be fun to be the politician who's name is never actually on the ballot.

[Lindytindy]

08:30 AM on 12/06/2011

Axelrod even looks like Hitler...their strategy is to fling mud at Republicans because Obama's regime has failed in every way, most people are on to them, nothing but a bunch of right wing Democrats who make Bush look like a liberal.

[Wmof2011]

11:14 AM on 12/06/2011

Excuse me Lindy,
Axelrod is not running for office. He already has his job, running a campaign to put food on his table. He does a great job of it. You like? No? Too bad.

[seriousbidness]

11:22 AM on 12/06/2011

Interesting considering Bush led is further into a socialist republic. But of course it's all Obama's fault. I'd probably lean more right if they'd just fess up and own up to their own stupidity. But since that's not going to happen I'll be content with being the party that tries rather than the party that replies.

[trumbull desi]

11:52 AM on 12/06/2011

And for that I fan you! I've voted both sides of the aisle but the Republicans aren't even trying to get my vote. In fact, they've offended me several times.

[Wmof2011]

08:30 AM on 12/06/2011

Stay tooned. And listen to Newt's every word.

The Godfather of Gridlock, has a plan for your distruction, your children and the seniors too.

[trumbull desi]

11:53 AM on 12/06/2011

Evidently we're all destined to become a country of janitors if he has his way.

[Mister Grumpy]

12:31 PM on 12/06/2011

Only if your of grade school age.

[ekstatik]

12:50 PM on 12/06/2011

The job of the 1% will be to make big messes for the 99% to clean up. Oh wait, that's already happening. Maybe that's what they mean by "job creation."

[Wmof2011]

08:25 AM on 12/06/2011

Godfather of Gridlock. Newt was the one who told Republicans they can lock up the government, and shut it down, to blackmail the other side. He was the teacher.

[4everright]

08:32 AM on 12/06/2011

Thanks for that Newt. When it comes to socialism, it needs to be shut down.

[Wmof2011]

08:36 AM on 12/06/2011

Newt may be a socialist. Stay tooned.

[jancf]

09:37 AM on 12/06/2011

Precisely what is socialistic?

[timthedem]

08:39 AM on 12/06/2011

The teacher got schooled by a better politician, William Jefferson Clinton.

[Wmof2011]

08:49 AM on 12/06/2011

And Congress schooled him on ethics: not enough, however. Newt still has a lot to learn about ethics.

But for destruction and gridlock, Newt is a top goto man.

[stick7]

08:20 AM on 12/06/2011

it won't be too long before Newt is also voted off the island for some motor-mouth blunder or simply from GOP voters who have a "Groundhog Day" moment and realize what might happen if they put him in. The rest of the world who are following this must be laughing their butts off at the circus-like atmosphere is this GOP winnowing process, with the Cain Train, and Trump back for re-runs after Fall Hiatus, and an right wing electorate that chooses a new favorite as often as they change their socks. I hope I'm wrong, but perhaps this reality show format is the new normal.

[trumbull desi]

11:57 AM on 12/06/2011

They're going to have buyer's remorse before they even paid for him.

[FormerlyTCnSRQ]

08:09 AM on 12/06/2011

it will be a great national debate. Obama vs the failed policies of the post Reagan extreme right wing republican party....the GOP establishment is scrambling...even Morning Joe just said flat out he would not vote for Newt....

[ken derow]

07:20 AM on 12/06/2011

Newt Ginrich's new ad in Iowa starts out by saying (and I paraphrase), "some people say that the America they know and love is old and gone," no Newt, it is you that is old news, you are like a can of beans with a 5-year expiration date that is now 20 years old, your time as come and gone, you are the old news, your political expiration date has long expired, most people recogonize this, except, apparently, not those in the Repub presidential polls. Newt, you are a person full of bombast, big ideas, big thoughts, who loves the sound of his own voice, and, most of all, is really full of himself. A self-absorbed individual whose reckless rhetoric would be a huge danger on the international diplomatic stage. Your blunder, your loose tongue, your abdonment of prudent reflection in deference to your self-annointed grandiose intellect, is scary to me, and, it should be to all reasonable citizens as well.

[lostnacfgop]

09:36 AM on 12/06/2011

well said. F & F 105

[TN60]

07:17 AM on 12/06/2011

I hope Pelosi takes one hell of a bite out of Newtie's @ss. He shut down the government twice.

Gingrich, the beginning of gridlock with his contract with america BS. And..too, he was impeaching a President while he was doing the same thing. He was run out of power by his own party which must be a first. Since, he has worked as a lobbyist, speaker fees, books that have no benefit to anyone, Tiffany user to placate that same intern who didn't care if she was an adulteress while he was still married.

Cohen's WaPo here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obamas-luck-holds-with-gop-contenders/2011/12/05/gIQALx6qXO_story.html

" the Israelis have come around on Obama: A majority now have a favorable view of him. Mazel tov!

Some of this is the vagaries of fortune, and some the bounty of good policy. But Obama’s most astounding bit of good luck is the motley crew of opponents the Republican Party has coughed up. It is simply amazing that in a country of 313 million people, many of them literate, the political opposition consists of ignoramuses, dimwits, contrarians, Christian jihadists and, now, two men so thoroughly hollow that a moral principle would make a rattling sound inside them. I am talking of course of Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney. "

Don't forget Obama' s speech in Kansas today at 1:55 EST channeling TR's Square Deal.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/69685.html

[Wmof2011]

11:09 AM on 12/06/2011

"two men so thoroughly hollow that a moral principle would make a rattling sound inside them. I am talking of course of Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney"

And they want to be president of the free world?

[TN60]

01:25 PM on 12/06/2011

Insane, isn't it...like the tea loons ?

[rneigh9880]

06:20 AM on 12/06/2011

As weak as Gingrich is in many areas, please don't say to me that he is corruptible as Axelrod and his Chicago cronies. They have and will set new standards of excellence in that area. The only reason they have been able to get away with their past is that the press has given them a pass on this front as well as others. Everytime I hear a speech or press interview with this current bunch, I feel like I need a shower.

[mothra666]

07:26 AM on 12/06/2011

And what is so dishonest about axlerod?

[Wandaz]

07:57 AM on 12/06/2011

Kudos on parroting the Fox talking points...now offer us some original thought, please?

[rneigh9880]

08:14 AM on 12/06/2011

The truth never changes.

[craig asia]

05:50 AM on 12/06/2011

Newt's motto; Greed is good. Corruption is great.

[craig asia]

05:47 AM on 12/06/2011

I can't wait to see Newt's head at the next debate. It was already huge when he was in third place. Now some say its as big as Hannity's and growing!