Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is warning fellow Republicans that conservatives may leave the GOP for a third party in 2012. Gingrich: GOP-ers may form third party – Andy Barr – POLITICO.com
“If the Republicans can’t break out of being the right wing party of big government, then I think you would see a third party movement in 2012,” Gingrich said Wednesday during a speech at the College of the Ozarks in Missouri, the local television station KY3 reported.
Gingrich thrashed Republicans for allowing increased spending during the Bush administration and for not doing enough to block President Barack Obama’s early initiatives.
“Remember, everything Obama's doing, Bush started last year,” Gingrich said. “If you're going to talk about big spending, the mistakes of the Bush administration last year are fully as bad as the mistakes of Obama's first two, three months.”
Like there is any kind of a national hue and cry for Newt Gingrich to be president -"oh please Newt, come back, we need you!" Right. Has this guy got a super-sized ego or what? I can't understand why this washed up political hack is still invited as a guest on political talk shows. The villagers in the beltway media still have a jones on for this guy. He must serve premium booze at his cocktail parties.
To get ready for his presidential run in 2012 on his own third party ticket, Newt Gingrich has decided to convert to Catholicism (his "present" wife is a Catholic). Huh, say what? I was raised a Catholic and I am pretty sure that the Catholic Church still frowns on divorce, and Gingrich is twice divorced. The Church does recognize grounds for annulment, however, but for average Catholics this can be a long and difficult process, and annulment is not always granted. Unless of course you happen to be a semi-famous person or have lots of money. Then you might be able to obtain a Dispensation from canon law, i.e., a suspension of the rules. It gets a little crazy, just like the rules in the Senate.
Christopher Buckley (the son of the late conservative icon William F. Buckley) over at The Daily Beast explains:
He and Mother Church—from whose tender embrace I myself have regrettably lapsed—will both be made out to be appalling hypocrites. Who among us should throw stones? But Mr. Gingrich’s marital history is a matter of public record, and it is not tidy. He first married at age 19, to his 26-year-old former high-school geometry teacher and then, so the story goes, presented her with divorce terms after she was wheeled out of cancer surgery.
Mrs. Gingrich #2 was dumped after her husband had carried on an extramarital affair with a fetching, blond congressional staffer named Callista Bisek, who went on to become the present Mrs. Gingrich #3. This Family Values paradigm was complicated by the fact that whilst Mr. Gingrich was filibustering Ms. Bisek over the Speaker’s desk, he was simultaneously leading the impeachment charge against a naughty president of the United States.
To be sure, Mr. Gingrich has since been at pains to emphasize that it was not Mr. Clinton’s naughtiness that he minded, but his perjury. Well, OK, but really, sir. As the noble Rochefoucauld taught us, “Hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue.”
As for Mother Church, she’ll come in for drubbing this weekend for seeming two-faced about the sanctity of marriage. As you know, divorce is still not allowed in the Catholic Church. But here insert a large “however”—she is liberal in the granting of annulments.
Mrs. Gingrich #2 publicly ventilated her displeasure back in 2000 after she received a letter from the Archdiocese of Atlanta informing her that her marriage was being annulled—that is, rendered ex post facto invalid—on the grounds of “ligamen.” She had been married previously, so in the eyes of the church her marriage to Mr. Gingrich simply did not take place.
Mother Church can be rigid, but at times—bless her—she can think like a $700-an-hour K Street lawyer.
* * *
The stated reason for it is that he wishes to worship alongside his wife, who is described on her husband’s Web site as “a devoted Catholic.” To the extent her devotedness is assessed alongside her early relationship with the then-married Mr. Gingrich, it should be borne in mind that to be “devoted” is not the same as being “perfect”: She is “a member of the choir of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.” She has sung for a pope. And, to judge from her photos of a Barry Manilow concert in Las Vegas—you can view the slideshow for yourself—is a capable amateur photographer.
Her singing, along with the prominence of her husband, the most high-level R.C. “catch” since Tony Blair, will doubtless bring her into continued contact with present and future vicars of Rome. I’d give another year’s salary—or ten thousand more years in Purgatory—to listen in on those audiences.
Maybe Newt will name his third party the "Family Values Party." Why stop being a hypocrite now? Newt's confession must have been one barn burner, and his penance must have been a bear: "go say 1 million Hail Mary's and come back to see me when you're done; we'll see if it takes more to pray the devil out of you my son."