When disgraced former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay went on his literary rampage against ex-colleagues he felt weren’t dickish enough for politics, he singled out his old buddy, ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, for having a lack of focus. It was just one big idea after another, without any follow up.
Well, hell if Tom DeLay wasn’t telling the truth, for once.
On Sunday, Sept. 23, Gingrich says on Fox News Sunday that — if his supporters were to raise $30 million by Oct. 21, he’d consider a run for the White House. "I don’t see how as a citizen you could turn that down," said Gingrich.
Then, on Sept. 25, Gingrich appeared before the conservative think tank Nevada Policy Research Institute here in Las Vegas to identify eight major waves of change in American history. Of course, his 1994 "Contract with America" was the eighth wave.
So what the hell do we read on our BlackBerry on Sunday, Sept. 30, just one week after Gingrich sent his supporters racing for their telephones and checkbooks? Only the fact that Gingrich won’t be surfing the Ninth Wave of American History to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue!
What gives? Why the flip-flop?
Well, it seems he had the bank account ready to go, the news conference all set up and the papers ready to file when he learned … he’d have to step down from the non-profit foundation called American Solutions, the primary product of which seems to be Gingrich speaking about his ideas.
Um, nobody checked this out? This came as a surprise to the man who engineered the Republican takeover of Congress, and fought brave battles against former President Bill Clinton (when Gingrich wasn’t banging his own staffers, that is)?
"The McCain-Feingold [campaign finance] Act is a very anti-middle class act," said Gingrich, who would definitely know. "There are such severe penalties. I would have to have stepped down and resigned. … That basically ended the conversation."
What? He’d rather be head of a non-profit that nobody’s ever heard of than president of the United States? He’d rather put out news releases that get turned into coasters on reporter’s desks than try for a chance to speak to them from the White House press room? He’d rather stay on the circuit giving rubber-chicken dinners to inconsequential think tanks than convene state dinners in Washington, D.C.? Southwest over Air Force One?
If you buy any of that, you probably thought Newt had a chance to win in the first place.
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