Are You Ready For...Vice President Newt Gingrich?

[Mechanicos]

Are You Ready For...Vice President Newt Gingrich?

Guy Benson
|
Posted: May 23, 2016 4:31 PM

Really interesting stuff from National Review's Eliana Johnson, whose latest campaign dispatch sheds light on just how close Newt Gingrich has become with the presumptive Republican nominee -- and how hard the former House Speaker is said to be lobbying behind the scenes for a spot on the ticket. Are you ready for Trump/Gingrich 2016, America?

Gingrich has, in effect, launched his own campaign to secure the nomination. “I think Newt is lobbying to be the vice president, and I think their people are paying a lot of attention to him,” says Ed Rollins, a Republican operative and former Gingrich staffer now working for a super PAC supporting Trump’s candidacy. “It’d be a ticket with six former wives, kind of like a Henry VIII thing,” Rollins says. “They certainly understand women.” Trump’s search for a vice-presidential nominee is underway. The campaign confirmed last week that it had tapped veteran Washington lawyer A. B. Culvahouse to vet potential nominees, and Bloomberg News reported earlier this month that Gingrich is among a handful of people Trump is considering...“I don’t know two other people who can command more media attention than Newt Gingrich and Donald Trump,” says Rick Tyler, who served as Gingrich’s campaign spokesman in 2012. For Trump, Tyler says, naming Gingrich vice president would simply be “doubling down on an already successful strategy: keeping your enemies constantly on defense, constantly off balance, constantly explaining themselves. Newt knows how to do that.”

Let's just pretend Rollins' sarcastic (I hope?) "they certainly understand women" comment never happened, and instead focus on Johnson's details regarding how Gingrich has ingratiated himself with Trump's inner circle, effectively assuming the role of a deeply-trusted daily adviser:

Gingrich has a reputation for insinuating himself into campaigns by firing off dozens of e-mails brimming with ideas that range from brilliant to insane. While it’s a quality that has irritated previous presidential candidates such as John McCain and Mitt Romney, sources say that Trump has come to value the former speaker’s opinions. “They talk every day,” says a source familiar with the relationship, who claims that Gingrich e-mails Trump, campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and campaign manager Corey Lewandowski “countless times a day.”...Gingrich’s influence within Trump World is widespread. Inside Trump’s newly established campaign offices in Washington, D.C., his fingerprints are everywhere. “Right from the minute I joined we were told that Newt will have his hand in every major policy effort,” says one Trump aide. “So one of the things I do when I’m researching or writing anything, in addition to looking at what Trump has said about anything, I look at what Newt has said.”

Though the tidbits and speculation about Newt supposedly maneuvering to emerge victorious in the Veepstakes chase is certainly interesting, Allahpundit is right that the biggest piece of real news out of this piece is that Newt Gingrich is, and has been, playing a fairly major role within the Trump campaign. That's something worth keeping in mind whenever he's seen offering "independent" analysis -- sometimes tellingly obsequious -- on television or over social media. The apparent reality that Newt and Trump speak every day is also newsworthy. If the bolded comment above from a campaign aide is representative, and Team Trump really is relying heavily on Gingrich for guidance on "every major policy effort," that insight could be reassuring to some conservative Trump skeptics. Though Newt is infamous for wandering off the reservation from time to time -- in ways both ludicrous and troubling -- he's generally viewed as a genuine ideas-based conservative. If Trump is willing to afford the former Speaker a major seat at the policy table, if not a perch at the head of said table, that may help reassure recalcitrant righties that a true believer is set to play an outsized role in steering the Good Ship Trump.  To wit, via the NRO story: "On Friday, the source says Gingrich sent five messages after lunch, musing on everything from Fox host Megyn Kelly’s interview with Trump to Trump’s recently announced list of potential Supreme Court nominees to ideas for targeting Bernie Sanders’ voters."

Therein lies the appeal of Gingrich as a potential Vice President, should Trump be elected. As for his utility as a running mate, that's a bit murkier. A Trump/Gingrich ticket would be historically undisciplined as far as campaign messaging is concerned. Perhaps the barely-controlled chaos would play well. Maybe it'd be an epic trainwreck.  One thing is clear: Trump is not remotely averse to following his gut and taking astronomical, almost unthinkable, political risks.  Teaming up with Newt Gingrich could end up being one of them.  To call that ticket "flawed" would be to refer to the Titanic as "no longer operational."  But considering who the two individuals poised to capture their respective parties' nominations are, it seems like "unprecedentedly flawed" is all the hotness with American voters this cycle.  Of course, it sometimes feels like virtually anyone could beat this person.  She's so bad at this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8u_6b7D6Reo

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2016/05/23/are-you-ready-forvice-president-newt-gingrich-n2167555

[Relic]

I think she posts on TBR.

[Hoodat]

[RedHead]

“They certainly understand women.”

I think if that were true they wouldn't have six marriages between them.

[sinkspur]

Six marriages, 550 pounds, and 143 years of old white dude. 

Trying for the millenial vote.

[Oceander]

Would Newt play Cheney to Trump's GWB?

[Maj. Bill Martin]

Sure, Newt is an old fat white guy.  Not a help.

Newt's primary value as a running mate is that Trump is more likely to listen to him than to anyone else, and God knows Trump could use with taking some advice.  I don't think Gingrich as VP itself is as much the attraction as it is Gingrich making Trump himself a better candidate, and perhaps a better President as well.  Maybe that would happen even if Newt wasn't the VP, but anything that can rein Trump in a bit is a positive.

Would Newt play Cheney to Trump's GWB?

That's a good comparison.

[ExFreeper]

“It’d be a ticket with six former wives, kind of like a Henry VIII thing,” Rollins says. “They certainly understand women.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjTpd7kUGdk

    For some time now Gingrich has been stumping for Trump behind the scenes, on Capitol Hill and elsewhere. Last week in a closed-door meeting before more than 100 Republican chiefs of staff from the House and Senate in Baltimore, Gingrich raved about the Republican frontrunner, calling him a “blue-collar bar room brawler.”

    Gingrich touted Trump’s business successes in New York City, such as the skating rink in Central Park and the Ferry Point Golf Course, as evidence that the businessman would know how to run a political campaign—and, quite possibly, the country.

    “[The] guy who knows how to run Miss Universe, The Apprentice, Trump Towers, construction, golf courses, casinos, ties… hotels,” Gingrich bragged, according to a chief in the room and confirmed by The Daily Beast. “A guy who runs that every morning—you think he can’t run a presidential campaign?

    “You should study Trump and apply it to your member,” [WHOA. WAIT A F***ING MINUTE. YOU WANT ME TO APPLY TRUMP TO MY MEMBER?] Gingrich said. “There’s a lot to learn here which you can take back to your member’s office.”
    …
    Gingrich and Trump have had multiple political strategy conversations over the past year, as Gingrich dispensed advice to the man who has become the Republican Party’s likely presidential nominee. It illustrates the continued bromance between the insider politician and the outsider rabble-rouser as the latter inches closer to a general election showdown with Hillary Clinton.
    Gingrich and Trump came face to face again this Monday, when a small, core group of Capitol Hill Trump backers and potential backers huddled at the D.C. offices of law firm Jones Day. It wasn’t a policy discussion as much as an opportunity for those assembled to meet Trump.

    Newt offered some commentary to the group, a source familiar with the meeting said. And there was some talk around the notion of how various politicians might come to endorse Trump and when—but not explicitly when Gingrich might formally endorse, if he ever does.

    “I don’t think there’s any surprise that [Newt is] backing Trump—whether he’s doing it publicly or from the sidelines,” according the source.

Revealed: Newt Gingrich’s Secret Campaign for Donald Trump

[libertybele]

Gingrich is brilliant; but he has way too much baggage.  He lost the last election and he stepped down as Speaker.  I think he would make a good advisor to Trump ... but the VP slot...not so much.

[Chosen Daughter]

No, never liked him.

[Polly Ticks]

Is he auditioning for the job based on the size of his hand?

[roamer_1]

meh.

[Henry Noel]

Does Gingrich really want to act as kiss-ass to a liberal?

[BuckeyeTexan]

I'm in on Gingrich. He is exactly what Trump needs. If Trump is listening to him, that gives me some much needed reassurance.

[kevindavis007]

Wow two blowhards on the same ticket

[MBB1984]

Gingrich adds much to the Trump ticket.  He is smart, experienced and Washington savvy.  He is well connected.  The downside is his age and baggage, though "baggage" increasingly seems to be an irrelevant issue in America.  Overall, I think he would make a solid choice for VP.

[DiogenesLamp]

Are You Ready For...Vice President Newt Gingrich?

Sure.   

[Bigun]

Does Gingrich really want to act as kiss-ass to a liberal?

They are perfect for each other! Gingrich doesn't have any core beliefs either!

[MACVSOG68]

Gingrich is brilliant; but he has way too much baggage.  He lost the last election and he stepped down as Speaker.  I think he would make a good advisor to Trump ... but the VP slot...not so much.

Good post.  Newt could possibly have been president but for his own screwups.  His knowledge of history, economics, political science and how Washington works could make him an excellent advisor.  But no, he adds nothing to the ticket as a VP. 

[chae]

Yeah, I remember him snuggling on a couch with Nancy Pelosi talking about the seriousness of global warming.
He does have experience berating conservatives to shut up and vote for everyone with an "R" behind their name regardless of whether they are conservative or not.  I'm thinking that in the middle of the election Trump is going to pull a "DeeDee Scozfava" and endorse Hilary.

[EasyAce]

Good post.  Newt could possibly have been president but for his own screwups.  His knowledge of history, economics, political science and how Washington works could make him an excellent advisor.  But no, he adds nothing to the ticket as a VP.

Nothing but another big government voice:

Gingrich is almost universally associated with opposition to big government. But that
was not actually the case. Gingrich rhetorically criticised big government. And it served his
enemies in the Clinton administration to portray Gingrich as slashing government programs.
The Gingrich-inspired "Contract with America" was generally seen as a call for smaller govern-
ment although it did not actually call for cutting a single government program. (The closest
it came was a call for zero-baseline budgeting.)

Actually, Gingrich opposed bureaucratic government---inefficient government---not big
government per se. As Gingrich said in 1994, "government plays a huge role" in society and
"anybody who believes in the American Constitution ought to believe in a fairly strong
government." He went on to say that he has "no particular beef with big government." Or,
as he has said more recently, if the bureaucracies can be reformed and made more
efficient, "the country could get excited about the opportunity to make government
work."

That is not to say that Gingrich and his followers would not like to see a smaller govern-
ment. Many changes they support would indeed reduce government bureaucracies. But
in the end, Gingrichism means "recognising that even a relatively small federal or state
government will be much bigger than anything the Founding Fathers could have dreamed
of" . . .

Make government institutions "efficient" and all else will fall into place. "As a country we
can give people better lives through better solutions by bringing government into
conformity with the enterpreneurial systems they are experiencing in the private sector."
The issue is not how big government is or how much it spends; it is whether we have
"the systems architecture that would spend it intelligently." Traditional conservatives
want the government simply to do less. But Gingrich and his fellow technophiles
believe that the right systems architecture will enable the government to provide "greater
goods and services at lower and lower costs."

This attitude gave Gingrich conservatism its appearance of optimism. Rather than being
against big government, Gingrich could be for reform. "We need to move from a 'no,
because' to a 'yes, if' approach to government policy." Former representative Vin Weber,
one of Gingrich's followers, has also sounded the call for reforming government, rather
than cutting it:

Conservatives have to do better than simply bash government. We
have to lead the way toward reform of government. We need to look at the whole
government and think about how to empower the consumers of government
benefits, rather the bureaucracy. Conservatives who simply look to abolish
agencies are going to be disappointed, but conservative reformers still have an
open field.

Thus one could say of Gingrich's conservatism, "while this view did indeed see the
federal government as the source of many of the nation's troubles, it did not hold
that the problem was federal power as such. Change those wielding federal power,
and the power could be harnessed to the ends of conservative reform". . .

Gingrich once called for abolishing the Department of Education, but he has since
become an enthusiastic supporter of federal government involvement in education. He
endorsed President Clinton's plan for the federal government to finance 100,000 new
teachers and called for the government to provide Internet access to all Americans
and computers to every four-year-old. He has proposed paying students for taking
difficult math and science courses.

Energy policy is another area where Gingrich . . . support(s) massive government inter-
vention. Gingrich strongly supports the Bush administration's investment in trying to
build hydrogen-powered vehicles. But that's only the start. He would support a host
of public-private partnerships, investments in alternative fuels, and conservation
measures. Almost anything goes, as long as it involves new technology . . .

(F)ar from leading conservatism back to the philosophy of Reagan and Goldwater,
Gingrich's ideas for a technocratic, efficient, and bigger federal government have
helped drive it toward the big-government conservatism that drives it today.

---From Michael Tanner, in Leviathan on the Right: How Big Government Conservatism
Brought Down the Republican Revolution (Washington: Cato Institute, 2007.)

Mr. Tanner cited, among other documents, Gingrich's own foreword to Alvin and Heidi
Toffler's Creating a New Civilisation: The Politics of the Third Wave (Gingrich
himself was so influenced by The Third Wave* he made it mandatory reading
for new Republican Congressmen while he was Speaker of the House); two Gingrich
essays published in The Wall Street Journal in 2001; a feature on Gingrich in
Washington Technology's January 1995 issue; a Gingrich speech to the
American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2000; Tod Lindberg's analysis "Gin-
grich Lost and Found" in Policy Review (the April-May 1999 issue); and, Gingrich's
speech to the American Enterprise Institute in February 2005.

(*---In case you were wondering, in The Third Wave Alvin Toffler said the Constitution
"is increasingly obsolete, and hence increasingly, if inadvertently, oppressive and danger-
ous to our welfare" and, thus, ought to "die and be replaced." That from the book Gingrich
once called "the seminal work of our time," the book he made mandatory reading for newly-
elected Republicans during his Speakership.)

[Hoodat]

Newt could possibly have been president but for his own screwups.

That and his complete lack of leadership ability.  Oh, and his willingness to accept the Clinton lie that the budget was actually balanced in the late '90s.  It wasn't.

Noot calls himself a 'Wilsonian progressive'.  He thinks that FDR was the greatest President this nation ever had.  And he has lived inside the Beltway for the last 37 years.  Can't get more establishment than that.  He and Trump would be a perfect fit.  Two asshats.

[MACVSOG68]

That and his complete lack of leadership ability.  Oh, and his willingness to accept the Clinton lie that the budget was actually balanced in the late '90s.  It wasn't.

Noot calls himself a 'Wilsonian progressive'.  He thinks that FDR was the greatest President this nation ever had.  And he has lived inside the Beltway for the last 37 years.  Can't get more establishment than that.  He and Trump would be a perfect fit.  Two asshats.

Can't agree with you that Newt hasn't demonstrated leadership ability.  He did author the Contract With America and pushed a number of bills in support of that.  As for the budget, the fact remains that for about eight years, deficits decreased each year, and there were four years where revenues were greater than expenditures including off-budget items.  But his personal issues and big mouth brought him down as a viable candidate.  Trump would not be well advised to offer him a VP slot, but could certainly use his expertise and experience in an advisory capacity. 

[TomSea]

Between the two, per Bryan Fischer, they've had 6 wives. So, how is that for family values? I'm not knocking Newt, I've always liked him in fact.  But it is a good point.

[MACVSOG68]

Between the two, per Bryan Fischer, they've had 6 wives. So, how is that for family values? I'm not knocking Newt, I've always liked him in fact.  But it is a good point.

Couldn't agree more with you.  He made a mess out of his personal life.