Can Newt live down his past?

"I don't know" is the simple answer to that question. And that answer alone is confounding me! I guess I could also answer "Time will tell," but then again do we have enough time?

I've always liked Newt Gingrich. To my way of thinking, he's been the smartest politician to listen to during the last 15 years or so. I've always found Newt painfully obvious and brutally frank - and he doesn't seem to care if you don't like it! I do - to me it's refreshing and let's you know right where you stand! Now, don't get me wrong ... some very stupid things have come out of Newt's mouth! Things that stunned me at the time....

Here's one - Years ago, Newt was addressing a mixed audience (I think at a University), and he's talking about why women shouldn't be on the front lines or why they shouldn't go to war. (For me, this is an issue men shouldn't even try to answer. It closely relates to my stance on abortion - If you have a penis, stay out of the discussion - because no matter what you say, there is a group of women that are waiting for your answer. And it isn't going to be pretty either way!) In any event Newt is standing there saying words to the effect that women shouldn't go to war because a battle is a dirty place and when women have to lie around in dirty ditches for 30 days at a time they get all kinds of nasty infections. Oyyyyy! I-could-tell-by-his-answer-and-by-the-way-he-was-looking-down-and-sort-of-rubbing-the-podium-that-he-was-searching-for-words-and-having-trouble-finding-the-right-way-to-end-his-statement. We've all experienced this, when we start saying something in mixed company and suddenly realize .... Ooops! I messed up here! Well, this was like that. For weeks afterward Gingrich got "drawn and quartered" in the press and by various women's organizations. (I think you can still find it on the internet.) As he rightly should have! It was a stupid thing to say - and he has got to NOT make mistakes like that, if he's going to run.

In my opinion, Newt's been the single most intellectually honest and up-front politician during the last two presidencies. His "Contract with America" when he was House Speaker, and now his "Winning the Future" are exceptional roadmaps for returning this country to greatness. (Now admittedly, I consider them so, because I share his conservative viewpoints.) More recently he has detailed and suggested a much better way to conduct debates during the upcoming campaign. It's called "9 90's in 9." That would be nine, 90 minute debates, one each in the nine weeks preceding the election. That suggestion alone will shorten and lend more significance to the campaign/election process - and it's a wonderful indication of Gingrich's clarity of thinking. (I don't know about you but after the last 6 months of campaigning - I'm ready for this crap to be over already!)

A few months ago, on the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's speech there, Mario Cuomo and Newt Gingrich spoke at Cooper Union. I admit I was transfixed hearing their discourse. Here were two "heavyweights" of rhetorical debate, in the same room where Lincoln won the Eastern establishment over to his campaign! Wow! Each with an obvious and clear agenda before the evening started. But each was so erudite and well spoken that by the end of the 90 minutes.....all I wanted was 90 minutes more with these guys! You didn't have to agree with either one or the other to want "more" from both of them! I don't find any other candidates like that today on either side, and that includes the "undeclared" candidates - Thompson and Gore.

Another "trait" Newt has to live down or live with, is his propensity to piss people off! When Newt led the Republicans to take back Congress from the Democrats, he ended 43 years of Liberal hegemony! He took away the greatest liberal feeding trough this country has ever known. And everybody knows you don't take the slop away from hoggs like Teddy Kennedy without making them angry! If you skim a couple of Liberal websites, you'll get deluged by the visceral hatred they harbor for Gingrich.

Newt is the smart-ass you grew up with, who never missed an occasion to show you how much smarter and more clever he was than you. He didn't know enough to keep his mouth shut, and regardless of the "drumming" he may have taken, you couldn't keep him quiet or out of the fray. He was always in your face - and you knew exactly what he was thinking - but still he got the better of you! Newt had that effect on his opponents in Congress. They knew exactly what he was going to do, and he still beat them - every time.

I particularly like the hard-nosed intellectual toughness in Newt. I saw some of that quality in Ronald Reagan as well. Reagan was always being taken for granted - being called a doddering old fool - and suddenly the Berlin Wall was coming down and the Cold War was over! His critics called Reagan old and stupid, they laughed at him, right up until the time he cleaned their clocks!

Speaking for me and no one else - I'm sick of the American "popularity contest" masquerading as an election - we've experienced the last 16 years. For all of you male or female "star-struck" groupies out there - this isn't American Idol! Contrary to my sarcastic remark of the other day.....I don't wanna have a "crush" on anybody! For the next 4 or 8 years, I want someone really smart in that office. I also want someone tough in that office. Someone who's going to be able to lead us - and make the rest of the world understand - No More Bullshit!

I want someone in that office not just because their spouse had the job (but I wouldn't hold that against a candidate); not someone who simply wrote a book similar to Kennedy's "Profiles in Courage." I want someone smart enough to have his/her own outline completed - not someone who needs to start from square one & solicit ideas on every issue. Someone with a clear understanding of how they want to reform Washington; how they want to re-write the tax code. Someone with a clear idea how we're going to improve health care in this country. Someone who is ready to tell Congress and the American people this is how it's going to be regarding our war stance; someone strong enough to lay out a clear, fair, and doable immigration strategy.

Someone who can make us proud again to be Americans - and someone unafraid to kick this country and Congress in our collective asses and say, "Get to work and get it done - or I'll fire you and find someone who can!"

Right now, there's not anyone like that in sight, in either group of candidates!

Dum Spiro Spero!