Commenter Chris Hill made a good point the other day about Newt Gingrich staying in the Republican presidential race:
One minor correction….Newt Gingrich’s NEW stated strategy is not a path to nomination, but a path to denying Mitt Romney the nomination. When that happens, as Prof. Newt said Tuesday night, then the GOP can “have a conversation” about who should lead the ticket in the fall campaign against Pres. Obama.
Scott Conroy of Real Clear Politics laid out the Gingrich position in this article:
“People are assuming if Newt gets out, it helps Santorum because it sets up a one-on-one contest against Romney,” said RealClearPolitics senior elections analyst Sean Trende. “But by Newt staying in, he’s actually gobbling up some of Romney’s delegates. And that’s the name of the game at this point: keeping Romney below 1,144. So I think Newt staying in actually helps Santorum.”
Having read the piece several times, I’m still not sure whether the argument holds up (it might!).
It does bring to mind, however, the late Speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn. Political lore has it that when Republicans took control of the House after the 1952 elections, Rayburn told his Democratic caucus, “Any jackass can kick a barn down, but it takes a carpenter to build one”.
Rayburn meant that Democrats would not be obstructionists, but would play a constructive role in governing the country despite being in the minority—and that they would thereby demonstrate to voters that the Democrats could be trusted with power. Two years later, Democrats retook the House and remained in the majority for the next 40 years.
Coincidentally, Newt Gingrich is the Republican who ended that streak when he became Speaker after the 1994 elections. Having risen to power, Gingrich promptly set about proving he had no talent for wielding it, and resigned (“You can’t fire me; I quit”) less than four years later.
Now, once again, Gingrich has a strategy for obstructing and destroying his opponent—even if it means the Republican Party has to endure the first open convention in over a generation. For a carpenter with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. For Newt, the Machiavelli of jackasses, every problem looks like a barn.
Crossposted at: http://masscommons.wordpress.com/
