There’s no better illustration of how ecstatic Democrats are about Newt Gingrich leading the GOP primary pack than Nancy Pelosi’s strategic silence.
Pelosi knows more about Gingrich than perhaps any other major national political figure. She was a senior Democrat when Gingrich was House Speaker, served on the ethics committee that investigated Gingrich for tax cheating and campaign finance violations, and even cut a 2008 ad with him on the importance of addressing global climate change.
But when TPM asked her to talk a bit about his recent ascent and the possibility that he’ll be the GOP nominee, she mostly demurred.
“I like Barney Frank’s quote the best, where he said ‘I never thought I’d live such a good life that I would see Newt Gingrich be the nominee of the Republican party,’” Pelosi said in an exclusive interview Friday. “That quote I think spoke for a lot of us.”
Pelosi didn’t go into detail about Gingrich’s past transgressions, but she tipped her hand. “One of these days we’ll have a conversation about Newt Gingrich,” Pelosi said. “I know a lot about him. I served on the investigative committee that investigated him, four of us locked in a room in an undisclosed location for a year. A thousand pages of his stuff.”
Pressed for more detail she wouldn’t go further.
“Not right here,” Pelosi joked. “When the time’s right.”
Which is to say that if Gingrich somehow clinches the nomination, there’s one hell of an oppo dump coming.
Update: Gingrich responds, thanking Pelosi for the “early Christmas gift.”
Brian Beutler
Brian Beutler is TPM's senior congressional reporter. Since 2009, he's led coverage of health care reform, Wall Street reform, taxes, the GOP budget, the government shutdown fight, and the debt limit fight. He can be reached at brian@talkingpointsmemo.com.
rayfinn1
Only a 1%er could afford to do those jobs for no pay, ridiculous idea.
Ironically, none of the leftist dweebs posting here are smart enough to recognize the land mine they've tripped into. Democrats insinuated 80+ ethics violations, found nothing but inaccurate filings on one tax document, which the full ethics committee never agreed was a genuine violation and then referred it to the IRS to determine. The IRS ultimately cleared Gingrich of any violation. Any attempt by Pelosi, Obama, et al, to use this will blow up in their face in the worst way; not only does it expose these democrats to an investigation for violating house rules, but also it shows that the leftists within the DNC are vapid, unoriginal, hypocrites who can't find a scandal to beat up Gingrinch without first violating the law to do so.
Kevin Burnett You simply have no idea how politics works. Let me educate you- Pelosi _wants_ Gingrich to be the nominee. Then y'all will spend months talking about how Gingrich didn't actually, technically commit any violations while blaming the media ad nauseum for bringing it up. You guys will probably spend more time defending Gingrich than the media will actually spend attacking him, your victimization complex is so well established! And then the election will happen. We 'leftist' (that is, left of Bush) 'dweebs' are quite confident about how that will go. Have fun blaming the media!
rizzmrazzmfrazzm Let me tell you how facts work. Facts are independent of partisanship and opinion. Facts stand tall like a rocky crag in a churning sea of opinion... And the fact is you just slayed a strawman that in no way addressed my point.
Kevin Burnettrizzmrazzmfrazzm Fact is you never undersstod his point. Typical.
FACT: Newt pays a $300,000 fine for violations of Congressional ethics, Ethics committee is majority GOPigs
FACT: His own party plots to kick him out.
FACT: Newt resigned his Pseakership and left Congress in disgrace
wellstone Strawmen suit you.
He left and if the GOP rinos at the time kicked him out then thats a good thing. The GOP is evolving to something very different than the Old boys club it was. The New GOP led by Gingrich will finally clean out the club and crush whats left of the Obama Dems. This Obamination will be over 2012.
Geo Muller I thought Reagan ended the country-club era; then I thought W ended the country-club era, but I guess it's gonna be Gingrich that ends the country club era. Then when he loses, it will be the media's fault and then the next Republican will end the country-club era of the GOP. Then when that Republican increases the size of government, you will all be astonished, blame the media, then wait for the next hero. The Democratic Party is not exactly the most admirable institution on earth (a kinder, gentler oligarchy) but l promise you- the country-club era of the GOP will _never_ end.
Savage says it best "liberalism is a mental disorder" and they should all be drug tested
rlw1836 That you're taking cues from that reactionary idiot shows who's really mental.
Hot Air| Pelosi: On second thought …http://hotair.com/archives/2011/12/06/pelosi-on-se...
Read my post above. On second thought, why am I wasting time trying to educate teabaggers about politics? StewartIII
rizzmrazzmfrazzm Probably, because you're an expert on getting tea-bagged.
Yes, I have listened to Rush Limbaugh for twenty years. I am an expert in getting tea-bagged. Kevin Burnett
hey Kevin why even address the slurs these libs throw. They are devoid of a president with a record of success so all they can do is try to destroy their opponents or slur anyone who doesnt see things as they are down their little socialist alley. The Tea party here on long Island (thats in the peoples republic of NY) has over 45,000 listed members in one faction There are 3 or 4 other chapters. Soon the power of a fair vote (NO ACORN) will begin to fix whats wrong up in Washington. These OWS types got nothing except a compliant media willing to TRY to prop them up.
Geo Muller Try to make any political argument without portraying yourself as the victim of the media. I dare ya.
rizzmrazzmfrazzm Which means he's kicked your butt repeated for 20 years.
rizzmrazzmfrazzm Sounds like you need to take your own advice... Try to make any political argument without portraying yourself the victim of rich people.
Your brain searches for a way out of the argument. Having digested an ideology that constantly thinks of itself as a victim of a trillion dollar news/entertainment industry (which is communist, somehow)... you say ... (see above.) I'm trying to help you out. Have you ever noticed that your side always blames the referee? You could lose 35-0, you would still blame the ref.
rizzmrazzmfrazzm Yeah, to carry your metaphor to it's logical conclusions... you blame the team owners for the reason you suck instead of looking inward to your own inabilities.
Having been given several chances to deny victim-of-the-media status, you choose to blather. You are hereby granted your desired status of Permanent Media Victim. Congratulations. This concludes our presentation. Kevin Burnett
You really think Obam ids a good president? He's broken almost every promise he pledged to you.
You've been given several chances to prove you have a brain, but you chose to wax-fallaciously. You are hereby appointed the status of loser. rizzmrazzmfrazzm
Geo Muller So Gingrich is the candidate supported by the Tea Party?
psyopswatcher I don't think so... Actually I don't think there's a Tea Party presidential candidate at all.
@Geo Muller
devoid or a president with a record of success?
Succeeded in passing healthcare bill.
Succeeded in reorganizing War to original goal of focusing on the capture/death of Osama Bin Laden...goal achieved
Succeeded in support of ousting ghadafi with "no boots on the ground" <---only supplied drone attacks
Gave you idiots an extension on your Bush Tax cuts <---where's the jobs Congress said would magically appear if the Tax Cuts were extended?
Oh yeah and he succeeded in one thing which is making me vote against him: He succeeded in giving, according to Boehner "90% of what we want (republicans)." <--- again where the hell are the jobs?
Geo Muller
Geo, people that think like you & Kevin are going to be the ones in charge of the destruction of our great country. Grab your guns & food hoards & move into your cave. Please leave your laptops at home.
Kevin Burnettrizzmrazzmfrazzm the only loser here is you . and your arrogance.
Gerry Nix@geo you may have taken dumb to a new low.
rizzmrazzmfrazzmStewartIII maybe because you dumb shits with short memories got your ass kicked in 2010
rizzmrazzmfrazzm StewartIII You can't teach them anything. Best to just leave them in the corner where you found them praying to their cardboard cut-out of George Bush.
Prince Nancy has her nerve to talk about some one else. She need to clean up her clouset before she speak about anyone else. she has a pass history of lying to all of us, just like out president. Who will believe her now.?? No one can believe her or the president any longer. They just not believeable any longer. Nancy need to do the same thing that Frank did. Just go away and give us all a christmas president.
Walter Portier Whatever, Walter. You have a lot of nerve calling her princess. Nancy Pelosi has worked very hard to be where she is, no one gave it to her. And she is going to bring the hammer down on Gingrich when it is time, believe me. Have a great day.
Walter Portier
Your intellectually vapid post is matched only by the semi-literate spelling/grammar you employed in drafting it.
This is a pretty consistent pattern across all the other posts on this thread made by your fellow Newtophiles.
Where did all you freaks come from? Did a wing-nut radio host tell you come over to defend the "family values" serial adulterer?
Dear Walter, You must be careful when writing to our oh so sophisticated, elite lib bloggers here. They will be merciless in pointing out how ungramatical you are or how you may make a typing error. They will never take into account that you may have some organic learning disability or that English may be a second language for you. Know this Walter they have no real record to run on so they will immediately employ the politics of personal destruction. Dont let it bother you, just do the best you can to get your word out. You are on the right track. That track will end with the defeat of the current President and the installation of hundreds of Tea Party supported representatives and senators. They will attack you with slurs and vulgarity but just keep on keeping on God Bless! George
@ TeaBuggery
Isn't it obvious? They are the leftovers of the flavor of the months from before? First it was "Palin? Hell yeah! She's got common sense....oh *bleep!* wait she doesn't have a job, unintelligent, and can't finish a term."
Which turned into "Bachmann? Hell yeah! She's pretty and...pretty and...she looks amazing! and...oh *bleep!*, she's a complete idiot that talks out of her ass if she doesn't actually have knowledge of a certain subject...like the he said she sai HPV retardation thing."
Which turned into "Perry? Hell yeah! He's handsome and southern and kills a lot of them criminals and hunts like an American! And he wears boots...like an American! and...oh *bleep!* ...he's not very charismatic on the fly...and he doesn't even know the principles he stands for when asked about them!"
Which THEN turned into "Herman Cain? Hell yeah! He used to be CEO of a pizza company! I love pizza! He's charismatic and his 9-9-9 plan is so simple and catchy and easy to remember! And...oh *bleep!*...he sexually harrassed a bunch of women and carried on an affair for more than a decade.
And now...Newt...
Geo Muller
George, you are seriously calling me "merciless" and claiming I am "employing the politics of personal destruction?" Do you even know what that means? You think Walter is "getting the word out" when he calls the former Speaker of the House "Prince Nancy?" (because that is certainly not a "vulgar slur"). He claims that "she has a pass [sic] history of lying to all of us, just like out [sic] president" without even presenting a single example of what she or Obama lied about?
And after making these slurs against the highest level elected officials in the United States of America, you say "God Bless!" as if your god would approve of these types of churlish insults. You should be ashamed.
You and those who think like you are SICK bastards! Sick, STUPID, inbred, mouth-breathers.
Keep on keeping on, George. You have no clue how merciless we libs can be when confronted with these types of mendacious comments.
BTW - you clearly are failing. Did you drop out after completing 6th grade?
Gerry Nix really weak
TeaBuggeryGeo Muller Your mom says hello.
I actually got here by accident thanks to Pelosi. I really kind of like this domain. remainds me of school. All you red pen teachers out there! Hope I pass the course.
He will implode (again) mostly under the weight of his own hubris. Like I said months ago, the people running Obama's re-election calliope have been so focused on one and only one possible candidate that they have forgotten the "The Party of NO" is under the influence of the crazies. One the whole, I agree with Barney Frank. The Democrats have done nothing at all it seems to merit the blessing of running against Gingrich. If it happens, when it happens, I'll just put it down to the greatest unspoken force in Politics-Dumb luck. I won't vote for Obama again, but relax I'm no where near crazy enough to even consider voting for Newt.
oykoyr
I'd honestly pick Ron Paul over Obama just because Ron Paul seems to have a more realistic view on congress and compromising. Obama has talked a big game regarding compromise but all he's really done has caved and all his good ideas have literally turned into weak versions of themselves that do little if nothing at all. I hope the Republicans pick Ron Paul, him I can vote for. Newt Gingrich to me seems like you might as well be voting in another Dick Cheney as President.
If you agree with Frank on anything, you have lost all credibility oykoyr
It would be great, but I still don't believe it will happen.
If the Republicans give EVERYONE their 15 minutes of fame, eventually they'll get to Huntsman. And *he* would be damn hard to beat.
Great bring Newt on he is fat, ugly had three wives and cheated on all of them. The democrats couldn't be any luckier than if the Republicans made Rush Limbaugh their candidate.
Get him, Nancy!
Nancy will strip what little b*lls he has and render him impotent. He really doesn't wanna tango with Nancy. She's already kneecapped him & has him running scared and screaming "Mommy"!
Newt Gingrich Presidential nomination would be like a gift from God. Maybe not as nice as a Michelle Bachman or a Herman Cain or a Rick Perry or even (be still my heart) a Sarah Palin, but very satisfying nonetheless. Nancy Pelosi must really viscerally hate Gingrich if she is trying to derail his campaign now. From the point of view of what benefits the Democratic party, it just makes no sense. They should want Newt (or any one of a half dozen others) as the nominee.
Unless, of course, this is an attempt at reverse psychology to try and bolster Newt's popularity with the Republican base...
Of course Nancy's trying to get him the nomination! It's a genius maneuver. She sends the commie-hunters into an absolute frenzy. Newt gets to sing the 'Nancy Hates Me' song from now until January! What song does Mitt have? He ran out of verses unless he gets some good polling data v Obama. Unless he can say he has a better chance of beating Obama, Newt wins. Thanks Nancy!
Where did all the sycophantic "conserv 'o' tards" come from? Did Redstate send you all over here? You're out of your league.
1) Willard will be the Rethuglicant nominee.
2) No matter how loudly you proclaim that Newton is a genius, he's still just a stupid person's vision of what a smart person sounds like (h/t Dr. Krugman). He's a low-life used car salesman who has absolutely zero interest in being POTUS. He's simply padding his bank account and his ego at your expense - just like Malamute Barbie, Donald Chump, Scary Perry and He-Man Cain before him.
3) If you rubes want a real chance at the WH in 2012, Jon Huntsman is your ONLY choice.
Come on back after the 2012 general results are in. If Newt's the prez, I'll apologize. In the meantime, I'm laughing my ass off at your deluded comments.
Please, Gingrich is part of the problem. A Washington insider peddling influence. Here is a great breakdown of his $300,000 consulting fee that was closer to 2 MILLION. A wee discrepancy and the lack of evidence that he did anything to advise Freddie Mac other than full speed ahead. http://usat.ly/tytidn Pathetic. We need an outsider business person. Romney, not a backroom pocket liner. Romney did not take a dime of salary for being governor of Mass nor a penny for bailing out the Winter Olympics from a mound of debt and at the same time having to beef up security post 911. He is not perfect, but so much more of a fiscal conservative without the unsavory Washington connections!
- spam
- offensive
- disagree
- off topic
Like