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“The man of system . . . is apt to be very wise in his own conceit; and is often so enamoured with the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government, that he cannot suffer the smallest deviation from any part of it. He goes on to establish it completely and in all its part, without any regard either to the great interests or to the strong prejudices which may oppose it.

He seems to imagine that he can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chess-board . . .”

~ Adam Smith ~ The Theory of Moral Sentiments , 1759

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Rep. Allen West (R-FL) had a very specific message for Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi at the Palm Beach County Republican Party Lincoln Day dinner.

“Take your message of equality of achievement, take your message of economic dependency, take your message of enslaving the entrepreneurial will and spirit of the American people somewhere else. You can take it to Europe, you can take it to the bottom of the sea, you can take it to the North Pole, but get the hell out of the United States of America.”

Well Done!

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5th UPDATE: Pat Buchanan: Reagan White House saw Newt as ‘something of a political opportunist’

4th UPDATE: Sarah Palin Says It Like It Is

3rd UPDATE: Must Read – As all of this unravels Jeffrey Lord at American Spectator provides excellent arguments of why the anti-Newt claims are false.

2nd UPDATE: At the bottom of this post I have a statement from Michael Reagan on this issue.

UPDATE: To be fair and countering my blistering commentary on Newt Gingrich below, friend and fellow blogger Professor William A. Jacobson at Legal Insurrection writes much the opposite with links to other articles defending Gingrich and separating out of context words written recently. Read it here. Make sure you also read what I had to say below, complete with videos. Thanks!

I’ve always been Conservative even growing up in a blue-collar Democrat voting family. Ronald Reagan was merely an extension of by political beliefs, both fiscal and social. Ronald Reagan made me feel good about America, he made America feel optimistic. Ronald Reagan was a leader. I yearn for the day when America has a leader like Ronald Reagan.

Which brings me to Newt Gingrich. I was nearly ready to endorse Gingrich as GOP nominee, while holding my nose. Of course, I’ve been close to endorsing Mitt Romney while also holding my nose. The problem is this – the GOP is not offering a candidate worth my vote. I like Rick Santorum but I don’t like the way he ran his campaign and don’t believe he has the money or organization backing to rise to the top.

I was recently asked – then who? My answer was Stephen Harper, with tongue in cheek, implying the best bet may be to ready the passports and move to Canada before tyranny continues and Barack Obama gets another term or we get more RINOs in Congress and the White House. I don’t believe Mitt Romney when he says he will repeal Obamacare as he changes positions so frequently it’s like the weather in and around Chicago.

Newt Gingrich has supported the individual mandate for healthcare, he sat on a park bench with Nancy Pelosi and supported cap and trade taxes as a cure for global warming that doesn’t exist. He attacked one of my favorites in Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) who really does produce bold plans and can express them better than anyone in Congress or the White House or in the current GOP campaign.

But now it has come to light that Newt Gingrich repeatedly attacked Ronald Reagan during the 1980s while President Reagan was leading the country and the Republican Party. There is no putting his words back in his mouth or spinning this away with charm and intellect. Ugh, ugh – no way, no how.

If you’ve watched the GOP debates than you heard Gingrich constantly wrapping himself around the Ronald Reagan mantle – his close relationship with the President, how he is a “bold Reagan Conservative.” Even telling anyone who will listen how he helped end the Cold War, end the Soviet Union, and create millions of jobs. President Reagan helped create an environment for entrepreneurs to create jobs – no President or Congressman ever creates job. Mr. Reagan would never take that kind of credit but Newt Gingrich is a professional at self praise. My mother always said – “Self praise stinks, have some humility.”

At the Reagan presidential library this fall, Gingrich boasted of how:

“I helped Reagan create millions of jobs while he was president.”

And after modestly acknowledging his own less significant role than Reagan’s, added:

“We helped defeat the Soviet empire.” Unmentioned by Gingrich then, or in any of the 2,414 debates during this campaign, was his 1985 criticism of President Reagan’s historic meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev as “the most dangerous summit for the West since Adolf Hitler met with (British Prime Minister) Chamberlain at Munich in 1938.”

In an interview on CNBC, Gingrich recently emphasized his close identification with the nation’s 40th president:

“I’ve done a movie on Ronald Reagan called ‘Rendezvous With Destiny.’ Callista and I did. We’ve done a book on Ronald Reagan. You know I campaigned with Reagan. I first met Reagan in ’74. I’m very happy to talk about Ronald Reagan.”

Indeed Mr. Gingrich is happy to talk about his “close relationship” with Ronald Reagan. What politician running as a “Bold Conservative” would not?

How about when Gingrich went to the House floor during the Gipper’s second White House term and declared the president’s Soviet policy a “failure.” Here is what Gingrich said:

“Measured against the scale and momentum of the Soviet empire’s challenge, the Reagan administration has failed, is failing and without a dramatic, fundamental change in strategy will continue to fail. … The burden of the failure frankly must be placed first upon President Reagan.”

As reported in the Congressional Record, Gingrich had found Reagan responsible for our national “decay”:

“Beyond the obvious indicators of decay, the fact is that President Reagan has lost control of the national agenda.”

Here is Gingrich in 1986:

“Measured against the scale and momentum of the Soviet empire’s challenge, the Reagan administration has failed, is failing, and without a dramatic change in strategy will continue to fail. . . . President Reagan is clearly failing.”

Why? This was due partly to “his administration’s weak policies, which are inadequate and will ultimately fail”; partly to CIA, State, and Defense, which “have no strategies to defeat the empire.”

But of course “the burden of this failure frankly must be placed first on President Reagan.” Our efforts against the Communists in the Third World were “pathetically incompetent,” so those anti-Communist members of Congress who questioned the $100 million Reagan sought for the Nicaraguan “contra” rebels “are fundamentally right.”

Such was Gingrich’s faith in President Reagan that in 1985, he called Reagan’s meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev “the most dangerous summit for the West since Adolf Hitler met with Neville Chamberlain in 1938 in Munich.”

In 1988 Gingrich said George H.W. Bush Won’t Win If He Runs To Continue Reaganism:

These types of outright contradictions involving exactly what Congressman Gingrich in fact said during the time President Reagan was in office and exactly what Candidate Gingrich now offers as fictitious recollections associated with his unwavering allegiance to President Reagan reminds me of one of the past speaker’s personal broadsides in opposition to Washington DC.

“In this cold and ruthless city,” he once said, “the center of hypocrisy is Capitol Hill.”

Newt Gingrich is quite clearly an authority regarding both topics. Bold hypocrisy, indeed!

Ronald Reagan’s eldest son Mike Reagan has issued a statement lambasting Mitt Romney and his supporters for claims that Romney’s Republican presidential rival Newt Gingrich was a strong critic of President Reagan. Michael says such claims are false.

“I am deeply disturbed that supporters of Mitt Romney are claiming that Newt Gingrich is not a true Reaganite and are even claiming that Newt was a strong critic of my father.

“Recently I endorsed Newt Gingrich for president because I believe that Newt is the only Republican candidate who has both consistently backed the conservative policies that my father championed and the only Republican that will continue to implement his vision.

“It surprises me that Mitt Romney and his supporters would raise this issue — when Mitt by his own admission voted for Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale who opposed my father, and later supported liberal Democrat Paul Tsongas for president.

“As governor of Massachusetts, Romney’s achievement was the most socialistic healthcare plan in the nation up until that time.

“Say what you want about Newt Gingrich but when he was Speaker of the House he surrounded himself with Reagan conservatives and implemented a Ronald Reagan program of low taxes and restrained federal spending.

“Newt’s conservative program created a huge economic boom and balanced the budget for the first time in more than a generation.”

“I would take Newt Gingrich’s record any day over Mitt Romney’s.”

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