Stunningly Stupid

Watching Newt Gingrich on Meet the Press yesterday was fascinating.

Irony is lost on the man. He believes that freedom of speech can be justifiably restrained when "jihadists" use the internet to read other websites and come up with their nefarious plans. When moderator Tim Russert asked him who would decide what websites should be shut down for transmitting treason, Mr. Gingrich replied, "Appoint a three-judge federal panel." Okay... I thought it was one of the Republicans' mantra that "activist judges" were the curse of liberalism and that leaving the rights of the people up to unelected jurists was anti-American.

He justifies this trampling of the First Amendment by changing the subject, citing the McCain-Feingold law as more restrictive of free speech than anything he's proposing to fight terrorism. So fighting terrorism is on an equal footing with raising a shitload of money for a political campaign as far as he's concerned? Well, at least he has his priorities right.

Mr. Gingrich also seems to bear an almost obsessive grudge against Bill Clinton and the fact that he wasn't thrown out of office while Mr. Gingrich not only lost seats in the 1998 election, he also lost his Speakership and his seat in Congress. Mr. Gingrich has this Captain Ahab look in his eyes when he talks about President Clinton knowingly lying under oath, as if that in itself is grounds for execution. Mr. Gingrich was mum about his own personal sins, claiming he was exonerated by the House Ethics panel for his shady dealings, and his marital problems -- he has been twice divorced and carried on an affair with a staffer while he was prosecuting Mr. Clinton for getting a blow job -- are his own private dealings. The price of double standards in Washington has never been very high, and Mr. Gingrich seems to have cornered the market on them.

What was even more egregious than NBC giving the former speaker a half-hour or so was Tim Russert sitting there like a Shropshire sheep as Mr. Gingrich basically trounced the Constitution and handed out moralisms about Bill Clinton. I used to wonder if my fellow bloggers who accuse Mr. Russert of being a pawn of the right wing weren't just going a bit over the top, but after yesterday's thorough lack of interest in following up Mr. Gingrich's outrageous exclamations, I'm pretty sure they are right.

As for his plans for the future, Mr. Gingrich apparently thinks he is the Republican version of the messiah; the nation will turn to him when it finally realizes that he is the one, the only one, who can lead us out of the wilderness. As Hawkeye Pierce once said, "Can I stop by sometime for a cup of ego?" Fortunately he's right behind Sen. Sam Brownback in the polling. (Speaking of Sen. Brownback, CNN reports that Domino's Pizza founder Tom Monaghan is planning to support his bid for the White House. Hello, Papa John's?)

I have the feeling that yesterday's MTP appearance wasn't the last national display for Newt Gingrich, but unless we've learned nothing from the last eight years, he serves only as a reminder of just how -- to use his words -- stunningly stupid we were to ever listen to him.