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DEL.ICIO.USGingrich on oil and energy: ‘We fundamentally changed the national debate’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Exactly one year ago, Newt Gingrich was mulling over the possibility of a Republican run for the White House.
On Wednesday morning, Gingrich celebrated the fact that, in his own small way, he had given GOP nominee John McCain the summer-time tool he needed to claw his way back into the presidential contest.
No, not Sarah Palin. Gingrich was pushing Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal harder.
It was oil. “Drill here, drill now.” “Drill, baby, drill.” That club.
Said Gingrich:
“We launched ‘Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less’ on May 14. By June 20, we had fundamentally changed the national debate.”
A book coming out later this month will allow him to continue to stoke the issue. So does he take credit for McCain’s resurgence? Answered Gingrich:
“I wouldn’t put it that way. I’d give McCain credit for figuring out it would work. And for being prepared to look at reality. As he has said, people at $4 a gallon have a different attitude than people at $1.50 a gallon. Energy suddenly became a bigger deal and a more important topic….
“It’s a little bit like being the general manager or coach of a sporting team. I’m not on the field. I’m not out there, all day, playing. What we can do is we can develop better plays, we can show people the scouting report of where the American people are.”
The “we” in Gingrich’s answer is American Solutions, his organization, a 527, that he says is dedicated to generating “tripartisan” discussions on the big issues — energy, health care, the budget.
Gingrich had a series of Solution Day seminars in Georgia this time last year. He has another set planned for Saturday, Sept. 27. The locale again will be the Cobb Galleria, but you can also catch it on the Internet — where it will be simulcast in Spanish — or on satellite TV.
Readers are free to decide for themselves whether Gingrich’s operation is genuinely non-partisan, or a thinly veiled GOP think-tank.
But you cannot question Gingrich’s ambition. The job of American Solutions, the former Georgia congressman said, is merely to
“…create a framework of solutions large enough to enable the United States to be successful of the next 25 to 30 years….
“It starts with the premise that existing institutions — litigation, regulation, education, taxation, health, energy and infrastructure — are not capable of competing with China and India as they evolve.”
Other topics naturally came up. Gingrich’s thoughts on pigs, lipstick, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears have been posted here.
In response to questions, Gingrich also said that the Obama campaign made two serious mistakes this summer, largely out of a sense of hubris. First, Obama failed to name Hillary Clinton as his vice presidential partner:
“Frankly, you probably wouldn’t have gotten Governor Palin as the vice presidential nominee because it would have been impossible for her to compete with a vice presidential Hillary Clinton.”
Then there was the European leg of Obama’s overseas venture:
“He goes to Berlin and tells 200,000 Germans he’s a citizen of the world. Almost no Americans wake up and say, ‘I want my commander-in-chief to be a citizen of the world. They want him to be an American. They gave nationalism to McCain in that one sentence.”
Gingrich had this to say about Obama in Georgia:
”When they were at their hubritic, most excited, they were going to compete everywhere. They were in Montana, they were in — I think they opened four offices in North Dakota. They’re in Virginia, they’re going to go everywhere.
“Well, it turns out in the real world, as the tide starts to recede, they’re not going to carry Georgia. It’s just not going to happen. Governor Perdue, Saxby Chambliss, the Republican organization are going to carry Georgia…
“They’re not going to carry Florida. [U.S. Sen. Joe] Lieberman’s entire speech was about one thing: Fort Lauderdale. And Lieberman has been campaigning in Fort Lauderdale.
“This is goofy, because if they’d never come into Georgia to start with, they wouldn’t be pulling out. So you wouldn’t have this sense of the declining Obama campaign.”
And what about Sarah Pailin, the governor of Alaska?
“I underestimated her dramatically. I was for her, I was excited, I was thrilled that Friday. She is so much better than I expected. She is so much more charismatic….
“She can go to any campus and compete head-to-head with Obama now. She’s as exciting, as interesting as Obama is.”
But he is worried about the vice presidential debate with U.S. Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware. “I’m concerned. She cannot beat Biden so badly that she generates sympathy for him,” Gingrich said.
All jokes aside, the former U.S. House speaker seriously questioned the “Gang of Ten” initiative, backed by Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, both Republicans, to push through a bipartisan energy bill.
As described by Chambliss, environmental initiatives would be funded by rescinding tax credits currently enjoyed by oil companies.
Said Gingrich:
”I was very disappointed in that bill. It doesn’t provide for serious drilling for anywhere except the Gulf of Mexico. And it has a huge tax increase, which is totally unnecessary….
“Other than appeasing a bunch of Democrats who are passionate to raise taxes, I don’t understand why the ‘Gang of Ten’ has a tax increase. It’s unnecessary, it is destructive in this economy, and it’s a fundamental violation of McCain’s position, which is not to raise taxes…
“Sometimes if you get in a room and begin chanting bipartisan, you adopt two or three really dumb ideas because that makes you bipartisan. I think being destructive in a bipartisan way isn’t particularly helpful.”
Photo credit: Associated Press
Comments
By Mohit
September 10, 2008 9:36 PM | Link to this
Is “culture war” really a different way of saying “race war”? It seems to me that the word UPPITY has been thrown around by Republicans in Georgia quite a bit recently and the McCain camp bragged about how Obama is even pulling some of his campaign resources out of that state. O’Reilly then sent one of his producers to stalk an African-American journalist (Cynthia Tucker) in Atlanta who had liberal leanings and wrote about “We grow good people in our small towns” Sarah Palin. Is this the Republican party’s version of the 50-state strategy - to create a racial divide and discourage minorities in urban areas from being involved in the process?
By Oscar Lewis
September 11, 2008 7:48 AM | Link to this
I love nutty Newt.
His world war III rants are my favorite.
I love how the pundits (now also including nutty Newt) over play the importance of Palin as McCain’s VP.
Please, everyone take note of the current polls. This is likely to be the best standing that McCain will enjoy. It’s all downhill from here.
By The Snark
September 11, 2008 10:19 AM | Link to this
Please stop reporting what Newt Gingrich says. It just encourages him to keep talking into microphones. This is called “enabling behavior,” and it simply allows him to postpone getting a real job.
By Copyleft
September 11, 2008 3:06 PM | Link to this
Mr. Gingrich had an opportunity to change the national debate on energy and oil back when he was in Congress… and DOZENS of proposals to raise fuel-efficiency standards crossed his desk, only to be demolished by the oil- and energy-lobbyists who ran (and still run) his party.
By Gary
September 11, 2008 3:34 PM | Link to this
Your right copy left…..Gingrich did have the opportunity and his Congress passed energy legislation back in the late 90s only to be vetoed by President Clinton and his environmental lobbyist who run his party. That’s right….you can thank him for the high gas cost, not Republicans.
By Copyleft
September 11, 2008 4:27 PM | Link to this
I said “Fuel-Efficiency Standards,” not “energy legislation” (which is code for “Drill more! Drill more!”).
There’s a difference. When will you figure out that the environmentalists are on OUR side, and the oil companies are not?