As a service to our readers, every day we are delivering a classic moment from the political life of Newt Gingrich—until he either clinches the nomination or bows out.
Asked in 2008 about the Bush administration’s efforts in the war in terror, Gingrich expressed his frustration that the public wasn’t sufficiently concerned about terrorists on a day to day basis. As he explained: “The better they’ve done at making sure there isn’t going to be an attack, the easier it is to say there was never going to be an attack anyway. It’s almost like they should every once in a while have allowed an attack to go through just to remind us”:
Gingrich was joking—sort of. He really did think serious changes needed to be made to the nation’s law enforcement framework at the expense of civil liberties. That’s why he’d create a new agency, separate from the traditional domestic crime-fighting FBI (which would still be forced to comply with the Bill of Rights). “I would have a small, but very aggressive anti-terrorist agency. And I would give them extraordinary ability to eavesdrop. And my first advice to civil libertarians would be simple: Don’t plot with terrorists.” To quote Jefferson. Or was it Jay?