Gingrich on Mozilla CEO: "Blatant Example Of The New Fascism"

JONATHAN KARL, ABC NEWS: Now the tech CEO forced out of his job over his stance on Gay marriage. Brendan Eich, who ran Mozilla, maker of the popular Firefox web browser stepped down after the uproar over a $ 1,000 donation he gave in 2008 to a group supporting an anti-gay marriage campaign.

So, we saw Andrew Sullivan, influential blogger, one of the earlier advocates of gay marriage, came out strongly against all this, calling it McCarthyism. Andrew writing, he will now — will he now be forced to walk through the streets in shame? Why not stocks? If this is the gay rights movement today, then count me out.

Interesting to me there, Speaker Gingrich, is Andrew Sullivan sounded a little bit like you on this.

NEWT GINGRICH: Yeah, I thought his entire article, in fact, was very strong. The people ought to recognize, if you’re a young faculty member in a lot of places if you’re a young member of a news department and you have the wrong views, meaning conservative, you have no career. This is just the most open, blatant example of the new fascism, which says if you don’t agree with us 100 percent we have the right to punish you. Unless you’re like Hillary and like Barack Obama and you recant.

So, they both had the same view in 2008 as he did.

DONNA BRAZILE: But there’s a difference between actively campaigning to define marriage as being between one man and one woman and not being a supporter of marriage.

GINGRICH: And so you should lose your job, you should lose your job if you have a different view.

BRAZILE: He voluntarily stepped aside.

GINGRICH: No, I’m simply saying that there is a distinction between where President Obama and Hillary Clinton were on this issue…

KARL: They weren’t financing that referendum, to be clear.

But where would you draw the line? I mean, what of his came out against interracial marriage? Would that be?

GINGRICH: I think the question you ought to ask yourself is how — do you want to live in an open, tolerant society or to you have to impose your views at the cost of people’s jobs? You have to, for example, bribe the Catholics out of having an adoption service in Massachusetts because they actually insist on giving only to heterosexual couples.

BRAZILE: Do you forget that today’s — some people can still be fired because they’re gay on the job. And that’s why it’s important…

GINGRICH: And now they can be…

BRAZILE: …we have fair standards. He stepped aside. He voluntarily stepped…

GINGRICH: He was pressured by public campaign and so it’s not voluntary. This was over pressure.

BRAZILE: But I do agree with Andrew Sullivan that we have to, you know, be very careful that we are not practicing a new McCarthyism.

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Gingrich on Mozilla CEO: "Blatant Example Of The New Fascism"

Gingrich, Graham Warn of Military Standoff if US Fails to Help Ukraine

Two prominent Republicans are warning that failure of the United States to deter Russia in Ukraine will only embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin and could end in a military standoff.

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia write in an op-ed on CNN.com that failure of the United States and Western Europe to act could give Putin the green light to “test our resolve” in Latvia, Lithuania, or Estonia.

Those three former Soviet republics are now members of NATO, which all other NATO members, including the United States, are bound by treaty to protect with military force.

“Trouble there could ‘reset’ us right back to direct warfare with Russia,” the two write. “That would be a disaster and very, very dangerous.”

Passivity, they say, is the path most likely to lead to war.

“The Obama administration should grant the request for military aid immediately — before it’s too late for deterrence,” they write.

Gingrich and Graham also call for President Barack Obama to immediately issue an executive order approving the export of American natural gas to 20 countries awaiting bureaucratic approval.

“The highest priority should go to approving exports to Europe, where in many places, Russia has a near-monopoly on natural gas,” they said.

They also call on Obama to issue an executive order approving 24 pending liquefied natural gas facilities they say have been delayed by “bureaucratic red tape.”

Europe is heavily dependent on natural gas from Russia, leading many Republicans to call on increased production in the United States to lessen Putin’s stranglehold on Europe, which has been less willing to buy into sanctions against Russia for fear of it holding back energy exports.

The op-ed notes that while Obama hosted Ukraine’s interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk last week as a show of support and Secretary of State John Kerry announced “very serious” steps if Russia does not back down by Monday from its attempt to annex Crimea, those words must be backed by action.

“Theodore Roosevelt is famous for a foreign policy he summarized as ‘speak softly and carry a big stick,’” the pair wrote. “Obama’s foreign policy is closer to ‘scream loudly and carry no stick.’”

Related Stories:

• Ukraine PM: ‘We Are on the Brink of Disaster’


• Keane: China, Iran, NKorea Watching Obama Inaction on Ukraine

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Gingrich, Graham Warn of Military Standoff if US Fails to Help Ukraine

Gingrich on Hillary & Benghazi: "We"re Never Going To Beat Her On Nitpicking Smaller Issues"

NEWT GINGRICH: I think any Republican strategy which tries to nibble at Hillary Clinton is hopeless. I mean, she has been in public life for 40 years. She was named the government field person in 1972. I mean, the idea that suddenly we’re going to learn something new about Hillary Clinton.

ANDREA MITCHELL: She was on the Nixon Impeachment Committee staff.

NEWT GINGRICH: In fact, she’s a lot like Nixon in her capacity to survive forever. So, she’s a fact. She gets beaten. She’s going to get beaten because Obamacare keeps dictating. She’s going to get beaten because we’re losing the war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

She’s going to get beaten because there are big decisions and she’s caught between loyalty to a president whose base is still loyal and the country. Now, if that happens, she’ll lose. But we’re never going to beat her on nitpicking smaller issues.

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Gingrich on Hillary & Benghazi: "We"re Never Going To Beat Her On Nitpicking Smaller Issues"

Gingrich to Reich: Every City in Poverty is Run by Democrats

Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Clinton administration Labor Secretary Robert Reich debated the causes of poverty in America on Sunday, with each blaming the other’s political party for the problem.

Appearing as a panelist on ABC’s “This Week,” Gingrich noted that the GOP should “rethink some of its indifference to the very poor.” He also said Democrats should ask themselves after 50 years of the war on poverty if government isn’t fixing the problem.

Panelist Reich countered that President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty was successful for a time.

“What has happened, however, over the last 30 years is that much of the, much of the ardor, much of the concern, much of the, what propelled that war on poverty has dissipated,” Reich said.

“I think it has something to do, perhaps, with the intransigence of the Speaker’s party,” Reich continued, “because every time there was a jobs bill, every time there was an effort to expand a low income housing, every time there was an effort to provide better opportunities for young people. We’re talking about equal opportunity.”

“This is baloney,” Gingrich interrupted. “Every major city which is a center of poverty is run by Democrats. Every major city. Their policies have failed …”

Reich went on to note that long-time New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is not a Democrat. (Bloomberg first served as a moderate Republican, but later became an independent.)

“Newt, I am surprised you are not taking responsibility here,” Reich said.

© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Newsmax – America

Gingrich to Reich: Every City in Poverty is Run by Democrats

Gingrich: Founding Fathers Liked Shutdowns...

There are moments when different branches of government cannot reach agreement. Shutdowns are an expression of those differences.

Joe Marquette / AP

Rep. Newt Gingrich is sworn in as House Speaker, Wednesday, Jan. 4, 1995 in the House chambers on Capitol Hill in Washington.

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In 1995 and 1996 there were two government shutdowns.

Tensions were high.

Harsh words were used on both sides.

And yet common sense also existed and conversations continued.

Ultimately President Clinton and the Republicans in Congress reached agreements which led to cuts in spending, welfare reform, the first tax cuts in 16 years, and the only four consecutive balanced budgets in our lifetime.

The tension today is similar, but in some ways there are more differences. Back in 1995-96, there was the understanding that government shutdowns were an unpleasant but integral part of the legislative-executive power struggle. That power struggle is built into the American Constitution. The Founding Fathers wanted to protect freedom by separating powers so every branch had to negotiate with the others. They believed the legislative branch was closest to the people and in peacetime the most important branch. That is why the Constitution devotes Article One to the Congress.

They knew a powerful executive was needed to run the government and to serve as Commander in Chief in wartime. (These were men who had just fought an eight-year-long war with Great Britain and before that some of them had been in the seven-year-long French and Indian War.)

Finally, they wanted a Judiciary Branch to supervise the laws. They deeply distrusted the British judges who they saw as agents of the government and so they made the Judiciary Branch the third article. In the Federalist Papers they assured Americans that the judges would be the weakest of the three branches.

Because power is split, there are moments when the different branches cannot reach agreement. In those moments, the tension builds. Government shutdowns are an expression of those differences.

Back in 1995, we were used to shutdowns as part of the negotiating process. Democratic Speaker Tip O’Neill had twelve shutdowns during his Speakership. Not so today, as seen both in the news media and in the hysteria of President Obama and the Democrats. Until this week, there had been seventeen years without a legislative-executive confrontation that led to a shutdown.

That period is now over.

There are very deep and profound differences between the House Republicans, who won the 2010 election opposing Obamacare, and President Obama, for whom this is his greatest legacy. The President won in 2012. What he and his allies refuse to acknowledge is that the House Republicans also won in 2012. In the American system when both sides win there has to be a negotiation. Neither side can demand surrender from the other.

President Bill Clinton understood this requirement of negotiation, communication and compromise. There is no evidence President Obama believes he is required to negotiate, communicate, or compromise with a Congress which opposes him. In fact, there is a lot of evidence he believes he is superior to the “People’s House.”

If the president begins a phone call with the words “I will not negotiate,” as President Obama did last Friday with Speaker Boehner, it is pretty hard to see how they can find a common ground. That was not President Clinton’s style at all.

House Republicans have to be prepared to compromise but so must President Obama and his Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Faced with a president who refuses to negotiate, the House Republicans have to stand firm. A collapse of the House Republicans would teach President Obama that he can get away with virtually anything he wants. It would lead to a frightening three years and ultimately an even bigger crisis.

There is a path to a negotiated agreement but it requires both sides to negotiate. In 1995-96, both sides knew they were subordinate to the Constitution and they had to reach an agreement. It is not clear that this is true today.

Newt Gingrich is a former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and a new host of CNN’s Crossfire. He is the author of many historical novels, including his latest, Victory at Yorktown. The views expressed are solely his own.

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Gingrich: Founding Fathers Liked Shutdowns...

Reid to GOP: Ask Gingrich About Gov"t Shutdown

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had a bit of advice for his Republican colleagues Monday if they happen to be in favor of a government shutdown: ask Newt Gingrich how the move worked out for him.

Politco reports that Reid made the suggestion about contacting the former Speaker of the House in his opening remarks that began the last week of congressional action before the August recess.

Gingrich was House speaker during a 1995 shutdown.

“If Republicans force us to the brink of another government shutdown for ideological reasons, the economy will suffer,” Reid said. “I would suggest to any of my Republican colleagues that has this idea: Give a call to Newt Gingrich. He’ll return your phone calls. Ask him how it worked. It was disastrous for Newt Gingrich, the Republicans and the country.”

Reid’s warning was directed at Republican efforts to oppose spending bills that provide funding for Obamacare.

Separate House and Senate groups have informed party leaders they will stand firm in their opposition to spending bills that contain Obamacare funding, which has raised the specter of a shutdown in Washington as a Sept. 30 deadline looms to fund the government.

Two GOP senators who have been vocal in their disdain for Obamacare don’t believe their stance will result in a government shutdown.

Writing in an op-ed for the conservative website RedState.com Monday, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said that when it comes to a showdown decision, the ball is in President Obama’s court.

“This September, we need the American people to stand with us in demanding that not another cent be spent on implementing ObamaCare,” Rubio wrote. “At that point, the President will have a decision to make: sign it and keep the government open, or veto it and shut down the government.”

On Sunday, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said that the government will inevitably be funded, which means “the only question is whether the government gets funded with Obamacare or without.”

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Newsmax – Politics

Reid to GOP: Ask Gingrich About Gov"t Shutdown