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Newt the Visionary

— By Kevin Drum | Wed August 12, 2009 11:46 AM PST

Matt Taibbi points out today that up until very recently, Newt Gingrich was a big booster of advance care directives and hospice care:

Well, what happens when suddenly the Republican party decides it wants to scare the shit out of a bunch of old people by telling them the new health care bill is going to include a provision in which “death panels” ask them “when they want to die”? Now all of the sudden Gingrich is violently against the same programs he was so windily praising earlier this year.

And make no mistake, this is exactly the same thing. The only thing that’s actually in the health care proposals is a provision that would allow Medicare to pay for exactly the kind of programs Gingrich praised, on a voluntary basis. The programs are not government-administered in any way, there’s just government money now to pay for the private programs. And now Gingrich is suddenly aghast at them.

Nobody ever accused Newt of not being opportunistic enough, so this is no surprise. It's also pretty much identical to his flip-flop on cap-and-trade. Two years ago he was a huge fan because it used market mechanisms to control greenhouse gas emissions. Hooray for the market! But when an actual cap-and-trade plan was introduced — by Democrats — it suddenly became a "command-and-control, anti-energy, big-bureaucracy agenda, including dramatic increases in government power and draconian policies that will devastate our economy."

But Newt's a visionary. Never forget that.

25 Comments | Post Comment

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"But Newt's a visionary.

Submitted by Ranger Jay (not verified) on August 12, 2009 - 11:09am.

"But Newt's a visionary. "

And I thought he was just a dick! I guess that makes him an overachiever...

Why are we still talking about this guy?

Submitted by J. Frank Parnell on August 12, 2009 - 11:12am.

As a serial adulterer, he couldn't win the Republican nomination for dog catcher.
As a commentator he is transparently self-serving. Why does the MSM pay any attention to him? He is about as relevant as Liz Cheney.

Eyeless Newt --NO VISIONARY

Submitted by Jicky on August 13, 2009 - 6:11pm.

AMEN!!! WHY is this guy still even around? He's a throwback to the Reagan-Bush era. He spoke out against Clinton while he was involved in the same type of behaviors. He's got his hands dirty with a "book deal" and money. He shut down the govt. challenging Clinton. The list goes on. And correct again!!! VERY SELF SERVING!!!!

GOP nomination for dog catcher....that is great, and no he wouldn't make it. Maybe, instead of dog catcher, someone should sick the dogs on him and hope they catch hiim. And Palin with him!!!

He's just yet another GOP bloviater. His "Contract with America" is something else.

If anybody can correctly

Submitted by skeptonomist (not verified) on August 12, 2009 - 11:18am.

If anybody can correctly identify visionaries as they are visioning it isn't journalists.

Human wrecking ball

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on August 12, 2009 - 11:32am.

Newt's a visionary, alright. With his enormous head (search on "football" here) up his enormous ass.

I'll bet the world looks different from there.

Obviously, he was for it

Submitted by JBG724 (not verified) on August 12, 2009 - 12:26pm.

Obviously, he was for it before he was against it... Nothing wrong with that, unless you're a liberal.

Obviously, he was for it

Submitted by JBG724 (not verified) on August 12, 2009 - 12:26pm.

Obviously, he was for it before he was against it... Nothing wrong with that, unless you're a liberal.

Let's not forget Newt was the guy who tried to shut down...

Submitted by Crust (not verified) on August 12, 2009 - 1:28pm.

...Congress in order to cut future Medicare benefits. I would be really interested to see the numbers for how much lower Medicare funding would be now if Newt and his Republican revolutionaries had had their way. It might form the basis for a good question for some of those Republican Congressmen who are still around and are now such big fans of Medicare.

years ago ...

Submitted by optical weenie on August 12, 2009 - 2:43pm.

a friend of mine made a very astute comment about Newt.

"Newt's parents named him that because they knew he was one"

Newt g

Submitted by dide (not verified) on August 12, 2009 - 11:12pm.

Newt g, his only title is the ex speaker of the house thank goodness, he's the poo on the lawn of equality, he is a hater of everyone who isnt a white male, he is in bed with rush limbaugh and sarah palin, why doesnt he just go away and get another job. If he thinks the americn people will elect him as president he is insane, along with his other mysoginist, racist, sexist frends who are outdated, non progressive, silly old men who have been indulged for too long. He should get his own tv show on fox tv along with oreilly, glen beck and hannity, bedfellows to the nth degree, who are so enraged that the republicans lost that they are perpetuating hate toward the one President who can really change things for the better. All this disruption of town hallls, hate speechers on news shows is all because they are enraged because a black man is in the White House, its downright meanness and should be considered a hate crime. To the Newts of the world, sit down watch the progressives take the reigns and listen to the message, you are out and we are in, now put that in your pipe and smoke it, you cheating husband , and pathetic outdated fool, give it up and get lost.

I think the word is

Submitted by Jim M (not verified) on August 13, 2009 - 5:08am.

I think the word is revision-ary

Die cast

Submitted by boredwell on August 14, 2009 - 9:57am.

Look, the provision which would have PAID doctors to advise (every 5 years) patients, identified by actuarials or diagnosis to be either imminent or moribund, on end-of-life considerations is best curtailed. Why? Most doctors, if not all, refer these people and their caregivers to Hospice who will provide information on drawing up Medical and Financial Durable Powers, composing a Last Will and Testament and palliative treatments pertinent to the final stage of mortality. If this provision were to pass, could doctors then charge for asking a patient if he/she had a medical durable power when most admission forms include this during patient in-takes? Paying physicians would be redundant as well as costly.

Health bulletin Newt G

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on August 14, 2009 - 1:25pm.

But Newt's a visionary.

Actually, this claim has been withdrawn by the GOP. What they meant to say was that Newt is afflicted by nightmares every now and then. Not to worry though, these visions of his usually go away all by themselves.

i have one problem i don't

Submitted by tiffany jewelry (not verified) on August 15, 2009 - 12:35am.

i have one problem i don't have the blackberry anymore so what do i do now i did back up all the contacts to the computer using the blackberry destop manager

The Blabbering blubbering loud mouthed Newt, limbaugh, & Beck

Submitted by AnnaFowler on September 11, 2009 - 4:12pm.

Anna Fowler-And these are Cheney's choices for Republican Party Leadership. Really scraping the bottom of the barrel.

All of them lie, spread propaganda and have subjected Obama to insults and ridicule as they and all right-winged supposedly "Born Again" Christians & cannot understand they have been kicked out for ignoring our Country and our Countrymen's needs for over 40 years and can't stand up to the plate and acknowledge that fact.

Ban Fox and Limbaugh's radio network. Understand that he is a known drug addict and claims a 2 week rehab cured him. Ask any physician if a 2 week rehab can cure any addiction, drugs, alcohol or smoking.

They are full of __it and detrimental to our society.