The Republican establishment's high-powered mafia war against Newt Gingrich has sunk to a new low. In recent public statements, disgraced former Assistant Secretary of State Elliot Abrams and thrice-failed GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole have both taken aim at the former House speaker, suggesting that he's "unfit" for the presidency.
Who are these two former GOP hatchet men kidding?
Elliot Abrams, the one-time darling of American neo-conservatives, nearly went to jail in the 1980s for his role in the infamous Iran-contra scandal. In violation of U.S. law, Abrams was caught trying to solicit secret contributions from America's foreign allies to keep the Nicaraguan "contra" war going at a time when Congress had cut off all funding.
Then, caught red-handed, Abrams proceeded to lie to Congress about what he'd actually done.
It took a presidential pardon by George H.W. Bush to keep Abrams from serving a suspended sentence -- including a fine and community service -- negotiated with the U.S. Special Counsel Lawrence Walsh. Abrams went on to serve under George W. Bush in two other assistant secretary of state positions -- including, incredibly, the one in charge of "democracy-promotion" overseas -- but his role in Iran-contra has dogged him ever since.
And this man dares stand in judgment of Gingrich?
Dole, of course, is considered something of a major figure in the GOP, eventually rising to Senate majority leader at the time that Gingrich was House speaker. But Dole's apparently never forgiven Gingrich for overshadowing him politically, and still blames Gingrich's antics for undermining his hapless 1996 bid for the presidency.
Given all the bad blood, it probably didn't take much to get the aging and largely reclusive Dole -- he's currently 87 -- to return to the limelight to bash his old nemesis.
But, like Gingrich, Dole's own political career has long been dogged by allegations of impropriety, both as a Senator, and as a periodic presidential candidate.
In 1993, an FEC audit in 1993 found that Dole's 1988 presidential campaign had accepted illegal corporate contributions, exceeding spending limits in Iowa and New Hampshire, and improperly using a separate political committee he controlled to further his campaign. At the time, the FEC's $100,000 fine was the largest in U.S. campaign history.
And what about Dole's own embarrassing runs for the White House? Those actually started in 1976 when he served as Gerald Ford's running mate against Jimmy Carter. Ford replaced Nelson Rockefeller with Dole because the party felt it needed an "attack dog." The scowling, jowly-faced Dole, who spoke in a sarcastic, gravelly-toned manner, soon became a political caricature, and he ended up hurting the GOP ticket.
But in time-honored Republican fashion, Dole's failed 1976 candidacy soon placed him in a strong position to run for president himself -- which he did again and again, to no avail.
Dole failed to gain the nomination in 1980 (against Ronald Reagan, dropping out early) and in 1988 (against George H.W Bush), but he finally broke through in 1996. He struggled for months to rally moderates and conservatives to unify behind him and did poorly against Democrat Bill Clinton, who won re-election in a landslide.
Dole, in fact, is often viewed as an exemplar of the age-old Republican tradition of nominating the party's "heir apparent" rather than choosing a more dynamic and combative standard-bearer. In 1986, Dole faced a real firebrand in right-wing populist Patrick Buchanan, who bested him in the New Hampshire primary, briefly putting a scare into the GOP establishment.
Echoes of the Dole-Buchanan rivalry can be heard in today's contest between Gingrich and Romney. In many ways, Dole's endorsement of Romney is a defense of the same top-down GOP system that once installed Dole as the GOP nominee, despite the fact that much of the party base reviled him at the time.
What does it say that the GOP is trotting out the likes of Abrams and Dole to try to stop Newt? Undoubtedly, Abrams is hankering to become Secretary of State in a new Romney administration, which would complete his "rehabilitation." Like neo-conservatives generally, he's never lacked for servile cunning in the pursuit of Republican interests, to say nothing of his own.
But for the party itself, this is a base, unseemly but largely ineffectual display of political thuggery. By throwing everything and everyone -- including these ghouls -- at Gingrich, the party's protesting too much. Gingrich, the Republican Robespierre, is rallying the party's unruly sans-culottes around the guillotine. And unless they're stopped, the establishment knows that it won't just be Romney's head that rolls.
Both candidates have spent tens of millions of dollars on mud-slinging attack ads. Gingrich ads are really bad, but remember that it was Romney who first resorted to grossly inaccurate slanderous ads in Iowa. Gingrich has a point when he says he is responding. History has demonstrated that he does not have a choice. When Romney went to the Dark-Side, he had to play dirty.
To see what GOP rule looks like we need only look at FL, MI, OH, WI, AZ, IN. Is this what we, as Americans, really want? Is this the kind of country/citizens/Americans we have become? It would appear that America votes for the GOP at its own peril. We will see.
Henchmen wear badly tailored, cheap suits from Sears.
Go with the henchmen
Romney lies too much about everything. It's ironic because Romenycare is considered to be successful by most citizens of MA. Obamacare is just Romeny care at a federal level rather than a state level. I though he'd did a decent job as governor. But his penchant for lying is a severe character flaw in my opinion.
Gingrich is a rather despicable character. Ethics problems is just the start. He's unelectable.
A lot of moderates will stay home or may switch sides in November .
I can't see many of Ron Pauls devotees supporting anyone other than Paul and they may stay home too.
If Trump does enter the race as an independent as he indicates he might I hope he gets support from Newt and Palin and the tea party zealots .The battle there could split the right wing apart for good . It has been coming for years anyway .
If the Democrats run a smart campaign they just might win this thing . They need to get started soon anyway . Republicans are hogging all the TV and Cable coverage and they still have a a thousand more " debates " scheduled.
True, but in the worst possible way. The GOP is learning the hard way that there IS such a thing as bad publicity. I can't believe we'll ever again see a major party schedule this many debates in primary season.
Obama is playing it just right, lying in the weeds and looking all presidential, with a State of the Union here and a daring Navy Seal rescue there, just to remind folks who's the boss. It's a long, long way to November, and no doubt the reelection team has a timetable worked out in which the president will be "hogging all the TV and Cable coverage" when it actually matters.
I'm taxed 13.5%" Romney.
And some people call it tough decision time.