Newt? Making sense?

As I read through stories on the Web about the Minneapolis bridge collapse this morning, a tiring and predictable thread emerged in the comments following the articles: Democrats and Republicans bickering about whose fault it was. There were posts about how Republicans just want tax breaks and how Bush has spent the money we need for infrastructure improvement to line Halliburton’s pockets. These were followed up by Republicans saying all liberals want to do is blame everything on GWB and how liberals never met a tax they didn’t like and are Al Qaeda sympathizers, yadda, yadda, yadda. So tiresome, so unproductive, so ugly.

Then I encounter a post on Salon’s War Room about Newt Gingrich’s address to a gathering of young conservatives. “My God,” I thought, ”another Republican starting to make sense!” Why is Newt making sense to me now? Because he told his audience to stop thinking like Republicans. Read what follows and be amazed:

He began benignly enough, using an anecdote about going to Disney World with his grandchildren to explain an epiphany he'd had about the value of not "thinking like a Republican." From there Gingrich moved into waters the students surely did not expect. He cited the Detroit school system, where a black male is more likely to go to prison than graduate from high school.

"How can we tolerate systems more likely to send young Americans to prison than college?" asked Gingrich. "Republicans have this maniacally dumb idea of red versus blue. They say Detroit is a blue place, so we're not going to go there."

And he was just getting started.

"Republican political doctrine has been a failure," Gingrich said. "Look at New Orleans. How can you say that was a success? Look at Baghdad ... We've been in charge for six years and I don't think you can look around and say that was a great success.

"We have got to get beyond this political bologna. I'm not allowed to say anything positive about Hillary Clinton because then I'm not a loyal Republican, and she's not allowed to say anything positive about me because then she's not a loyal Democrat. What a stupid way to run a country." This last line he nearly spat out, expressing what seemed like genuine outrage.

The post goes on to say that the audience response was lukewarm. Too bad.

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