Tuesday, February 14, 2012

The Valentine’s Day Truth Massacre on TARP

TARPValentinesDay

Like others, I have taken it as “gospel” that Newt Gingrich was for TARP and Rick Santorum was against it.  The former Pennsylvanian stated it as fact, and our major conservative voices from AceOfSpades to Rush have also.  I don’t know if it was Newt’s desire to embody Ronald Reagan’s Eleventh Commandment, or what, but I never heard him acknowledge or deny either statement.  It now turns out that there are at least two TV interviews, a National Press Club speech and two op-ed pieces that seem to (again) contradict the assertions of a certain sainted former Senator.

Newt Gingrich on TARP (not liking it) - h/t Justin.fm

On the TARP bailout Gingrich says:

  • I think this is an appallingly bad plan
  • I think it will be an engine of corruption
  • I think it will be a nightmare to implement
  • I think this is about as bad as anything I’ve seen in economic policy

Alan Colmes responds:

This is some of the most strident comments
I’ve heard against this plan…

In a Human Events article he says:

As I said to Fox News' Greta Van Susteren Monday night, and spoke about at the National Press Club on Tuesday, there are two steps that could be taken that would send a needed signal to the world financial markets that America has leaders who recognize the gravity of the crisis and are capable of putting aside narrow partisan self-interest for the good of the country.

(of how George Bush has hurt conservatism) It's a tragic and very expensive legacy. No conservative and no Republican should doubt how much it has hurt our cause and our party.

The former Speaker then goes on to give an economics lesson of how to ENSURE that if a proper plan is need how it should be written so that it isn’t wasted, squandered or enacted without accountability. 

You may argue, “PolitiJim (you handsome green bird, you), he still was advocating the possibility of a bailout.”

To which I would reply.  “Nuh-uh!”  (I’m just articulate that way.)

Gingrich proceeded to say this in the Human Events piece:

Congress needs to go back to the drawing board and develop, not just a financial markets rescue bill (which should be a work out, not a bailout) but also an economic growth bill.

And of course, he then proceeds to layout a strategy and plan for exactly WHAT KIND of economic growth bill that should be.  That’s just the way he rolls.  (No fat jokes please.)

At this moment I want to demand apologies from Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter, National Review Online, HotAir/AceOfSpades, and every idiot in my timeline who kept screaming “SANTORUM WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO DIDN’T SUPPORT TARP,” as an answer to every question about the PA Senator’s unusually long list of big government – non-conservative votes.
(Also see
Legal Insurrection)

A Tweeter tipped me off to Leon Wolf at RedState who’s article leap-linked me to all this. (Please forgive me that I forgot who it was.) 
The question was simple:
 

Where is the evidence that Senator Rick Santorum was against TARP as he says?

We can find numerous media references of a vigorous and forceful complaint, analysis and alternative proposals from Mr. Gingrich all while doing it in the voices of Jim DeMint and Milton Friedman.  The only article to surface so far was from a Pittsburgh paper that covers the bailout and Santorum’s strong, conservative, principled objections to it this way:

Outside Rick Santorum's office, rain was falling so hard it bounced. Sixteen miles away, the Senate in which he was once the conservative standard-bearer had taken the lead in crafting an economic rescue plan from which the House had recoiled.

It was a Beltway day fraught with excitement. Even the weather was dramatic. It was the kind of day on which many a losing candidate might be giving an important speech to his bathroom mirror, imagining what might have been.

Rick Santorum?

He wants to talk about the movies.

AnAmericanCarol Did I mention the part about me demanding apologies?  He does talk extensively, (and forcefully) on Islamic-Fascism.  And the fact he helped finance the conservative answer to Saturday Night Live –
An American Carol. (And just when we thought there weren’t any more reasons to vote for someone other than the sweater Senator.  What was Kelsey Grammer thinking!??)

The mea culpa’s may go DOUBLE for Mark Levin.  I was shocked to learn that not only is Mr. “Liberty & Tyranny” ignoring facts about Santorum’s more than egregious liberal votes as well as his unprincipled positions and proclamations – HE IS CENSORING FANS ASKING RESPECTFUL QUESTIONS ABOUT SANTORUM’S RECORD BY DELETING DAMNING POSTS!  AND BLOCKING THEM!  (I thought RedState was the only facist, anti-free speech conservatives that did that.)

My new best bud and RSS feed – Justn.FM recounts the incident here:

I have been a longtime listener to Mark's radio show and I agree with him 99% of the time. However, when he threw Newt under the bus on Monday I felt compelled to speak up. Therefore I went on Mark's facebook page and very respectfully asked him to take a look at Santorum's record. As those of us who have taken a close look have genuine concerns about Santorum's record and electability. I started my inquiry with: "Dr. Levin," and prefaced my remarks with my loyalty to his program and professing my respect for him.
The following morning I checked facebook to see if Mr. Levin had responded to my question. Astonishingly, not only was my question deleted but I was banned from posting on Mark's "wall". I have since emailed Mr. Levin asking for an explanation yet I have received no response.

Like Justin (aka @DryCnty), I am obviously not the only one wondering how our most “conservative” media, led by Levin and Limbaugh, not only didn’t know both sides of this argument (isn’t that their job and their boast?), but now they seem to be COVERING UP evidence of their anti-Gingrich bias.  Or maybe it’s a pro-Santorum bias. Whatever you want to call it – it embarrasses the rest of us conservatives and the conservative movement.

We can only hope this is some shrewd strategy of theirs to get Santorum in Romney’s crosshair’s to shield Newt going into Super Tuesday.  If not, we can add the Mark Levin Show, the Rush Limbaugh Show, MichelleMalkin.com, GBTV and others to betrayals led by Matt “Benedict” Drudge.

So we may have our OWN Valentine’s Day Massacre of dishonest or blind conservatives who betray the conservative family values of TRUTH, JUSTICE and the American Way.  If this is the best we got, we’ll just ignore them into ratings death like we did the mainstream media and (from popular reports) Glenn Beck.

CrossingDelawareThumb Newt Gingrich likes to use the winter of 1776 as a reference to forging against all odds as George Washington did.  Not only was he out manned and his own forces poorly equipped (when compared to the Hessians and British), their own Continental Congress would not support them and popular vote for the Revolution plummeted into the 30’s.

We may have the most aggressive socialist cancer in the White House and in mainstream media, our own conservatives may be withholding the truth from us and certainly our “popular vote” in seeing Speaker Gingrich is roughly the same as the Revolutionary Army.

But just like George, we will pray.  We will trust in God and his Grace.  And we will win.  NOT for some egotistical vindication of our “TeamNewt,” but because it is the only hope left of these candidates to defeat the Totalitarian Socialist in the White House and reform and redeem America.


BONUS: As of Valentine’s Day Eve the battle has really hardly even begun:

RCPGOPDelegate2-13-12edit

Gingrich is almost doubling Santorum’s popular vote total.

RCPGOPPopVote2-13-12edit

Or – for our “fun with math” friends, the 12 delegates separating Santorum and Gingrich is 1% of the 1,144 delegates needed for nomination.  (…and 1/2 of a percent of the TOTAL delegates.)  In other words, (didn’t I just say this?) the battle has really hardly even begun.

Reality check: Numbers are fun but they mean very little at this point.  The caucus’s that Santorum won are - by nature - much lower in voter participation than open primaries.  Not a totally fair comparison and not indicative of Santorum’s lead in the national polls.  But even Romney is not far enough ahead to make this a hopeless cause for either contender.

(h/t to Justin.fm and LegalInsurrection.com)

12 comments:

I was just calling it a night after staying up late to listen to Newt's FULL 1hr 10min passionate anti-TARP testimony/presentation before a congressional committee in 2009. The presentation told me a lot about him, and I'm now even more pro-Newt. I'm sure you have the link, but in case others want to self-educate, here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzDutBRMsXw

Good lord, I stayed up waay too late, I read "TARP" in your article and saw "CAPnTRADE" ... I know, the two look eerily similar. But that link is still a great presentation by Newt - ahem, about CAPnTRADE.

FWIW, Newt backed down at the end... :
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2008/09/gingrich-now-ba/

Anyone who thinks that Santorum would have voted down TARP if he was in office is smoking something. Santorum was in the leadership and there is no way he would have voted no. Just look at his history, he has no record of ever standing up to the republican leadership on anything spending related, especially when he was part of it. He doesn't even think SOPA is a bad idea for heaven's sake.

My understanding was that Newt had some major reservations about TARP but that in the end, he would have begrudgingly voted for it.

As for Santorum, his sanctimony is wearing thin. Yes, he was and is a solid social conservative, but he was and is a big government "compassionate conservative". I'm tired of him feigning a purity that only exists in his mind.

None of them have a pristine record. But at the end of the day, there is only one who crafted and moved sweeping reform and built a coalition to focus on and tackle big issues.

And that's Newt.

Sean, I apologize for not making that clear. He ended up capitulating to the "dire economic meltdown" reports of the Fed and others - and at the time none of us really knew what the REAL dilemma was - but the point is that he AGGRESSIVELY pushed back on it from a very conservative standpoint from the get-go. He said he would support it "reluctantly and sadly."

Rick Santorum said, "What bailiout?"

Rush has aquired the tingle up the leg thrill, better known as the Chris Mathews syndrome. Between Rush ,the new Faux station at Fox and the drudgy report. Goes to show you how low they will go for the Almighty dollar from Clear Channel .

PolitiJim,
You are on a roll my friend. Thanks for carrying the torch for us pions that don't know well enough. It's amazing how profoundly lazy our civil servants really are. I swear they are getting back at Newt for making them actually do the work of the people. Day one of the 104th congress making them stay til 2am and actually cut $35mil. The audacity of the slave driver! Newt, if this makes you erratic, I am with you to the bloody end and I will defend you so long as you have America in your best interest which from what I can tell, you have done for most of your life. Shame on those who take their gift of gab for granted and sell out those who have helped you get where you are and you know who you all are. PolitiJim, get a radio show with your new bff please. We are running out of safety zones!

PolitiJim, I have never begged for anything, but I must plead with you to please get this message out. We can't just sit back and let Rush, Levin, Hannity, Savage and especially Glenn Beck get away with character assasination of Newt. They are the ones with the microphones that broadcast to millions of people. The people take what they say as FACT. I knew when Glenn Beck went on his tirade about Newt being a progressive it was totally wrong and I haven't listened to him since.

These people need to be taken down for trying to affect an election the way they have.

Thanks for everything you have exposed.

As Newt says in his Citadel lecture below, George Washington was very subtle. And George Washington understood that it is better to have an army that has high morale, even if it has low equipment.

So Washington had his officers read to the men, The Crisis: "these are the Times that try men's souls." So the men would know what they were fighting for.

In order to have high morale, we need to know what we are fighting for.

Here are links to Bill Whittle, brilliant Bill Whittle, and a link below to Newt's complete, fantastic lecture at the Citadel on the Conservative Intellectual Tradition in America.

BILL WHITTLE NATURAL LAW (PART 4 OF "WHAT WE BELIEVE")
http://tppatriots.com/2012/02/15/what-we-believe-natural-law-bill-whittle/

Natural Law: We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident
Each human has as his or her birthright, certain rights, beyond the reach of mortal men and women. And among them are the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

These freedoms are given to us at birth and politicians may not infringe upon these rights. The rights pre-exist, the are built in, they are inherent, the are.. inalienable.

We are born free. So the question is, how few laws do we need. Why bad political laws are holding down the economy. Why we have a TEA Party.
And much more, watch it all.

BILL WHITTLE : WHAT WE BELIEVE

PART 1 SMALL GOVERNMENT AND FREE ENTERPRISE
PART 2 THE PROBLEM WITH ELITISM
PART 3 WEALTH CREATION
PART 4 NATURAL LAW
PART 5 GUN RIGHTS
PART 6 IMMIGRATION
PATY 7 AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM
http://www.muditajournal.com/archives/764.php


AND NEWT'S LECTURE AT THE CITADEL: "ONLY COURAGE WILL SAVE FREEDOM"
http://conservatives4newt.blogspot.com/2012/02/speaker-gingrich-on-conservative.html The Conservative Intellectual Tradition in America
The Citadel Experience - February 1, 2012 - 1:11:22


You can only know if you find out. So find out. This is self-government. It's up to us. Freedom must be upheld on our watch. Do you agree?

Thousands of Americans are making this dream a reality. You can sign up at newt's network DOT com if you want to help Newt. Get connected with your team in your state.

BLESS YOU for this! I have been looking for the Citadel footage since that very weekend. Appreciated much.

Coming to this website is finding calm in the storm!I've just become aware of UN Agenda 21 and its danger to America's FREEDOMS. I have seen video of Newt describing its dangers. I have been told that Mitt and Rick both support this agenda but cannot find the evidence. Are you aware of any such information to prove this? I believe if it is true that RS and MR should be disqualified as canidates for president of USA for supporting a path to global government and justice leaving us without freedom of choice. BPWalker relaxandrenew@cox/net

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