David, having had perhaps some sort of agreement with you on the quality of CIA Russian intelligence last year, I'll choose you to respond to this particular Newt chain. It's no secret that I'm not exactly fond of Newt. But where does this idea of Newt as a stand-up guy done in by media clowns and attack dog Democrats come from? Newt's been very aggressive politically from the first I heard of him, back when he was making inflammatory speeches to an empty house for C-span cameras, when Tipp O'Neill was speaker. His style hasn't modulated much since then, though he's gone somewhat undercover lately. Newt the noble idealist versus Clinton the root of all evil? They're both politicians.
On specific question on Newt. Rupert Murdoch and the $6million book deal. How do you square this with the noble Newt unfairly chastised by the media line? What am I missing there? Those books didn't sell anywhere near what would justify that money, did they?
Then, there's the media bamboozled by Clinton line. I don't know what media you follow, the NYT, the alleged bastion of the eastern liberal elite, has been very hard on Clinton. Could you ever point to anything hard on Newt from, say, the editorial page of the WSJ? Maybe on tactics or not being conservative enough. They used to be the highest circulation paper in the country, although they may have been passed by USAToday. To get anything like Clinton advocacy, you have to go to something like Salon, which is not exactly mainstream. And even Salon has been sarcastic enough about Clinton. As have I, an allegedly partisan firebrand leftist commie liberal nogoodnic.
Newt misjudged the reaction to the Clinton videos. He wasn't particularly interested in thinking about justice or fairness when he pushed through broadcasting "secret" grand jury testimony, explicit sexual content and all, as a followon to the lurid overkill of the Starr report. He thought he was delivering the coup de grace, and it didn't turn out that way. Or, he was being professional and non-partisan in the matter. Opinions differ on that, I guess, but tactically, it sure looks like a blunder. |
