Sucks Up To Evangelicals, Blows Off Palin, Blows Up Courts
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In an interview with Christianity Today, Newt Gingrich tried to position himself as the savior of the GOP.
Here’s an overview and analysis:
Politics
Question: “Who do you see as the emerging leaders in the Republican Party: Bobby Jindal, Sarah Palin?”
Answer: Gingrich mentioned Jindal, Pawlenty, Sanford, Ryan, McCarthy, Cantor, Kasich, Portman. All men.
Question: “Do you see any women emerging in the GOP Â leadership?”
Answer: Linda Lingle, Kay Bailey Hutchinson. (Notice who’s missing?)
Question: “You didn’t mention Sarah Palin.”
Answer: “I think to go from being a celebrity to becoming a national leader would take a significant amount of work.”
Gay Marriage
Question: “Can you give a political assessment of where we are headed on abortion and same-sex marriage?”
Answer: “I think on traditional marriage, it’s likely to be a long, complex struggle with the courts making it, I think, worse, because they are intervening without regard to popular opinion.”
Now, put on your letterman sweater and think back to high school Social Studies, or History, or whatever your civics class was called and remember one simple little fact: courts aren’t supposed to make decisions based on “popular opinion”. Courts are supposed to make decisions based on the law. Evidently, under a Gingrich presidency, we would all just be able to voice our opinions and the courts would listen and then decide cases. Perhaps he would just nationalize The Gallup Organization, or, better yet, Republican-friendly Rasmussen. Maybe under Gingrich, we could all vote on malpractice and murder cases by watching Court TV.
Question: “How does your faith impact your policies?”
Answer: “If you truly try to understand what God wants, and truly try to do what God wants, that has to impact how you behave.” Hahahahahaha! Seriously? Now, remember for a moment how Gingrich’s understanding of “what God wants” has impacted how he has behaved. As I’ve written earlier, according to PBS’ award-winning program Frontline and author Gail Sheehy:
While recovering in her hospital bed from cancer surgery, Gingrich told his wife he was divorcing her.
In the front seat of a car, in front of a neighbor and Gingrich’s own young daughters, Newt had oral sex without interrupting once discovered.
Gingrich, now on his third wife, has had countless affairs, including with a canpaign staffer and a neighbor’s wife.
While prosecuting President Bill Clinton on charges of impeachment for lying about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, Gingrich himself was engaged in an extra-marital affair.
Question: “You recently started an organization called Renewing American Leadership. What gave you this interest in religious liberty?”
Answer: “I think it’s at the heart of America’s system. If you start with the first great document that made us a country, it is the Declaration of Independence, which says that we are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The very founding of the country had in its initial belief that God grants us certain rights, they are unalienable, and that no one can take them from us.”
What Gingrich is really saying here is that his definition of “religious liberty” is, according to him, God has granted him and Christians the “unalienable right” to practice religion in the manner they see fit, regardless of how that practice impacts others. Religious liberty, in Gingrich’s mind, is the only topic in the Declaration of Independence.
He should read it some day.
(image: ajagendorf25)