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Mika goes ballistic over Newt Gingrich. The rant was set off by Newt’s remark about OWS-ers needing a bath and worked on down to his other character failures.
According to the Huffington Post:
Mika Brzezinski let forth with an angry rant on Newt Gingrich and his criticism of the Occupy Wall Street movement, calling him “the biggest hypocrite in the Republican field” on Monday.
The source of her ire was Gingrich’s recent barbs about the protesters, particularly his comment that they should “go get a job right after you take a bath.” Brzezinski called his words “arrogant” and “disgusting.”
“Someone needs a bath and I don’t think it’s the people from Occupy Wall Street,” the “Morning Joe” co-host remarked, after noting that Gingrich had received huge payments from the beleaguered housing agency Freddie Mac.
She suggested that the soundbite would make some people “wonder if they should even live in this country anymore, if that’s who the Republicans are gonna pick as their nominee.”
She continued to rail against the GOP contender, questioning his recent surge in the polls and saying that his comments “literally made my skin crawl.”
“To hear Newt Gingrich standing on literally his high horse, after taking advantage of the system, cashing in on it, being literally the biggest hypocrite in the Republican field, probably in politics today, and then to cast aspersions and to speak down to these people as if they should be flicked away — it’s disgusting,” she blasted.
Newt does cast off people he thinks are beneath him. He is a hypocrite for declaring family values while having a 6 year affair with his current wife while being married to someone else. He is the quintessential insider. Regardless of what he says, he has been a lobbyist for big Pharma as well as other industries. He has take at least a million from Freddie Mac. How many people is he fooling?
Mika usually shows much more restraint. Is she out of line? Is Newt out of line? He is polling ahead of the other ‘flavors of the week.’ Does he have a chance or is it just his week on the top? Doesn’t he stand for everything the family values folks hate?
Newt Gingrich and the GOP’s leadership bankruptcy
It’s a measure of the leadership bankruptcy in the Republican Party
that Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker chased from that
illustrious post years ago by a combination of ethical lapses and
personal hubris, should find himself politically resurrected in some
public-opinion polls.
Largely by the process of elimination in a field of GOP presidential
hopefuls that has produced no favorite warmly embraced by the voters,
Speaker Gingrich has talked his way back from oblivion by a series of
debate performances marked by his special brand of pompous
pseudo-intellectualism.
With his egomaniacal sense of superiority that dismisses the
collection of unimpressive competitors for his party’s 2012
nomination, Mr. Gingrich somehow has managed to elbow his way into
what is somewhat laughably called the top tier of candidates vying the
lukewarm choice of their party.
He was self-canonized as the leader of the Gingrich Revolution of the
early 1990s that won control of the House with his Contract With
America that thereafter swept through the House but never got by the
Senate to become law. He resigned the speakership and quit Congress in
the aftermath of a poor Republican showing in the 1998 congressional
elections.
The latest rap against him is his alleged receipt of at least $1.6
million in consulting fees from Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored
mortgage enterprise of which he has been a critic. Mr. Gingrich just
the other day brushed off a question about the payments, saying he was
not a lobbyist for it and was paid for his expertise in the field.
In a classic Gingrich response, he sought to turn this particular
sow’s ear into a silk purse. “It reminds people that I know a great
deal about Washington,” he purred. With a dig at President Obama after
saying the new Newt was going to refrain, he added: “We tried four
years of amateur ignorance and it didn’t work very well,” apparently
referring to Mr. Obama’s less than three years in office. “So having
someone who actually knows Washington might be a really good thing.”
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-witcover-gingrich-20111121,0,2813565.story
It really does speak volumes about the Repugs’ desperate attempts for leadership that this guy is their frontrunner-of-the-month.
Huffington Post (which people are leaving like rats off a sinking ship), and MSNBC. I have to ask….who cares what anybody associated with either organization thinks? Newt’s got this one right, OWS are smelly hippies. What is going to make the left mad about Newt? The fact that he’s right (most of the time). I’ve seen nothing in this story (or Starry’s Post) that Newt isn’t spot-on right about.
@pokie,
Newt really isn’t right about very much of anything. He is arrogant and self serving and has the morals of an alley cat in pretty much all that he does whether it is his personal life or his political life.
“OWS are smelly hippies.”
How would you know if they smelled or not? Are you out there? For that matter, why would you call them hippies? Have you ever seen a hippie? A real one that is.
I don’t think this many people can just be dismissed as ‘dirty hippies.’
Take a bath and get a job is an absurd thing to say. In the first place, I expect most would get a job if they could. They are pissed off because of the corruption that caused a financial crash.
Shouldn’t the rest of us be pissed off?
Mmmm … All this outrage from Obama supporters …. Newt probably should not change his message to suit Mika or Starry.
If the so-called “middle” could not bring itself to vote for McCain over Obama, then there is absolutely no reason for Newt to mince words or the Republican electorate to hold its nose and nominate someone like Huntsman. The Republican nominee is highly unlikely to get votes from such people no matter which candidate wins or how hard he tries to avoid offending anyone.
Kelly, Palin was the albatross around McCain’s neck. He might have won with a better VP choice.
Newt is like the know-it-all blowhard at a party. People refresh their drinks, have to make a phone call, suddenly see someone else with whom they have to talk – anything to get themselves away from the egotist. We have only Newt’s opinion that he’s the smartest guy present. I’m not so sure that he’s any smarter than most people who have been in Congress for any length of time. He just thinks he is.
But…make him your candidate. Obama will waltz to e-election. People have to like a candidate as well as respect his/her knowledge or ability to lead. Newt Gingrich is not a likable candidate.
I love the continual excuse…”Palin was the deal breaker.”
Vice Presidents have no power. So-called moderates weren’t going to vote for McCain over Obama. So-called moderates just needed an excuse to pick an unqualified left wing Democrat over a qualified moderate Republican that the moderates all say that they would vote for if one was available.
Well, you got him and you voted for the left wing socialist. Congratulations. You went with door number 2. Like so many say…there is no perfect candidate. And there won’t be a more moderate candidate than McCain. And he lost.
So…if you think Mika is upset now…wait until she hears Newt say this:
I, Newt Gingrich, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
🙂
@Cargosquid
“Vice Presidents have no power.”
Correct, but they might become Presidents!!!
@Moon-howler
Oh, Newt’s absolutely right about OWS, and he’s right about most other things as well, as long as he can stay off the couch with Nancy Pelosi. The hard-left is obliged to go after Newt now, because he’s Cain’s successor at the top, everyone knows that. I’m just saying that this one won’t be as easy as Cain to knock down….this one has a brain inside his head, and he knows how to use it. We all know that Newt would beat Obama down unmerciful in a debate, if he can just keep his foot out of his mouth. I do, of course, approve of the hard-left defending the actions of OWS. You know you’re defending a bunch of clean, patriotic Americans when there’s a disease named after them (Zucotti Lung). If nothing else, it’s entertaining to watch you guys defend OWS!
President Biden…….dear God.
Ha ha. Every generation rebels against its parents and its parents’ political priorities. The OWS crowd has more in common with its grandparents who grew up in the Sixties than it does with its Reagan Republican parents. The parents are more like the Fifties’ guys in grey flannel suits. Newt’s part of the passe’ Reagan Repubs crowd while trying hard to appeal to the Teabaggers.
@Kelly3406
How is he going to get the vote of the values folks? I am not believing they will vote for him. It was Palin that knocked McCain out of the running with the moderates. Many people could easily live with McCain.
Newt has so much that the tea party at least says they hate. I am trying to figure out who compromised their values to even put him at 25%. newt will be whatever someone wants him to be.
I cannot express the revulsion that many moderates had to Palin. Truthfully, I think a lot of it has to do with her voice and her tone …and having a very hard time getting past that initial shrieking. Notice the difference between reaction to Palin and reaction to Bachmann. Bachmann has zany ideas and moderates wouldn’t vote for her but they aren’t repelled by her.
@Cargo
I love the continual excuse…”Palin was the deal breaker.”
Keep loving it. Put her on as #2 again.
Now just out of curiosity, why do you feel those words are an excuse? An excuse for what? Why do we need to make up excuses?
Considering Obama won, I am not sure why I need to make up an excuse. It seems to me that some Republicans should be making up an excuse as to why you can’t run a viable candidate for president.
You have to get someone who can run as a centrist to scoop up the middle. The extremes will never be elected. You throw in someone with so much dogma that they bay, you got yourself a problem, especially with an older candidate.
Of course, today should be a stark reminder that presidents can die even if they aren’t ancient.
@SlowpokeRodriguez
I don’t recall taking a side on OWLS. I just won’t have anyone on this blog called vermin. we sort of got our start over objecting to that.
I defended college kids from getting pepper sprayed, without apology. Those weren’t OWLS. I don’t think I have really had a lot to say about them other than someone should be calling attention to that which we have ignored (corruption on Wall Street.)
But if what I say about them gives you your jollies, have at it. I will try to work it into the conversation more often, just for you.
IF Newt can keep his foot out of his mouth. That’s a pretty big IF. I do agree that he has a brain. He just doesn’t always use it for the betterment of the country. Usually he uses it for the betterment of NEWT.
The left isn’t after him any more than they always have been. They think he is a corrupt toad. It’s up to the Republicans to pick each other off. I probably won’t even vote in the primary if we have one here. Only one person could get me out the door and then I probably wouldn’t vote for him in the general because I don’t vote for anti choice presidents. It’s that Supreme Court thing….
You’re dating yourself, old man. Most hippies are on medicare these days. Newt didn’t even use that term. BTW: was Newt right about Freddie Mac?
Anyway, I hope that Alfred E. Neuman lookalike gets the Republican nomination. Obama will win by a landslide.
As someone who IS old enough to have been a hippie, although I wasn’t, I sort of took offense at Pokie using the term. However, hearing Starry call Pokie ‘Old Man’ made me laugh. I was going to call Pokie a whippersnapper earlier this morning over this. I guess that puts me in dinosaurville.
@SlowpokeRodriguez
Those are the chances one takes. Makes me think of another “dear God” president- could-been:
Remember Dan Quayle?
Newt’s mouth moving before his brain is grooving is nothing new. Think of the giraffe comment or using the “B” word to refer to the first lady. That’s Newt. We know it.
What’s more concerning is his diss of the concerns brought by the OWS. “All the occupy movement starts with a premise that we all owe them everything,” he said. He makes a sweeping, false generalization about the entire group with the purpose of writing off all their concerns without even considering whether they be legitimate or not. Listening to their concerns and trying to understand your constituents is a quality that one might look for in a leader of a nation.
@Moon-howler
The excuse for NOT finally voting for the moderate that is always demanded of the Republicans. A moderate was put into place. He was everything that a moderate could want. But….the moderates REALLY wanted to vote for the “historical” candidate. The very liberal one that had not and has not been researched deeply by the press. And so…with a sigh of relief…they use the excuse of Palin being on the ticket for rejecting a perfect moderate candidate for an unqualified liberal candidate.
If moderates will not vote for a moderate candidate over a liberal candidate…that means that the GOP will never get their vote…so why nominate a liberal republican?
Oh..wait….in 2010…we nominated conservative candidates and they swept the field……
Cargo, the sounds of ‘you are simply full of crap’ are swelling in my throat. How would you know what moderates thought? That is pure arrogance on your part.
Unfortunately, McCain was leaning a little too right for some folks and he pushed it over the edge when he selected Palin.
Pssst-Obama is not very liberal. Compared to you, yes. Compared to the rest of the world, from a moderate viewpoint, not so much.
Check out the changes McCain made on the values issues. There might be a place to start. I do believe that he mentioned Supreme Court appointments.
You have no idea what moderates want. No one needs an excuse to vote for anyone. Moderates cover some wide turf. –
Now if we want to call someone a teabagger, well, that’s an entirely different box of frogs!
Absolutely it is different. Vermin has a universal meaning. Teabagger was a made up political name, started by people who claimed to be tea baggers. They wore tea bag earrings and tea bags on their hats and jackets. Then they found out it had a counter culture meaning and went all ape you know what. I didn’t know the expression either but I was familiar with a fairly dirty joke involving tea bags.
I remember the jokes made publicly about the secret service having orders to shoot him if anything happened to the President. Of course, today, we’d all be aghast, right?
Of course! Next thing you know, “is” will be offensive, then any reflexive expression referring to oneself, that will be offensive. Won’t be long after that that all forms of communication will be labeled offensive and we’ll be back to grunting and banging rocks together….but that will offend Democrats and geologists……
I just don’t think the OWLS fit my description of hippies. They don’t have hippie ideas or hippie habits actually. I think they are 20 somethings who are unable to find work that is commensurate with their skills. I don’t think they want to end war. Their music doesn’t even cut it as hippie music and their clothes sure don’t cut it.
Sorry. Hippie purist here. Ask Censored. She came closer to it than I did. I was preppie. sigh. but as for hippies, I knew one when I saw one.
@Starryflights
Yeah, Obama will win by a landslide. Landslide, I tell you!, Landslide!
By the way, Mika’s looking pretty good. Unfortunately, she’s wearing clothes, so it’s impossible to pay any attention to her, but let’s say for the sake of argument that whatever she said was important.
@SlowpokeRodriguez
Aghast?
I’ve heard that Obama is safe because of Biden.
Maybe that’s why Busch chose Quayle.
What do I know? Aghast, I’m not. Takes a lot to make me that way, Pokie
@Moon-howler
Yea, I remember Haight-Ashbury in SanFran.
The hippies were walking around high and happy either selling flowers ; remember, they were called flowerchildren; or doling them out to police officers. Most likely picked in one of the parks or someone’s yard (the flowers that is)
@Moon-howler
I’m full of crap? Because I can point out demonstrable results? McCain lost. Moderates did not vote for him, the Maverick Moderate. And the excuse I hear for moderates not voting for him is because his running mate….a person with no actual power….was too conservative. But the MODERATE was willing to pick someone from the far left….apparently the moderates are a bit farther to the left than is thought. Obama has the second most leftist voting record in Congress.
Oh…sand now, McCain wasn’t a moderate? Oh. Ok. So the Republicans need to run someone more liberal, sorry…moderate than the Senator that was for open borders and didn’t meet a Democrat bill that he didn’t like. More moderate than the Senator that insulted the conservative part of the Republicans and still does.
In that case…forget it…
Now you see why we have two parties. The moderates, or at least the ones here that call themselves moderates….want a liberal for a Republican candidate….basically a Democrat.
And if I’m full of crap…where do you get off opining on the “rightness” of McCain or Palin? How do I know what moderates thought? They say it. They’ve said it here. I’ve seen posts that stated, “I would have voted for McCain except for the VP pick.” So, how about your arrogance in stating that you know what moderates want? Apparently, moderates have demonstrated that they vote liberal…not for moderate Republicans. Where do you get your authority for stating that McCain was too conservative or Palin was the reason for his loss?
You get it from the same place I do. Your opinion. So take that arrogance and re-examine it. “First take the beam from your own eye….”
I keep reading and hearing that McCain was a moderate, loved by moderates.
Apparently not. Based upon your expert authority. He is now considered too right wing. You know..instead of choosing Palin as VP.
Hey…if you want to support the liberal Democrats, fine. But don’t try to tell Republicans that McCain is a winner. Or Romney…let’s see…McCain beat Romney and Obama beat McCain…so Obama probably can beat Romney. I mean, why vote for the liberal Republican when you can have the real thing? If only the Republicans would just pick someone….moderate……someone reasonable….someone that will appeal to the “middle” …they will win with moderate voters……
Pull the other one.
99% of the world’s cookies are consumed by 1% of the Monsters……..Occupy Sesame Street!
@Cargosquid
“I, Newt Gingrich, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully …” At least 3 women have heard that line … so far. I guess it falls into the category of pledges and people who have a proven record of not keeping their pledges. If he’s the best America’s got to offer then we’re in pretty piss-poor shape.
I saw Haight-Ashbury. I used to go to San Fran a lot when I worked for Cisco Systems. I had to drive a rental lincoln town car down Lombard St…..that was wild. I didn’t see any hippies there in 2000….a few prostitutes, a few drug-dealers, but no hippies. San Fran was actually really cool, much too cool for all those lefties that live there.
Really????Have you even been aware of the last 2.75 years?
@Caargo, yes, I think you are full of crap about what moderates want. Most people look at both Pres and VP. In keeping with the day, why on earth did JFK chose LBJ? It sure wasn’t because he liked him or his intellect. It was because he was a southerner.
Yes, moderates on here have said that Palin was a deal breaker. Why won’t you believe them? Moderates don’t see Obama as all that liberal. More so than the Clintons? Sure but not far left. I don’t really assess things in terms of how liberal or how conservative unless it starts singing at me.
McCain did not want open borders and never said he did nor did he present legislation regarding open borders. As a person who has been called an open borders whatever many times, I highly resent that. Please don’t misrepresent what he tried to do.
I know he no longer claims that which of course only means he is an equivocator.
Additionally, McCain might be a moderate republican and Hillary might be a moderate democrat. However, it sure doesn’t mean the two have much in common. They are still fairly far apart, especially in terms of who they might appoint for Supreme Court.
When the Republicans get over their hate affair with reproductive rights, Roe v Wade, Planned Parenthood, stem cell research and birth control, then I might give them another chance. Until then, I would prefer to rub elbows with those you call communists.
I will never understand why people froth over government interferring in their lives and then want to allow that very same govt to make deeply personal decisions for them.
I don’t understand why people who don’t want to shell out a dime for the kids already here suddenly want to have a bumper crop more.
Cognitive Dissonance!
In the debate tonight, Newt Gingrich showed a kinder, gentler side. He spoke up in defense of immigrants who have been here a long time and spoke against breaking up families.
I give Newt a few points here.
They have a debate show, and Joe Scarborough often rants about the things he’s passionate about, so no, I don’t think it’s at all out of line for her to vent her thoughts on public television. If anything, it’s taken her a long time to be that passionate about something in politics. Most of the time she sounds like she has a disagreement but then allows her disagreement to get brushed aside.
Newt on immigration:
“I don’t see how the party that says it’s the party of the family is going to adopt an immigration policy which destroys families which have been here a quarter-century,” Gingrich said. “And I am prepared to take the heat for saying, let’s be humane in enforcing the law without giving them citizenship, but finding a way to give them legality so as not to separate them from their families.”
http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/22/politics/cnn-security-debate/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
I, too, am surprised by that statement. Give him credit. I hope that our Newt supporters here agree.
@Starryflights
I agree with Newt, but I believe he’s thinking more about the Latino voting bloc
than anything else.
Cynic? You betcha! When it comes to Newt especially.
I think he was going for the “Have a heart” voting bloc. The fact is that most Americans are not opposed to comprehensive immigration reform.
Remember….Newt is a Reagan Republican. And Reagan signed an amnesty. I notice that Newt also reminded everyone of the fact that the Democrats failed THEN of holding up their end of the deal.
And people wonder why many conservatives are distrustful of any talk of amnesty deals..or “reform” as the Democrats like to call it.