Newt the Culture Warrior

Are ya kiddin' me?

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told Liberty University's graduating class Saturday to honor the spirit of school founder Jerry Falwell by confronting "the growing culture of radical secularism" with Christian ideals [...]

"A growing culture of radical secularism declares that the nation cannot profess the truths on which it was founded," Gingrich said. "We are told that our public schools can no longer invoke the creator, nor proclaim the natural law, nor profess the God-given quality of human rights.

"In hostility to American history, the radical secularists insist that religious belief is inherently divisive and that public debate can only proceed on secular terms," he said.

I don't know what kind of secularism rates as "radical," but I would say someone so disconnected from Judeo-Christian ethics that he would cheat on his wife and divorce her while she was in the hospital for cancer... that's pretty out there on the edge.

Newt looked particularly buffoonish on Meet the Press this morning, doing everything he could to not talk about Iraq when arguing that we should stay in Iraq. He used examples like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Colombia, the US circa 1776, etc. Chris Dodd actually didn't let him get away with the Colombia example because he actually has worked on the issue. Gingrich's point was that we should essentially be unconditionally supporting Alvaro Uribe and not expecting an American standard of democracy (hasn't Colombia had democracy longer than us?) Dodd replied that Colombian money appropriated by the Congress is going into rebuilding and strengthening the FARC, why should we be silent about that?

This is classic Gingrich argument style. He mentions something that he hopes his opponent doesn't know about so he'll get the point conceded to him. Pumpkinhead Russert was certainly willing to do so. If you challenge Gingrich's houses of straw, they collapse with a mere breath.

...there's an interesting profile of Dodd and his bid to separate himself and his policy ideas in the race for the nomination. The article itself is a problem for Dodd, as it's pretty much all about "how do you get into the top tier" instead of "what are your ideas." Dodd is still among the very few candidates I'm taking a look at because he's sensible, knowledgeable and willing to take strong stands, like co-sponsoring Feingold-Reid before any other candidate, and advocating for a corporate carbon tax.