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ORIGINAL RESEARCHBill Berkowitz Newt Gingrich's back door to the White HouseAmerican Enterprise Institute "Scholar" and former House Speaker blames media for poll showing 64 percent of the American people wouldn't vote for him under any circumstancesWhatever it is that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has come to represent in American politics, the guy is nothing less than fascinating. One day he's espousing populist rhetoric about the need to cut the costs of college Late last year Gingrich declared that the First Amendment must be reconsidered because of the threat of terrorism These days, Gingrich, who is simultaneously a "Senior Fellow" at the American Enterprise Institute and a "Distinguished Visiting Fellow" at the Hoover Institution, is making like your favorite uncle, fronting a YouTube video contest offering "prizes" to whoever creates the best two-minute video on why taxes suck. Although the prizes may not be particularly attractive to the typical YouTuber, nevertheless Gingrich recently launched the "Winning the Future, Goose that laid the Golden Egg, You Tube Contest." According to Newt.org, participants are to "Create a 120 second video explaining why tax increases will hurt the American economy, leading to less revenue for the government, not more. Or in other words, explain why we shouldn't cook the goose that laid the golden eggs (the American economy) by raising taxes." Announcing the contest via a short video of his own, Gingrich advised entrants they needed to explain the dangers of a tax increase in terms that "a sixth grade class or a member of Congress" could understand. As of February 20, 2007 20 people had viewed the video, and only seven had signed up for Gingrich's Winning the Future YouTube group. The prizes? The winner will receive a signed copy of the Contract with America and a signed leatherbound copy of Gingrich's book, "Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract with America," published by Regnery two years ago. Although the public hasn't yet flocked to take on Gingrich's challenge, one conservative commentator expressed his delight: "I've got to give Newt credit for using technology -- not just to get his message out -- but to solicit input from all of us" Matt Lewis wrote at TownHall.com. "One of the reasons we encourage comments on this blog is that you never know where the next great idea will come from. By giving up a little control, you often get a better product. That's one of the most amazing things about the internet. Newt gets that." Although he hasn't formerly announced his candidacy -- and he probably won't anytime soon -- Gingrich definitely has his eyes on the White House. He's just still figuring out how he will get there. Over the past several months Gingrich has been ubiquitous on the media and political scenes:
Gingrich's new 527 built on gambling moneyGingrich recently formed a new IRS 527 political group called "American Solutions for Winning the Future." According to longtime Gingrich friend and colleague Matt Towery, the group "received its first significant early contribution of $1 million from" Las Vegas Sands Corporation Chairman Sheldon G. Adelson shortly after the November elections. Adelson's company owns The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino and the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada and the Sands Macao in The People's Republic of China's Special Administrative Region of Macao, as well as Venetian Macao Limited, a developer of additional multiple casino hotel resort properties in Macao. According to the Washington Post, "Adelson was listed by Forbes magazine in 2006 as America's third-richest man, with assets of more than $20 billion. His long list of political donations, primarily to Republicans, includes $100,000 to the Republican National Committee in 1997 and 1998, when Gingrich was speaker." Adelson is a member of the Board of Directors of the Washington, D.C.-based Republican Jewish Coalition, an organization founded in 1985. He shares that honor with several dozen prominent Jewish businessmen and political figures including Ari Fleischer, former White House press secretary; Lewis M. Eisenberg, a long-time Republican activist who has raised millions of dollars for the Republican Party and Republican candidates and was recently elected Finance Chairman of the Republican National Committee; David Frum, a former Bush White House speechwriter and currently a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and the author of five books, including two New York Times bestsellers: "The Right Man: The Surprise Presidency of George W. Bush," and co-author with Richard Perle of "An End to Evil: What's Next in the War on Terror"; Ken Mehlman, former chairman of the Republican National Committee from 2005-2007. The RJC is headed by Matthew Brooks, who serves as Executive Director of both the RJC and the Jewish Policy Center, "a think-tank that examines public policy from a Jewish perspective." According to its website, the RJC "is the sole voice of Jewish Republicans to Republican decision makers and the Jewish community, expressing our viewpoint on a wide variety of issues." In early February, Israel News Agency reported that the Boston, Massachusetts born Adelson -- the world's wealthiest Jew -- and his wife Miriam -- a physician and Israeli native -- donated $25 million to the Taglit-Birthright Israel program (BRI), which "will double to at least 20,000 the number of free summer trips to Israel offered by Birthright Israel this summer." The Birthright program not only generates much needed tourist dollars, it also encourages young Jews from around the world to seriously consider settling in Israel. The Adelsons also recently donated $25 million to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority. In December of last year the Israeli daily Haaretz reported that a new foundation to be established by Adelson "promises to change the face of Jewish philanthropy. The new entity will be a major boon to American and Israeli causes, with a pledge to dole out more than $200 million to Jewish causes annually - the largest-ever pledge by a Jewish foundation." Opening for Gingrich?On the home front, many Republicans appear disappointed with the current crop of declared candidates for the party's presidential nomination. Gingrich thinks the rush to the campaign trail is "stupid." In a mid-February appearance promoting his latest book, Gingrich said "the current process of spending an entire year running in order to spend an entire year running in order to get sworn in in January 2009 is stupid." All the thus-far declared candidates "suck" Erick Erickson, CEO of the Republican blog RedState recently declared at his website. "Let's just admit it. Every one of the thus far announced Republican candidates for President sucks. From the lecherous adulterer [Rudy Giuliani] to the egomaniacal nut job [Senator John McCain] to the flip-flopping opportunist with the perfect hair [former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney] to the guy who hates brown people [Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo] to the guy we've never heard of [California Congressman Duncan Hunter] to the guy who has a better chance of getting hit by a meteor while being consumed by a blue whale being struck by lightening [Kansas Congressman Sam Brownback]." Erickson does show some love for Brownback, who "doesn't suck at all, but" he doesn't think his candidacy has "viability." And that's where Gingrich comes in: Part of me, frankly, wants Newt Gingrich to run. Don't get me wrong (or divorced; my wife can't stand the guy). I don't want the former speaker to actually win. I don't know that I'd trust him with that much power. He is the most articulate, honest defender of conservatism out there. His ideas are bold, they are conservative, and they are good. I don't agree with him on everything, but it would really be nice for him to get out there and pull everyone else to the right, to tell them why they are wrong, and why they are cowards for standing on the shoulder of Reagan while acting like the Manneken Pis [Wikipedia: "little man piss" in English; a Brussels landmark -- a small bronze fountain sculpture depicting a naked little boy urinating into the fountain's basin] on his legacy. Gingrich has also suggested that the six Muslim scholars who were removed from a plane in Minneapolis last year for praying in the airport "should have been arrested and prosecuted for pretending to be terrorists." And before the November elections, Gingrich counseled GOP candidates that they could shake things up by using terms like "World War III" to get the public's juices flowing in their favor. On the same February 18 appearance on "Fox News Sunday," Wallace asked Gingrich to respond to a Fox poll showing that 64 percent of voters wouldn't vote for him under any circumstances and 44 percent of Republicans said the same. "Why do you think that so many voters say Newt Gingrich, forget it? Wallace asked. GINGRICH: Well, there was a column written by Brent Bozell recently about Nancy Pelosi becoming speaker and me becoming speaker. And he contrasted the initial media coverage of the two of us. And if you go back and look -- you know, I had a -- Time magazine savaged me as Scrooge who stole Tiny Tim's broken crutch -- didn't just steal the crutch; I broke it, on the cover of Time. Newsweek had me as the Grinch that stole Christmas. I was a Dr. Seuss figure. Then the Democrats -- I think correctly, strategically -- decided to run 121,000 ads in '95 and '96 attacking me. We adopted a totally different strategy. We thought that instead of defending me, we would defend the majority. And as a result, in 1996 we became the first reelected majority since 1928 for Republicans. In that process, I was badly damaged. I made some mistakes as speaker. And I think the combination of all of that left me, you know, with a fairly high negative. Now, you know, one could argue that says I'm being very wise not to run. Or it could mean that over time, as people get to see what we've done at the Center for Health Transformation, what I've done in national security, what we're doing -- we have a book coming out this fall called Contract With the Earth. It's a conservative entrepreneurial science and technology environmentalism. You know, people may decide that, in fact, they want to take a second look. I'm pretty comfortable relaxing and letting the American people decide, not me. If Gingrich thinks that the reason the vast majority of America voters would never cast their ballot for him under any circumstances is because the liberal media has distorted his record, he needs to take a closer look at his personal behavior, ethical mishaps and political maneuvering. He really doesn't have to look much further than to three days before the polls opened in November 1994: In those heady days before the GOP takeover of Congress, Gingrich jumped on the case of Susan Smith, the South Carolina woman who drowned her two young sons, equating it with the values of the Democratic Party. As reported by the Associated Press, Gingrich said: "The mother killing her two children in South Carolina vividly reminds every American how sick the society is getting and how much we have to have change. I think people want to change and the only way you get change is to vote Republican That's the message for the last three days." sign in, or register to email stories or comment on them.
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MORE ORIGINAL RESEARCHBill Berkowitz PERC receives Templeton Freedom Award for promoting 'enviropreneurs'Right Wing foundation-funded anti-environmental think tank grabbing a wider audience for 'free market environmentalism' On the 15th anniversary of Terry Anderson and Donald Leal's book "Free Market Environmentalism" -- the seminal book on the subject -- Anderson, the Executive Director of the Bozeman, Montana-based Property and Environment Research Center (PERC - formerly known as the Political Economy Research Center) spoke in late-January at an event sponsored by Squaw Valley Institute at the Resort at Squaw Creek in California. While it may have been just another opportunity to speak on "free market environmentalism" and not the kickoff of a "victory tour," nevertheless it comes at a time when PERC's ideas are taking root.
Bill Berkowitz Neil Bush of Saudi ArabiaDuring recent visit, President’s brother describes the country as a 'kind of tribal democracy' In late February, only a few days after Saudi Arabia beheaded four Sri Lankan robbers and then left their headless bodies on public display in the capital of Riyadh, Neil Bush, for the fourth time in the past six years, showed up for the country's Jeddah Economic Forum. The Guardian reported that Human Rights Watch "said the four men had no lawyers during their trial and sentencing, and were denied other basic legal rights." In an interview with Arab News, the Saudi English language paper, Bush described the country as "a kind of tribal democracy."
Bill Berkowitz American Enterprise Institute takes lead in agitating against IranDespite wrongheaded predictions about the war on Iraq, neocons are on the frontlines advocating military conflict with Iran After doing such a bang up job with their advice and predictions about the outcome of the war on Iraq, would it surprise you to learn that America's neoconservatives are still in business? While at this time we are not yet seeing the same intense neocon invasion of our living rooms -- via cable television's news networks -- that we saw during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, nevertheless, a host of policy analysts at conservative think tanks -- most notably the American Enterprise Institute -- are being heeded on Iran by those who count - folks inside the Bush Administration.
Bill Berkowitz After six years, opposition gaining on George W. Bush's Faith Based InitiativeUnmentioned in the president's State of the Union speech, the program nevertheless continues to recruit religious participants and hand out taxpayer money to religious groups With several domestic policy proposals unceremoniously folded into President Bush's recent State of the Union address, two pretty significant items failed to make the cut. Despite the president's egregiously tardy response to the event itself, it was nevertheless surprising that he didn't even mention Hurricane Katrina: He didn't offer up a progress report, words of hope to the victims, or come up with a proposal for moving the sluggish rebuilding effort forward. There were no "armies of compassion" ready to be unleashed, although it should be said that many in the religious community responded to the disaster much quicker than the Bush Administration. In the State of the Union address, however, there was no "compassionate conservatism" for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Bill Berkowitz Frank Luntz calls Republican leadership in Washington 'One giant whining windbag'On the outs with the GOP, legendary degrader of discourse is moving to California He doesn't make great art; nothing he does elevates the human spirit; he doesn't illuminate, he bamboozles. He has become expert in subterfuge, hidden meanings, word play and manipulation. Frank Luntz has been so good at what he does that those paying close attention gave it its own name: "Luntzspeak."
Bill Berkowitz Spooked by MoveOn.org, conservative movement seeks to emulate liberal powerhouseFueled with Silicon Valley money, TheVanguard.org will have Richard Poe, former editor of David Horowitz's FrontPage magazine as its editorial and creative director As Paul Weyrich, a founding father of the modern conservative movement and still a prominent actor in it, likes to say, he learned a great deal about movement building by closely observing what liberals were up to in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Bill Berkowitz Ward Connerly's anti-affirmative action jihadFounder and Chair of the American Civil Rights Institute scouting five to nine states for new anti-affirmative action initiatives Fresh from his most recent victory -- in Michigan this past November -- Ward Connerly, the Black California-based maven of anti-affirmative action initiatives, appears to be preparing to take his jihad on the road. According to a mid-December report in the San Francisco Chronicle, Connerly said that he was "exploring moves into nine other states."
Bill Berkowitz Tom Tancredo's missionThe Republican congressman from Colorado will try to woo GOP voters with anti-immigration rhetoric and a boatload of Christian right politics These days, probably the most recognizable name in anti-immigration politics is Colorado Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo. Over the past year, Tancredo has gone from a little known congressman to a highly visible anti-immigration spokesperson. "Tancredo has thoroughly enmeshed himself in the anti-immigration movement and with the help of CNN talk show host Lou Dobbs, he has been given a national megaphone," Devin Burghart, the program director of the Building Democracy Initiative at the Center for New Community, a Chicago-based civil rights group, told Media Transparency.
Bill Berkowitz Institute on Religion and Democracy slams 'Leftist' National Council of ChurchesNew report from conservative foundation-funded IRD charges the NCC with being a political surrogate for MoveOn.org, People for the American Way and other liberal organizations If you prefer your religious battles sprinkled with demagoguery, sanctimoniousness, and simplistic attacks, the Institute on Religion and Democracy's (IRD) latest broadside against the National Council of Churches (NCC) certainly fits the bill.
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Previously: God, Government and Gingrich: Newt Gingrich is on the Comeback Trail
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