The Next Wrestling Match: Newt V Rush

I note by way of  Ben Smith at Politico, another arranged wrestling match on our horizon… Newt v Rush. There’s nothing like the spectacle of conservatives having a disagreement while the Soros Dominated Dinosaur media stands on the sidelines yelling “Fight!! Fight!! Fight!! Fight!!”
Rush clearly knows where this is being arranged, and what is driving it:

“I’m frankly getting tired of talking about Newt. I mean, it’s a pointless exercise,” Limbaugh said of Gingrich’s dismissal of him on “Meet the Press.” “I’m surprised by nothing when I’m dealing with people in the media who think they’re in politics. … They are fly-by-night operators, and most of them stand for nothing until they see a poll about what the American people want, and then they go out and try to say one way or another what the American people want while trying to falsely hold onto an ideology at the same time — and you can’t count on them. You can’t depend on them. They will sell you out; they will throw you overboard to save themselves, faster than anything. And they’ll use you on their way up as often as they can at the same time.”

Rush is understandably less than happy with Gingrich, as well:

“I mean, next week Newt could come out and profess his total admiration and love for me if it would serve his purposes,” he continued. “They’re running TV ads against me. Newt Gingrich wishes they were running TV ads against him.”

Yeah, well….maybe. But, maybe not. There is certain unpredictability in Gingrich I’ve always found problematic. Apparently, given his comments, Rush does as well.
Now as it happens, and generally speaking, I like Gingrich. We have political disagreements, there’s no denying that. I’ve taken him to task in articles I’ve written over the years. That said, I think he can be a positive influence, assuming  somebody’s actually holding the reins.

Ponder, please, those last six words.

There, I think, lies the issue. Gingrich, along with everyone else on the planet, just now, sees a vacuum at the head end of the Republican Party. Nature, as you know, hates a vacuum. Gingrich is trying to fill that vacuum. More power to him in that process. The competition of ideas, even assuming Gingrich doesn’t win out, will serve the party, and the country, well. However, as Barack Obama found out, it’s a lot different when you’re in the big chair. Leading is a lot different than sniping from the sidelines. Frankly, while I marvel at Newt’s ideation and articulation of those ideas, I wonder if Gingrich has the qualities that are required for leadership. At the moment I consider that an open question. He’s certainly an idea man… but idea men generally speaking are not the best leaders; they tend to feed their ideas to the people that ARE leaders.

Among the qualities of true leaders is a dedication to principle. So, the biggest objection I have to Newt is the issue of his dedication (or possibly, more accurately, the lack of it) to conservative principles. It is on these matters that I have most often leveled a blast at Gingrich. All too often he gets too bound by his ability as a ‘pie in the sky’ thinker, and forgets he needs to be at least equally bound by conservative principle. It’s my view that that’s the source of the friction at the moment between Newt and Rush… And indeed, between Newt and many conservative voters. Rush, for whatever else might be said about him, (And yes, I’ve had disagreements with him as well) has at least been, in my view, steadfast in his dedication to conservative principles, whereas Newt Gingrich has not always done so. That’s the unpredictability factor I spoke of.

That said, I think it also worthwhile to point out that a lot of this is being cooked up by an overtly left leaning press, who really doesn’t have anything better to throw at the Republicans just now, given that they’re out of power, and given that the Democrats currently in power, so very desperately need the distraction from the disaster that is Democrat -run Washington. It should not be a surprise, therefore, to find the press spending so much ink on these minor skirmishes.

I want you to notice who it is who ends up being labeled as the bad guy in all of this. On each one of these occasions Limbaugh being cast by the press as being the center of whatever conflict they’re talking about, and being the dastardly arch- enemy of more moderate Republicans. Almost as if someone was trying to create an impression, hmm?

You see, I’ve been saying for some weeks now, that the left is busy trying to separate the Republicans from their conservative base, to thereby cripple them politically. I suggest that this is merely another chapter in that book. It’s my view the participants in this arranged match should be aware of that and act accordingly. So, too, however, should the spectators.

Update: Jonah has more