GINGRICH CAN’T STOP TALKING…. The AP had an item yesterday speculating on whether Newt Gingrich will run for president in 2012. I kind of doubt it, but given his recent word-to-nonsense ratio, the former Speaker, ousted from leadership by his own party, seems to be trying to impress the GOP’s conservative base.
Gingrich, for example, was fuming yesterday about the Department of Homeland Security’s report on potentially-violent extremists in the U.S. Using Twitter, Gingrich said:
Amazingly white house spokesman used terrorism to describe worrying about americans but the word has been banned for descriving foreigners
This might be a good point if Newt was in anyway grounded in reality. The poor guy doesn’t even understand what he’s complaining about.
Let’s unpack this a bit. First, the White House spokesman didn’t describe Americans as terrorists. Second, the administration is concerned about the phrase “war on terror,” not the word “terrorist,” and neither has been “banned.”
And third, the point of the DHS report was not to label anyone a “terrorist,” but rather, to alert law-enforcement agencies to the possibility of extremists who might want to commit acts of violence in the United States. Why Gingrich would find that offensive is a mystery.
Granted, Twitter doesn’t allow the writer to offer any in-depth thoughts on a subject; that’s not its purpose. But if Gingrich is going to go after the White House on a subject like this, he should at least try to be a little accurate.
Greg Sargent added, “Gingrich’s Tweets go to over 100,000 of his Twitter followers. His Tweets have been repeatedly picked up by the big news orgs. And his Twitter feed is elevating him into a major face of the GOP opposition to Obama. Now he’s playing the terror card.”
I guess he’s running for something.
