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Gingrich Warns of GOP Catastrophe
Monday, February 11, 2008
By: Newsmax Staff       

In a rousing speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Sunday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called for a conservative “declaration of independence” from the Republican Party.

He also warned that Republicans face a “catastrophic” election this year unless the GOP changes course.

Gingrich pointed out that on Super Tuesday, 14.6 million voters took part in the Democratic races, compared to 8.3 million Republicans.

“There were 14.6 million Democrats who thought the presidential nomination was worth voting for, and there were 8.3 million Republicans on Super Tuesday,” Gingrich said.

“That is a warning of a catastrophic election. I was in Idaho this last week, and Barack Obama on last Saturday had 16,000 people in Boise. The idea [of] the most liberal Democratic Senator getting 16,000 people in Boise was inconceivable.

“And every person who cares about the conservative movement and every person who cares about the Republican Party had better stop and say to themselves, ‘There is something big happening in this country. We don’t understand it. We’re not responding to it. And we’re currently not competitive. And if we want to get to be competitive, we had better change and we had better change now.”

Gingrich stressed that he was not commenting on any of the current candidates for president.

Rather, he said, “this is a comment about the conservative movement, and it's a comment about the Republican Party, and all the candidates currently running fit within those two phrases. But it is about all of us. It is about our Congressman, our Senator, our governors, our county commissioners, our school board members.

“And let me make this very clear, I believe we have to change or expect defeat.

“And I believe that this is a time for the conservative movement to issue a declaration of independence…

“First of all, I think we need to get independent from a Washington fixation. There are 513,000 elected officials in the United States and the conservative movement should believe in a decentralized United States, where every elected official has real responsibility, and we should be developing a conservative action plan, at every level of this country, and not simply focused over and over again on arguments about the White House…

“I also think that we need to declare our independence from trying to protect and defend failed bureaucracies that magically become ours as soon as we are in charge of them. We appoint solid conservatives to a department and within three weeks they are defending and protecting the very department that they would have been attacking before they got appointed.”

Gingrich drew considerable applause when he continued with his “independence” theme:

“There is one other declaration of independence we need and this will startle some of you. And remember I say this from a background of having been active in the Georgia Republican Party since 1960. In a fundamental way, the conservative movement has to declare itself independent from the Republican Party.

“Let me make very clear what I'm saying here. I am not saying there should be a third party – I think a third party is a dumb idea, will not get anywhere, and in the end will achieve nothing.

“I actually believe that any reasonable conservative will, in the end, find that they have an absolute requirement to support the Republican nominee for president this fall…

“As a citizen, I would rather have a President McCain that we fight with 20 percent of the time, than a President Clinton or a President Obama that we fight with 90 percent of the time.”

But he warned: “If we run a traditional consultant-dominated tactical Republican campaign, like we’ve seen in the last eight years, we will be defeated this fall, and we will be having a CPAC meeting next year talking about how we rebuild for the future with either President Obama or President Clinton in charge.”

The reps need to build a platform. They seem to be lack in vision. Perhaps it is just the times and everything has remained the status quo for the last few years. I don't like the direction of the dems, but the reps aren't giving me too much either.

Sadly, Mr. Gingrich's warning to the GOP is so true and the dems are reaping the benefits.

I agree Bumble, there needs to be a platform of change as the status quot is not working. The Reps have got to address the economy and how to improve it. They also need an exit plan for Iraq so we'll be able to stop pouring millions into the war machine. There also has to be a way to cut spending keep taxes low to make jobs for anyone willing to work so that they can all afford to pay for their health-care not like it is now where far too many people just sit back with their hands out waiting for the government to help them.

Good stategy! Unfortuantly the dem's answer to health care is government funded heath care. The dems bit** about the Iraq war, but with no plan. The only way the economy can turn around is to bring more jobs BACK to this country.

I don't quite see either party with any answers. I'll stick my neck out here and say Obama will be our next president. And only on the platform of 'change'. But with no clear direction of how to implement this change. He will just be a different 'look' with charm and charisma and 'great sounding words'.

Bumble, the trouble is that neither party has a good plan to impress the voters enough to gain their vote.

Everything is just out of control. And ya know what else I don't understand? What the heck is Clemens doing in front of Congress talking about drugs and baseball? Since when did the government get into the baseball business? AGAIN the government is stepping in and saying that THEY need to handle this matter cause the baseball owners can't.

The government is stating, unrealistically, that they are the 'answer all' and the 'cure all' to all of society, personal, business health, religion, education and financial problems. They even tell us what the heck to eat. How much water to drink, when/where to smoke or not, when and when not to have a baby etc....