Hi. I'm Newt Gingrich. And if You Repeat What I Said on Meet the Press, You're a Liar!
Newt Gingrich had to crawl to Rush Limbaugh today. It was by telephone, which is just as well as word has it the entrance to Limbaugh's studio is built like the hut Ugandan monster Idi Amin had built to welcome official visitors, with a door so low the visitor had no choice but to BOW to Amin when entering.
First, Newt had to apologize for saying what he thinks about social engineering, either from the left or the right. Which, when you come right down to it, was a perfectly reasonable thing to say. Which, under the GOP's new "Tiny Tent" philosophy, means he can NEVER be the nominee because he QUESTIONS their plan to destroy the most popular government program in 50 years.
After apologizing for saying what he actually thought, he said...
"And by the way, it was not a reference to Paul Ryan. There was no reference to Paul Ryan in that answer."
Now, let's be fair. The last time Newt held public office there was no such thing as 24/7 cable news. Back then you could pretty much say whatever the hell you wanted and then backtrack if it turned out you farted in the church pew. Wasn't talking about Paul Ryan on "Meet the Press"? Roll the tape, Phil...To which Limbaugh asked: "Well then what did you apologize to him about?"
"Because it was interpreted in a way, which was causing trouble, which he doesn't need or deserve. And it was causing the House Republicans trouble," said Gingrich. "One of my closest friends, somebody I truly, deeply respect, e-mailed me and said 'Your answer hits every Republican who voted for the budget.'"
REP. GINGRICH: I don't think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering. I don't think imposing radical change from the right or the left is a very good way for a free society to operate. I think we need a national conversation to get to a better Medicare system with more choices for seniors. But there are specific things you can do. At the Center for Health Transformation, which I helped found, we published a book called "Stop Paying the Crooks." We thought that was a clear enough, simple enough idea, even for Washington. We--between Medicare and Medicaid, we pay between $70 billion and $120 billion a year to crooks. And IBM has agreed to help solve it, American Express has agreed to help solve it, Visa's agreed to help solve it. You can't get anybody in this town to look at it. That's, that's almost $1 trillion over a decade. So there are things you can do to improve Medicare. Continued on the next page
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