As we are constantly being told that Newt Gingrich is a fountain of brilliant ideas, the true intellectual of the conservative movement, Ezra Klein reminds us of a hilarious line from Bob Dole about that myth.
When Gingrich was speaker of the House, Bob Dole was the Senate majority leader. And so Dole spent a lot of time listening to the speaker’s proposals. “Gingrich’s staff has these five file cabinets, four big ones and this little tiny one,” he told The New York Times. “Number one is ‘Newt’s ideas.’ Number two, ‘Newt’s ideas.’ Number three, number four, ‘Newt’s ideas.’ The little one is ‘Newt’s Good Ideas.’”
Someone has started a fake Twitter account to parody Newt’s penchant for crazy ideas. My favorite so far: “Change location on my eHarmony profile to Florida.”
11 comments
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Reginald Selkirk
January 30, 2012 at 9:13 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ah, Bob Dole. What a mean old coot.
matty1
January 30, 2012 at 9:18 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Those tweets are brilliant I liked “Don’t let on that I’m not a ‘mere mortal’”
MikeMa
January 30, 2012 at 9:21 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I wonder if Newt might be better off hawking viagra?
Newt’s one & only idea is that he must be president. He’s beginning to approach Mitt in the Say Anything department and the Washington outsider/insider routing is starting to make GOP heads spin.
Reginald Selkirk
January 30, 2012 at 10:05 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
While still accusing Romney of being in the ‘Say Anything’ department. It’s freaking hilarious.
Dr X
January 30, 2012 at 10:19 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Apocraphyl:
“Why do people take such an instant dislike to me?” asked a perplexed Gingrich, to whom Dole bluntly explained: “Because it saves them time.”
MikeMa
January 30, 2012 at 11:10 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Or use an old Henny Youngman line, “Take my wife … please”. Newt has already used it a couple of times but it seems to match his personality.
abb3w
January 30, 2012 at 11:13 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Hey, even 1-in-5 “Good ideas” is probably unusual for a politician.
Unfortunately, the first three cabinets would be more accurately labeled “Newt’s WTF ideas”.
Aquaria
January 30, 2012 at 11:18 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Newt’s one & only idea is that he must be president.
I think you have to get destroying any hint of liberalism/the Democratic Party in there, somewhere.
Michael Heath
January 30, 2012 at 11:39 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Re the tweats, my favorite was from 1/21:
MikeMa
January 30, 2012 at 11:54 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@Michael Heath
The hooker tweet was good but it should have been on the way to SC where the majority of the GOtP voted for the old fool. They clearly don’t care what Newt is and was out there.
exdrone
January 30, 2012 at 9:48 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
In Newt’s defence, his ideas are so transcendental that they defy transcription. Also, since he is gifted with propitious inspiration, he doesn’t need to plan ahead. Perfect ideas just come to him.