Gingrich: The Skeptical EnvironmentalNewt.

[Buzz Clik]

Alrighty, then! The Newt wrote him a book on environmental issues. Counterbalance to Gore, I guess.

Gingrich's solutions beat Gore's doom rhetoric

James P. Pinkerton

November 1, 2007

Al Gore and Newt Gingrich are very different figures, but they are both going through a similar process: They are becoming elder statesmen.

And how does one become an elder statesman, anyway? It's an easy, two-step process: First, have something important to say and be tireless in saying it. Second, stop running for president, because then people will let their guard down; they will listen to the substance of your message, not worry about tracking your upward political mobility.

Oh, and a third thing: Optimism sells better than pessimism. So while the former Democratic vice president is getting most of the glory, worldwide, with his message of profound eco-repentance, it's the former Republican House speaker's message of practical problem-solving that is ultimately going to play better in America.

http://www.newsday.com/news/columnists/ny-oppink5440539nov01,0,933724.column

Geez. It doesn't get much better.


For another view:

An Inconvenient Newt: Newt Gingrich, environmentalist.

By William Saletan

Posted Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2007, at 7:43 AM ET

"In the Hegelian model, it's not enough to be the antithesis party."

It's Monday afternoon, and Newt Gingrich is expounding, over lunch, on his new book about saving the Earth. Moments like this remind me why I have a soft spot for Gingrich. How many other Washington big shots go around quoting Hegel? The point of the reference impresses me even more. Gingrich is criticizing his own party, the GOP, for failing to offer environmental solutions. He agrees that Democrats' ideas—"litigation and regulation," he calls them—are wrongheaded. But opposing those ideas isn't enough. He's calling on Republicans to lead what Hegel would call a "synthesis"—a movement that deploys conservative mechanisms to address an important liberal concern.

Gingrich loves to point out that conservatism and conservation are related words. But he was never a real conservative, in the sense of preferring old things. In his early days, he promoted the quasi-oxymoronic "Conservative Opportunity Society," preaching dynamism more than constancy. Today, chatting with a small circle of reporters, his eyes sparkle as he again extols "creativity" and "innovation." He calls himself "pro-growth," "pro-freedom," and "pro-change." Not just change, but "massive," "dramatic," "radical," "fundamental," and "extraordinary" change. I can't help glancing at the gold band on his left hand. He's been wearing a ring on that finger since he was 19, but the rings, like the wives, keep changing. He's a restless man.

http://www.slate.com/id/2176957/

sigh. Newt, Newt, Newt. It's not enough to think you're the smartest motherfucker in the room. You actually must have knowledge.

[aquart]

1. "Conservative mechanisms to address an important liberal concern."

So he wants energy, air, and water privatized? What else?

[Buzz Clik]

3. Let the market decide -- if the polluters don't want to pay, well then, it's not a real problem.

[hatrack]

2. NPR gave him some hairball-horching space last week

He talked all about how if we'd just gone to nuclear for our power generation, we'd already be at Kyoto limits or below them.

He was correct as far as he went, but I kept waiting (and waiting . . . ) for NPR's "reporter" to ask a few followup questions.

You know, little things like "How would we pay for so many expensive nuclear plants?" or "Where would all of that uranium come from, considering it's already over $100/lb. today?" Strange to relate, those kinds of tough followup questions just never happened. Imagine that!

After a few minutes more of "Regulation is always bad!" and "Why aren't you running for president?", it was time for the Big Click.

[Kolesar]

5. Reporters "usually" don't know how to deal with energy issues

NPR probably used one of their "political" reporters like Mara Liasson or Juan Williams, who are so dumb they probably don't know how to change an air filter.

[Buzz Clik]

6. The NPR interviewers are always too polite to their RW idiot guests.

I'm sure that Newt has the nuke waste disposal problem all figured out as well.

(btw -- let's not crucify the NPR folks on this issue too badly. Diane Rehm interviewed Cheney very shortly after the election in 2001, and he was pumping reduced carbon emissions through nuclear as well. Diane can apply lots of pressure, but she let him slide. Of course, one usually affords more courtesy to the newly elected VP than a toad like Newt(? eerrrr... too many amphibian references...nevermind). )

[Kolesar]

4. Saletan gets to the point:

My chief worry about A Contract with the Earth is that it'll become the green version of Gingrich's Contract with America—a partisan tool dressed up as a public service. Even as he faults his party, Gingrich can't resist analyzing polls, taking digs at Jane Fonda, and spinning the public-private debate as a choice between "entrepreneurs" and "bureaucrats." It's hard to tell whether he worries more about the environment or about his calculation that environmentally obtuse Republican candidates get "killed in the suburbs."

[Big Blue Marble]

7. Gore is no doom sayer.

He has in some scientific circles been criticized for being too optimistic.
He is just trying to wake people up as to what we are facing.

[Buzz Clik]

8. I tend to agree.

Gore sometimes will focus on the more negative end of the range of uncertainty, but he is not the hysterical type. He simply is making the information digestible for those with less knowledge (you know -- like Newt Gingrich).