Mrs. Greenspan just threw Newt Gingrich under the bus on Morning Jerk.

[deminks]

She reported on MSNBC that Newtie was the one running around bad mouthing the bailout deal up until the vote failed yesterday, then issued a face saving statement that he "might have voted for it." Mike Barnacle (sp) thinks this is the start of his pretzeldente campaign for 2012.

Don't have a link, just what I heard.

[fasttense]

1. I heard the Newt on NPR saying that there was no need to rush.

That Congress should take its time to carefully consider the ramifications of the bailout.

I wondered what he was up to. I figured he was working to lay the blame of bailouts for billionaires on the Democratic leaders but now I wonder.

[deminks]

2. DKos has a diary on this now.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/30/75423/1933/961/615335

(snip)

The other news from Morning Joe this morning is Andrea Mitchell reporting that Newt Gingrich was lobbying Republicans all morning to vote against the bailout, calling it a political loser. Yet when it became clear that the bill would fail, Gingrich issued a statement claiming he would have voted for the bailout.

The crew on Morning Joe is convinced that this is the opening gambit from Gingrich for a Presidential run in 2012. They also think Gingrich really jobbed Rep. Boehner on this. I can't help but speculate that Gingrich already thinks Obama has won this election, or he wouldn't be sticking his nose into events trying to get a leg up on a 2012 run against (an incumbent) McCain in the Republican primaries.

Gingrich clearly thought the bailout would pass thanks to Democratic votes, and that Republicans would be able to bash them for it in November and future elections, (just like the 1993 budget vote). When it became clear that Democrats weren't going to fall on their political swords to pass a Republican bill which most of the public hated, and that truth started a market meltdown, Gingrich issued the statement that he would have voted for the bill.

(end snip)

[deminks]

3. Huffpo picked it up as well

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/30/report-gingrich-stabbed-b_n_130487.html

[foxfeet]

4. Can she use a real bus next time?

Preferably a big one. :evilgrin:

[JHB]

7. I don't care if it's a Vespa, as long as the rubber hits the botox

A 2012 presidential run? And to think I believed I could no longer be shocked at the monumental gall of him and people like him. This is a guy whose allies coined the phrase "Tell Newt to Shut Up".

I scrape finer things than him of my shoe at the curb.

Geez! :puke:

[deminks]

5. Think Progress has the video

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/30/gingrich-against-bailout/

video at the link

and Newtie's reaction:

(snip)

Reacting to the news, NBC’s Mike Barnicle said he had been told by congressional conservatives that the move was “the opening salvo of Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign four years hence.” Speaking at the National Press Club today, Gingrich denied Mitchell’s claim, saying MSNBC is wrong and probably “deliberately wrong” because its a “stunningly dishonest network.” “I was reluctantly helping it get through,” he said.

Even throughout yesterday, Gingrich’s position was nearly impossible to pin down. On Glenn Beck’s radio show, he admitted, “I’m not sure if I were in the Congress I could vote against it” while also declaring that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson “should be fired” and that the bailout plan “is still a bad bill.” On Fox News last night, he seemed to praise the House’s rejection of the bill: “The vote today indicated that even when they’d worked for five days to try to improve what was really a pretty terrible original plan that sent up, it still couldn’t get a majority in the House.”

Apparently, Gingrich was against the bailout before he was for it — before he was against it again.

(end snip)

[Bobbie Jo]

6. "Morning Jerk" .....yeah, that works.

:thumbsup: