Tag: newt gingrich

Did the VA GOP change the rules on primary ballot access in November 2011?

Apparently, yes.

Richard Winger over at Ballot Access News has an EXTREMELY interesting post (link via here) on the mess that the Virginia Republican party has found itself in over… access to the ballot in Virginia. For those coming in late, background here and here: the very short version is that the VA GOP only certified Mitt Romney and Ron Paul for its primary ballot.  Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich both had too many signatures tossed; Jon Huntsman, Rick Santorum, and Michele Bachmann didn’t even try.  Of the seven candidates, one (Romney) had more than enough signatures (15K) to bypass the verification process entirely.  All of this has caused a lot of agitation among Republicans following the primary process, of course; and not just from people who disapprove of what the VA GOP has done.  There has been a good deal of defending of the outcome; and one argument heavily used in this defense has been that the campaigns all knew the rules and that previous Republican campaigns were able to get on the ballot, so clearly a competent current Republican campaign should have done so.

One small problem with that: as Winger argues, the rules were allegedly drastically changed.  In November of this year. Continue reading Did the VA GOP change the rules on primary ballot access in November 2011?

Nancy Pelosi retreating from insinuations of new dirt on Newt Gingrich.

http://weaselzippers.us/2011/12/05/pelosi-on-second-thought-maybe-i-dont-have-any-dirt-on-gingrich/

For those who missed it:

Continue reading Nancy Pelosi retreating from insinuations of new dirt on Newt Gingrich.

#rsrh Manchester Union-Leader endorses Newt Gingrich.

Big get for Team Gingrich; problematical for Team Romney, given that the New Hampshire paper spent a good portion of the time between its 2007 endorsement of John McCain and the New Hampshire primary going after Mitt Romney… to Romney’s eventual cost.  Now, the numbers are a bit different between then and now; Romney’s in a noticeably better position.  Whether that survives a reprise of 2008 cycle is another question entirely.

But do note: the Union-Leader doesn’t have a notable track record in picking candidates.  Although I don’t know why I’m bothering to tell you that: given their past sledgehammer-the-fly track record when it comes to pushback on bad news, Team Romney will end up using a fifty-foot laser cannon to inscribe that fact on the surface of the moon…

#rsrh Newt Gingrich’s turn in the barrel.

I want to address this comment by Ed Morrissey about Gingrich’s recent rise in the polls as the latest iteration of the anti-Romney… actually, let me stop and note something: if Team Romney is not yet worried about the fact that NOTHING seems to get their candidate above the mid-twenties, then they need to start worrying.  At least a little.

Anyway, Ed wrote this, on why it may not be a smart idea for Teams Not-Newt to unload on the former Speaker:

…Gingrich has played very graciously with everyone else in this race, and going negative on Newt might have a high risk of backfire.

Hoo, yeah.  To put it mildly.

Continue reading #rsrh Newt Gingrich’s turn in the barrel.

#rsrh A friendly message to Republican campaign operatives.

Do not give tell-all exposes to the Daily Beast (safe link) about imploding campaigns*, please: the Daily Beast hates Republicans, and wishes us all to die in fires.  Even if they did not, we will have quite enough on our plate in the 2012 election without having to worry about tattle-tales, and right now all those indiscreet staffers have done is potentially make Governor Rick Perry look bad, assuming he runs and assuming he hires them en masse.  Which I am more or less thinking that he shouldn’t, unless he can work out which person among Gingrich’s staff went crying to the Left.  So the rest of all y’all should try to remember that you’re professionals, and act accordingly.

Thank you in advance for your compliance in this matter.

Moe Lane

Via AoSHQ Headlines.

*Even Newt Gingrich’s.  Even though I could care less whether he’s running or not.  It’s the principle of the thing.

#rsrh I got no beef with Newt Gingrich running.

But this is apparently not an universal sentiment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDQdraiUj0M&feature=player_embedded#at=102

…and while I certainly would have been much more polite about it, I’m with Ace of Spades (H/T) on this one: ouch.  Not surprising, though: these days, Paul Ryan is more or less bulletproof among the base.  We may not agree that he should run for PotUS or even WI-SEN, but Ryan is definitely showing some moxie.

Newt Gingrich endorses Michael Williams for Texas Senate.

Now that I may comment: former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has endorsed Michael Williams for Kay Bailey Hutchison’s soon-vacant Senate seat. It’s a strong endorsement, too (that link also leads to contribution information)

Having been a part of the last effort to retake the congressional majority, I am convinced we don’t have to wait 40 years this time to regain power. Democrats in Congress offer the same old, tired recipe of Democrats past — big government hand-outs, bloated bureaucracy and big-time deficit spending.

The kind of change they offer is simply a return to the discarded practices of the pre-Reagan era.

Our problem is not Americans are newly attracted to Democrat ideas, but that Republicans simply failed to live up to their own ideas.

Let me illustrate my point this way: while conservatives continue to embrace the conservative label, liberals have been re-marketing themselves as progressives. You can call a used car pre-owned all you want, but I will be just as worried about the engine going out.

We do not need to change our ideas, we need to live up to them. And when I talk about modernizing the Republican brand, I mean using tried and true Republicans principles in new ways to solve new problems.

The key to building a new Republican Majority is not simply branding Democrat policies as the destructive and discredited ideas of the past…but offering real alternatives that meet Americans where they are. And offering new leaders not bogged down by the old fights of the last decade.

We need conservatives willing to engage the Democrats on the field of ideas…willing to speak of a 21st Century conservatism…willing to stand and fight on principle. We need leaders like Michael Williams.

The full endorsement is at Michael’s site.  And, obviously, I agree.

Moe Lane

Full disclosure: I am in regular contact with the Michael Williams campaign, and I endorse him as a replacement to Senator Hutchison, once she resigns her Senate seat.

Crossposted to RedState.