Newt Gingrich’s National Clown routine gets more and more ludicrous, as he continues his darkly comical quest to be the GOP presidential nominee. Yesterday, Gingrich complained that the press wasn’t publicizing the fact that he has tons of Twitter followers: more than 1 million, in fact, more than all the other presidential candidates combined. And then, as often happens to Gringrich, someone checked up on his claim, and he was exposed, for the umpteenth time, as a lying con artist — and the kind of con artist who’s so self-enamored, he doesn’t bother to cover his tracks. It turns out that most of Newt’s followers on Twitter are fake. A Gingrich staffer told The Gawker website that Newt hired several agencies to procure Twitter followers for him by setting up dummy accounts. The staffer estimates that only about 10 percent of Newt’s Twitter “followers” are for real. I guess there’s a reason Gingrich has been successful at writing historical fiction.
So the question needs to be asked: Can Newt Gingrich do anything right? The answer is yes, he plays the role of a bumbling clown at a birthday party very well. Remember that when he was Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Newt had to resign his post after a tumultuous four-and-a-half year tenure in which he became the first House Speaker to be reprimanded for ethics violations; was handed his ass politically by Bill Clinton when the latter called Gingrich’s bluff on a government shutdown; blasted Clinton for copping B.J.s from Monica Lewinsky while the Newtster was diddling a staffer 23 years his junior (who is now his third wife); and was blamed for the GOP’s electoral losses in 1998. His current presidential campaign has been crippled by the mass departure of his staff, who resigned in disgust over Newt’s plans to use his campaign to direct-sell his books, films, etc. — not to mention that Gingrich’s campaign is the only one to actually lose money during the last quarter. On top of that, he made headlines by blaming his philandering on his “passion for America,” and was caught in lie about his campaign’s emphasis on using only Made In America products, when his campaign T-shirts turned out to have been manufactured in El Salvador — which is appropriate when you think about it, since Newt’s policy ideas would have most Americans working for the same kind of starvation wages enjoyed so much by the Salvadorans. And now, the fake Twitter followers. If people haven’t caught on by now that Gingrich is a transparently self-serving, egomaniacal hustler who will say or do anything to enrich himself, you have to wonder if they ever will.
This article appears in Aug 2-8, 2011.
And that differs from the other Republicans how?
And that differs from the other politicians how?
FIXED
Meanwhile most of Obama’s backers are banksters:
http://www.moneynews.com/StreetTalk/obama-wallstreet-electioncampaign/2011/07/22/id/404563
A just-released study by the Center for Responsive Politics shows that President Obama is relying more on Wall Street to fund his re-election this year than he did in 2008, according to CNBC, which obtained an advance copy of the report.
The report says that one-third of the money Obama’s elite fund-raising corps has raised on behalf of his re-election has come from the financial sector.
“Individuals who work in the finance, insurance, and real estate sector are responsible for raising at least $11.3 million for Obama’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee,” the report says.
And, all of Obama’s “bundlers” — top fundraisers who obtain donations from people and groups in their business, professional, and personal networks — have raised a minimum of $34.95 million.
Obama has even added new Wall Streeters who did not work for him in 2008, including former Goldman Sachs CEO Jon Corzine, Evercore Partners executive Charles Myers, Greenstreet Real Estate Partners CEO Steven Green, and Azita Raji, a former investment banker for JPMorgan.
Obama and the DNC combined are on pace to far exceed the amounts Obama raised from Wall Street donors in 2008, both in raw dollar amounts and as a percentage of what he raises overall.
According to the Center’s research, Obama fundraisers who worked in the finance, insurance and real estate sector were responsible for a minimum of $16 million, or about 21 percent of the $76.5 million estimated minimum amount brought in by top bundlers.
Moreover, the Center has identified 80 bundlers — out of 244 whose names were released by the Obama campaign last week — who are part of the financial sector.
Forty-four of these specifically work for the securities and investment industry.
To answer the first two comments: It differs from other politicians in that, so far, Gingrich is the only one who has actually paid for his Twitter followers and then tried to make a campaign issue out of his massive “following.” That’s why I wrote the thing. Jeez.
No answer to Hillary’s Prostate, since the comment, although no doubt true, has absolutely nothing to do with the blog post supposedly being commented on. How about keeping on topic, folks?
John,
Why should I “keep on topic” when your topic itself is juvenile and irrelevant, which was the point of my post? I really don’t give a damn about Newt Gingrich’s Twitter account, or his Tiffany’s account, or really anything else about him.
There are three tickets out of Ames, and they belong to Bachmann, Paul, and Romney. Palin is quite happy being a celebrity with no stress, while Perry will be sunk the first time an opponent mentions the possibility of Obama’s Justice Department prosecuting him for Logan Act violations should he get the nomination.
While Gingrich did a masterful job of arranging the ‘Pub takeover in 1994, obviously his campaign has failed to catch fire this time around. Same with Santorum (another weak target of your weak barbs), same with Cain, same with Huntsman, same sadly with Gary Johnson (a governor who served longer and accomplished far more than either the Romney or Huntsman).
The decision you need to make is whether you want to keep splashing around the kiddie pool with photoshopped clown pictures, or dive into the real pool and swim with the adults.
Are you sure you’re not Frank Griffin, HP? He’s usually the only one who’s tight-assed enough to comment on blog posts by telling the writer he should have written about something else. Hilarious. Actually, writing about politicians’ lies (Newt) and stupidity (W and Sen. Frothy) is a fun activity, and Gingrich is one of the classic examples of political bullshitting of all time. Whether telling that tale is adult, kiddie pool, or whatever, it’s fun. Maybe you should try to relax a little and not take yourself so seriously. Or, maybe you could get your own blog and quit infecting this one.