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Add to NewsvineTrust me, young people, when I tell you that once upon a time, Newt Gingrich was one of the most brilliant political tacticians in the land. I was in Washington when he masterminded the GOP takeover of the House in 1994. It is rather startling, then, to see him recognize with brutal clarity the terrible state that Congressional Republicans are in today, and to offer a "real change" list of like this for how they might recover for November.
Repeal the gas tax? Empty the strategic petroleum reserve? Implement a GPS air traffic control system? Declare English the official language?
Is Newt smoking pot? Really, it is to laugh. This is one of the smartest thinkers in the Republican Party, and all he can come up with to save his crisis-ridden Congressional party is midnight freakin' basketball?! If that doesn't indicate how intellectually bankrupt the GOP is now, nothing will. Rahm Emanuel has got to be peeing his pants with laughter.
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Gotta' start somewhere in an effort to regain credibility. I don't think Newt is talking about really improving things at a fundamental level, just offering suggestions of basic things his party can do to become credible.
Posted by: Tad | May 8, 2008 10:51 AM
I think the first mistake is in thinking that Newt still gives a damn.
Posted by: Kerf | May 8, 2008 12:44 PM
Rod, you're being glib (big Tom Cruise fan).
Newt didn't say he wanted to "drain the strategic reserve". He wanted to divert the oil we're continuing to add to it in order to lower prices.
As a frequent flyer (I fly to work Sunday, back home on Thursday or Friday and will be flying this Friday and Sunday as well - Al Gore just screamed at my Carbon Footprint) I can tell you, moving to a space-based GPS system will greatly help air traffic, reduce delays and increase fuel efficiency of our air fleets.
It's a mixture of a few solid policy prescriptions and "red meat" to get their base to the polls.
If you've listened or read what Newt Gingrich says over the past months, the Republican leadership should listen more to him.
Of course, I was hoping Dick Cheney would run for president with his senior adviser being Victor Davis Hanson, so that gives you an idea about my stance.
Posted by: Brian | May 8, 2008 6:41 PM
At the time I thought Newt was missing a bet by not instituting a year-round deer hunting season along with raising the speed limit.
Posted by: Marian Neudel | May 12, 2008 1:00 PM
Marian Neudel, that may be the non sequitur of the day, if not the week.
Returning to the article under discussion, I cynically suspect that the filling of the SPR will be reduced during the summer in a grand gesture, and that will coincide with a decline in world oil prices & thus gasoline prices.
Any changes in the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system better be approached with great care, because the existing one was created disaster-by-disaster, starting IIRC with a mid air collision over the Grand Canyon in the 1950's. Each piece of the ATC is there because of someone getting killed, sometimes a whole airliner full of someones, and thus if some change in ATC were to be even a remote part of a major crash, all bets would be off.
At some point, coastal drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico off of Florida is going to happen. I can't guess what price of oil it will take to get there, but it's going to happen. An integrated energy plan that starts with making it easier to build nuclear plants in order to stop burning coal to make electricity would be a good idea. However, most petroleum in the US is burned in transportation; trains, trucks, cars, aircraft. A good place to start would be electrification of railways; the French have been succeeding in this for 30 years. Yes, they have a lot smaller geographical area to traverse.
Basically, the Republicans are going to get beaten badly this year, and a lot depends on who becomes President. If we get the equivalent of another Carter administration, things could be quite different in 2012.
Posted by: Anti Dhimmi | May 12, 2008 5:25 PM
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