Ever wondered what the opposite of an endorsement is? It’s this letter from Bob Dole on Thursday, blasting Newt Gingrich five days before the Florida primary.
Dole calls Gingrich a “one-man band who rarely took advice,” who “had a new idea every minute and most of them were off the wall.” He writes that “if we want to avoid an Obama landslide in November, Republicans should nominate Governor Romney as our standard bearer.”
But the climax comes in a shining sentence that beggars description. During Dole’s run for president in 1996:
“Newt would show up at the campaign headquarters with an empty ice-bucket in his hand — that was a symbol of some sort for him — and I never did know what he was doing or why he was doing it.”
What?
First Newt’s landing on the moon. Then he’s wandering around to Bob Dole’s campaign headquarters with symbolic empty ice buckets. Or maybe this is just a nightmare Bob Dole had that he’s trying to exorcise through letter-writing.
I have no idea what this means. I suspect Bob Dole does not either.
The trouble with Newt is that you can say a thing like this and everyone who reads it will nod understandingly. “Seems like the Newt I know,” they mutter. This is a man who wanted to put mirrors in space to light the streets. An empty ice bucket? A symbol? Of what? Why? Who on earth knows! Dole doesn’t. Neither does anyone else.
“I never did know what he was doing or why he was doing it.”
It is a sentence that only Bob Dole could have uttered, but it captures the Gingrich problem pretty well.
Some people find this quality in Gingrich impressive. Most — Dole included — find it troubling.
Let’s see what Florida thinks.
Alexandra Petri is a member of The Washington Post’s editorial staff.
What is the Holy Cow of Politics? What is wrong with the Primaries?
Too many of the Voters’ decisions are not based on wisdom but on simplemindedness and folly.
Voters are the holy cow in democracies.
I have not heard anybody among the elite criticize them. The media focuses on their ratings, business on their profits and politicians on their votes. I have not heard anyone say that the voters are responsible for the policies in Washington. Only the governments or the liberal or conservative policies have failed.
But who elected them? Politicians who want to get the majority of votes are forced to pay attention to the will of informed, simple minded and foolish voters.
Who dares to speak the truth. The mess in the USA is caused primarily by voters.
Stand up for the truth and make the voters an issue. As long as they do not change, policies in Washington will not change either.
Watch: German preacher’s thoughts on 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpLYq525SpM
Read up on the electoral college, and why the founding fathers put it in place. It will answer a lot of what you are saying.
The audacity of Gingrich defies words. How could Gingrich, who’s own party forced him to quit the Speaker’s post, think he has a chance at the presidency? He is a liar, a cheat, a hypocrite, and the foremost proponent of the GOP Contract with America for which we are still suffering a dysfunctional congress. Good grief, go home Gingrich!
Romney calls Gingrich an unstable, influence peddler, who is dishonest and unprincipled. Gingrich tells us that Romney is a double talking flip flopper who is solely interested in the advancement of Mitt Romney. I agree with both of them.
Agreed.
I’m not much of a Gingrich fan (Gary Johnson, running as a Libertarian, is more my guy), but my gosh, doesn’t Gingrich inspire the Republican establishment’s losers to a firmness they never achieved while running? McCain, and now Dole… the Earth trembles.
….
Romney is a Luddite
Newt knows that we need to go the Moon, Mars and betond
Newt will be the President who starts the ball rolling
We need a 21st Century President not a Luddite like Romney
Before there was the “Oracle at Delphi” there was Count Vampire J. MachiavelliVJ MachiavelliPower to the People who “VOTE”
And I think Ron Paul is a Luddite (or a No Nothing, or something else 19th Century).
I am shocked. Just utterly amazed. It seems so unlikely it is almost impossible to believe. I mean… Bob Dole is still alive?
Gingrich is kind of in the same boat as Ron Paul, I like what they say for about two minutes, then they say something that completely throws me off.