Gingrich once again at head of Republican pack
Once, a first-term Democratic president failed to deliver on healthcare reform and found his party swept from office by a wave of voter anger that brought Republican Newt Gingrich to the forefront of American politics. Could this history lesson from the Clinton era be repeated?
Healthcare reform is stalled, voters are angry and Gingrich — who rose to prominence as House speaker after Republicans won Congress in 1994 — is again leading the pack, this time among potential White House hopefuls for 2012.
The Washington-based political news outlet, Politico, says Gingrich’s political action committee is raising money far faster than those of 2008 campaign veterans including Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.
Gingrich’s group, American Solutions for Winning the Future, pulled in $6.4 million in the second half of 2009, says Politico, citing finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. That compares with about $1.6 million for Romney’s PAC, $1.4 million for Palin’s and $519,00 for Huckabee’s.
The PACs exist ostensibly to support Republican candidates, promote the party and advance conservative policy. But according to Politico, they also help boost the visibility of White House wannabes. (Gingrich’s PAC spent $585,000 just to fly him around the country.)
Meanwhile, Palin, whose PAC paid $50,000 for policy advice, wants Rahm Emanuel to resign for using the epithet ”f*#!ing retarded” to describe liberal Democrats who wanted to launch attack ads against party conservatives concerned about healthcare reform. The New York Daily News reports that Emanuel apologized to advocates for the disabled in the White House on Wednesday.
Palin, the mother of a child with Down syndrome, slammed Emanuel’s remark as unacceptable and heartbreaking and called for his resignation on her Facebook page.
The First Draft: Will Giuliani try for the U.S. Senate?
He probably won’t run for New York governor but might for the U.S. Senate … or will he? That’s the speculation swirling around Rudy Giuliani, the Republican former New York City mayor who walked tall after the Sept. 11 attacks and ran for U.S. president in 2008. A spokeswoman says the 65-year-old former federal prosecutor has made no decisions. But the New York Daily News, the New York Times and the New York Post all report that Giuliani has decided not to run for New York governor in 2010. Analysts think he could defeat Democratic incumbent Governor David Paterson without much fuss. But overcoming a possible challenge from New York’s Democratic attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, could be have been difficult. Cuomo has not announced his candidacy. The Daily News reports that Giuliani is strongly considering a Senate run against Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand to fill out the remaining two years of Hillary Clinton’s term. Clinton, who lost in last year’s Democratic presidential nomination to Barack Obama, is now U.S. secretary of state.
The Daily News cites poll numbers showing Giuliani losing to Cuomo 53 percent to 43 percent in a race for governor, but beating Gillibrand 54 percent to 40 percent for the Senate.
But the Senate speculation may not last long.
The New York Post quotes people close to Giuliani as saying a run for the Senate is unlikely.
And even the Daily News seems to be hedging its bets with a story saying Giuliani doesn’t need to run for the Senate because he already has plenty of money and influence and a private life that’s working out just fine. Giuliani ran for the Senate in a 2000 campaign that pitted him against Clinton. But events and declining poll numbers were against him and he withdrew after a quick succession of revelations: he had prostate cancer, he had a girlfriend, and he was separating from his second wife. Giuliani has since beaten cancer, divorced his second wife, Donna Hanover, and married his former girlfriend, Judith Nathan.
Photo Credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder (Giuliani)
Guiliano is a clown, but he has some leadership ability. Right now there is a vacuum in leadership at the White House and it’s name is Obama. When you turn the switch to foreign affairs–it sucks, when you turn the switch to domestic affairs–it blows
This pseudo-intellectual clown hasn’t held public office since the ’90s. He was driven from his leadership post in disgrace — by members of his own party — nearly 12 years ago. The GOP must really have shallow bench if Gingrich is considered one of their front-runners.