Newt Gingrich, the man who has done more than most to drag American politics into the gutter and turn Congress into the contempt-magnet that it is today has some important criticisms of President Obama:
“You know when you’re up on Mount Olympus, it is so painful to deal with mere mortals, and I think there is a lot of that in Obama,” he said. “The arrogance of the way he golfs, the arrogance of his total lack of sensitivity to anybody else’s opinion, anybody else’s view, anybody else’s values, those are not very good signs for him learning and he’s more likely to stumble through the last two years.”
Gingrich lecturing anyone on a '...total lack of sensitivity...' is priceless. As
Josh Marshall at TPM summarized, we're talking about this guy:
Let's remember, Newt famously dumped wife #1 for wife #2 while wife #1 was in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery. As in literally went to the hospital to present her with divorce papers while she was recovering from surgery for uterine cancer.
He eventually dumped wife #2 for wife #3 shortly after wife #2 was diagnosed with MS back in 1999. And he was having the affair on wife #2 with wife #3 while he was turning the country upside down trying to drive Bill Clinton from office over his affair with Monica Lewinsky.
Gingrich's explanation for his swinishness was a jaw-dropper. He
told Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody:
There's no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate.
Got that? He cheated on his wives because he loved America too much. Which is probably the reason he was
in hock to upmarket trinket vendors Tiffanys for $500,000 also, too ...or possibly because he's such a 'man of the people'.
Gingrich is the guy who spent his career blustering about the 'evils' of 'big government' then pocketed a couple of million clams from Freddie Mac. Gingrich denied that he was paid to lobby, describing himself as a 'strategic advisor'. However:
"Strategic advisor?" queried New Jersey governor Chris Christie, a Romney supporter, on NBC's Sunday show, Meet The Press. "That is the oldest Washington dodge in the book. That's because he didn't want to register as a lobbyist ... First he said he was a historian, now he says he was a strategic advisor. He was using his influence that he obtained in public office to try to help get paid $1.6m."
But
it gets worse:
Mr. Gingrich, whose campaign declined to comment on his ties with Fannie and Freddie while in Congress, has been blistering in his recent criticism of the mortgage finance companies. He has blamed them in part for the 2008 housing collapse, said they should now be “broken up,” and in an October debate he declared that Representative Barney Frank should be “in jail” for associating with lobbyists close to Freddie.
Whew. Gingrich is a fucking piece of work. A liar, a cheat, a Beltway trough-monster, a hypocrite, an arrogant mediocrity and all-around 24 kt scumbag.
On the other hand, he probably plays a very humble round of golf.