Important Update: The Entire Gingrich Special Order NRO Used To Attack Newt

Update: While I continue to suggest people read it all and make up their own minds, I took a part from very early in to highlight in bold below. Now you tell me, was Newt criticizing Reagan, or members of the administration? More importantly, why did the editor of NRO, Rich Lowry ignore the obvious context of the item prior to allowing it to be published?

Given all the to do over a dispute between Jeff Lord and this post of his at AmSpec and Rich Lowry at NRO piling on after the original post by Elliot Abrams, here is the entire special order upon which Abram's attack was based. Read it and decide for yourself.

"Sincere, decent, committed anti-Communist Members of the House and Senate who question $100 million in aid to the Nicaraguan freedom fighters and ask in vain for a strategy are fundamentally right. The Reagan administration has a huge gap between its President's correct visionary warnings of the transnational Soviet empire and the rest of the executive branch's incorrect, ineffective fumblings and inadequacies."

REFERENCE: Vol. 132 No. 36

TITLE: FREEDOM'S FUTURE: THE FREE WORLD AND THE SOVIET EMPIRE

SPEAKER: Mr. GINGRICH; Mr. WEAVER

TEXT: The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Georiga [Mr. Gingrich] is recognized for 60 minutes.

Mr. GINGRICH. Mr. Speaker, this special order and one other which will follow is on freedom's future, the free world and the Soviet empire.

I want to focus on the reality of the Soviet empire, the Soviet transnational threat to freedom and security and the necessity for a sophisticated free-world response led by the United States.

Comments

[GlockLady]

Thank you Dan!

[Reaganite Republican]

The NRO's piece seems to assume Reagan owned the Contras, and anything said against the way the effort was managed is a direct attack upon him... or they'd like you to believe that. Yet in fact, Carter had already spend $1M funded the Nicaraguan opposition by the time Reagan came to office. So Gingrich asked for a strategy and end-game apparently... isn't he supposed to ask questions before voting for spending?

But Newt ONLY said the White House staff was screwing it up- well, the Sandinistas were NOT toppled... Iran-Contra caused the administration (particularly Meese and North) a LOT of grief... and many of the weapons were sold by Contras to COMMUNIST rebels in nearby El Salvador.

All Gingrich was saying was he agreed with RR's goals and vision, but his staff was unlikely to delivery victory for us from what he'd seen so far.

Seems he was right, or at least right to ask... no?

[sickofrinos]

Will the romneybots read this or even care.
I am confused as to what the republican party is about.
I find myself despising most republicans and all dems.

[Anna]

Beulah just tweeted a great article by Steve Baldwin, former chair of the Right to Life Caucus.

"A Case Against Mitt Romney"

http://stevedeace.com/news/iowa-politics/the-case-against-mitt-romney/

Here is an interesting excerpt:

"Romney gave money to conservative publications as well. When in 2008 I criticized National Review for accepting $,5000 from Romney and called this a conflict of interest, NR editor Richard Lowry responded that since the money went to the National Review Institute, there really wasn’t a conflict. Hmm… the same people control both entities, so his argument didn’t fly with me, but Lowry also claimed NR would not endorse a candidate anyhow. But endorse they did and NR placed Romney on its December, ‘07 cover, and boldly claimed he was a conservative superstar. NR and NRO then spent much of the ’08 campaign publishing a slew of inaccurate pro-Romney pieces while ignoring several big stories that portrayed Romney in a negative light."

I've often accused the lib media of being so far invested in President Obama that they willfully ignore his obvious failings BECAUSE it would reflect badly on their journalism skills...and each day they look the other way is another day of silence the President has bought from their integrity. Personally, I can't imagine how ethically sick I would feel if I were in their shoes. I see now that 'our' side can get just as 'invested' in a candidate, and 'corrupted' by said investment. I would hope that our side has some shred of maturity / integrity and will admit fault and move on from there. If not, perhaps we have witnessed the birth of the EEM - elite establishment media.

[Ragspierre]

I've defended Abrams many-a-time from slime-attacks over the "neo-con" bullsh!t we hear often.

I have to believe he was duped into this imbroglio, since this is totally out of character for him.

What was the author of this attack thinking? That the world has no memory of Reagan and Gingrich working together? That there is no record?

Or, like the authors of most lies, did they think it would work to at least some extent, and that it could be added to and retold to reach the desired end?

[Ragspierre]

http://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2012/01/27/smearing-newt-taking-names-for-2016/

Yep. Remember who shilled for Mittens.

Not that everyone who supports Romney has acted...unwisely...or wrongly.

Remember those who have.

[Ragspierre]

Of course it is not too late to disregard them now, particularly those who cling to an obsolete linear political model from a generation ago. A candidate does not become more electable the closer they are to the center. Favorable coverage on NBC Nightly News no longer swings elections. In today’s polarized political landscape, the opposite may be true. A candidate that creates no excitement, even if nicely positioned in the non-offensive middle, cannot win. It is a lesson some conservatives have yet to learn, particularly inside the Beltway.
--J. Christian Adams

True, dat.

[Captain Joe]

With all the flack he's receiving, Newt must be directly over the target...The GOP Establishment. They apparently see him as a bigger threat than Obummer. Bombs away, Newt! Clobber 'em.

[Ragspierre]

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/01/were-screwed-florida-ag-pam-bondi-claims-mitt-wants-romneycare-in-every-state-video/

Well...isn't special...

"Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, a Romney supporter, let the cat out of the bag last night. The Florida Republican told Greta Van Susteren that Mitt wants Romneycare in every state.
She also said she would be on Romney’s Health Care Advisory Team when he’s president."

Somebody has some 'splaning to do...

[A Stephens]

Oh Eff me, that's a remarkably disturbing development, and the more I think about it it makes perfect sense. So that the argument Romney likely tries to make with the the mushy middle, the progressives, and the entitlement class is that Republicans are every bit as magnanimous with taxpayer $ as Dems, but that in order to thread the constitutional needle we must do it via the states. And somewhere in that rarefied air they breathe the establishment has convinced themselves that this will pass muster with conservatives.

These weasels have got no freaking clue. Zero. This is why if Romney is the candidate, I'm presently leaning 80/20 toward not voting at all on the presidential ballot. Republican progressives will lead the country down the same exact path as Democrats. Better to let them take the beating they deserve and hopefully turn them out altogether as we attempt to right the ship of state by first righting the course of the Republican party.

[OCBill]

There's at least one honest Romney surrogate, Pam Bondi, the Florida AG. She was forthright enough to announce on television Romney's plan to push for RomneyCare in all 50 states.

Details at TheGatewayPundit.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/01/were-screwed-florida-ag-pam-bondi-claims-mitt-wants-romneycare-in-every-state-video/

I guess that's because it's worked so well in Massachusetts.

[Ragspierre]

This would sort of explain why Romney is unrepentant...indeed, downright defensive...about RomneyCare.

He thinks it is swell. (After all, 2/3 of Massive-two-spits people polled like it...or so he claims...)