Newt _ super committee is about as dumb an idea as Washington

[daa]

Speaking Thursday during the GOP presidential debate in Ames, Iowa, the former House speaker questioned the legitimacy of the 12-member panel that Democratic and Republican congressional leaders filled this week.

"I think this super committee is about as dumb an idea as Washington has come up with in my lifetime," Gingrich said. "I used to run the House of Representatives. I have some general notion of these things. The idea that 523 senators and congressmen are going to sit around for four months while 12 brilliant people, mostly picked for political reasons, are going to sit in some room and brilliantly come up with a trillion dollars, or force us to choose between gutting our military and accepting a tax increase, is irrational.

"They're going to walk in just before Thanksgiving and say, 'All right, we can shoot you in the head or cut off your right leg, which do you prefer?'" he added. "What they ought to do is scrap the committee right now, recognize it's a dumb idea, go back to regular legislative business, assign every subcommittee the task of finding savings. Do it out in the open through regular legislative order and get rid of this secret phony business."

http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2011083212/newt-does-it-again

[ladjf]

1. I'm not accustomed to agreeing with Newt, but, he is correct on

this issue. nt

[HelenWheels]

2. Have to agree with Newt

We elected a Senate and a Congress, not a 12 person panel. This is wrong and not representative of the American people.

[monmouth]

3. He's right on about that. Very dumb idea....n/t

[coalition_unwilling]

4. Thus demonstrating that even the Devil can quote Scripture (or that even

a broken clock is correct twice a day :)

[kentuck]

5. Why do the other 429 Congressmen stand for it...?

They surrender their responsibilities so easily?

As do the other 94 Senators?

What are they? Wallflowers?

[JHB]

6. Reminder, Newt is one of the architects of the current Republican uber-partisanship

He rode to power by treating his opposition as The Enemy: every speech and fundraising letter used terms designed to evoke loathing, disgust, and above all, anger in his audience, and to point that anger at Democrats. He would say anything to attack Democrats (Susan Smith drowned her kids? Democrats' fault!). And he actively promoted the use of this weaponized campaigning by others.

He led the charge to bring down Clinton by any means they could find or create, and was tossed out by his own forces when he couldn't pull it off.

So yes, Newt, the supercommittee is a bad idea and unworkable. But it's there because of what you normalized in Washington.

But coming from you it's like an arsonist complaining about all the heat and smoke.

[UTUSN]

7. HaHAH!1 As an expert on dumb ideas, Newt GRINCH has had quite a few of his own:

Item: Deciding he should run for president. That actual numbers are in his favor or even give him a chance.

Item: Buying jewelry. From Tiffany's.

Item: Pissing off Faux anchors.

Item: Keeping on "running."

Item: Being a babe magnet.

Item: ... (Oh, this is tiring... )

[bemildred]

8. Actually it's quite an old strategy, comes up in Congress whenever ...

the leadership wants to shoehorn something past the membership and the old rush it through at 1:00 AM trick won't work.

[Golden Raisin]

9. I agree with Newt on this.

Six words I never thought would pass my lips.

[dionysus]

10. ROFL, you got people to agree with newt gingrich, on DU...

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[struggle4progress]

11. Newt has one political strategy idea: go unrelentingly negative on everything. There's really no

point in discussing any of his "ideas" because they all boil down to his only political strategy idea, which is go unrelentingly negative on everything

It works for Newt because (1) no matter what he's negative about, a certain number of people will always agree with him; and (2) by being constantly negative, Newt leaves a trail of loud argument in his wake, which guarantees him some media attention

But there's no reason to take any of it seriously. The bottom line is that Newt never makes principled statements or engages in intelligent analysis -- he just continually uses his one and only political strategy: go unrelentingly negative on everything

[Angry Dragon]

12. Newt is da man ..............

[Lugnut]

13. I hate it when I agree with Newt Gingrich.

Too bad nobody will listen to him.