Bob Dole, you will remember from George Stephanoupolos’s memoir of his time in Clinton’s White House, totally cut the legs out from under Newt Gingrich and House Republicans during the government shut down.

According to the Democrats, they were within twenty-four hours of caving to the House Republicans’ demands, but Bob Dole surprised them all by caving first.

Dole went on to lose to Bill Clinton and still hates Newt Gingrich for it because Gingrich was the face used to attack Dole — a man [Gingrich] who would have been the hero in the fight had Dole not caved.

And we’re supposed to hate Newt Gingrich because Bob Dole caved to the Democrats twenty-four hours before they were going to cave to Gingrich?

I still remembered that little factoid as “fresh” when Dole ran. I scratched my head at the time, and sighed.

…that’s one anecdotal illustration why using attack ads that focus on personal attributes turn me cold btw.

…as they’re often repeated ad nauseum, until – true or not, and always-always-always lacking in the context necessary to see if there’s anything “there” (beyond grade-school level name-calling) – they take on a life and truth of their own.

It’s based on one of my cardinal rules: always take with a grain of salt what someone’s ex- says about them (and for gawd’s sake don’t repeat it); it may not be an outright lie, but the bitter past is often seen through a lens of hardened anger.

…and bitterness has a half-life all its own.

——-
FWIW, I’m nearing my personal level of the “McCain Despicability Index” of how I judge a politician, almost based upon election tactics alone (odd that, since with McCain it was based more upon his legislative blunders). Not good.

“On Tuesday at the State of the Union, I laid out my vision for how we move forward. I laid out a blueprint for an economy that’s built to last, that has a firm foundation. Where we’re making stuff and selling stuff and moving it around and UPS drivers are dropping things off everywhere.”

Let’s not lose perspective.

@neo When I cited what happened in ’98, I was attempting to explain some of the animosity

You were?

@davisbr …that loss, described in those particular terms, isn’t fair to the Speaker

…maybe we all need to come up for a breath of fresh air around here.

I need to dance. Need. To. Dance. Hmm.

…so I’m planning on a glass of ’07 Edna Valley Merlot tomorrow night, and Singing in the Rain on bluray. Turned up real loud, I think.

Need to shake all this off …you’re all invited to join me. Leave your politics behind …kick off your shoes …just chill.

But, to give Obama credit, he seems to be approving covert special operations against Muslim terrorists. Seals, drones, no problemo.

But Gingrich made a major speech on space policy yesterday. It is clear that he is the only candidate who has given it a moment’s thought, and in fact he has given it a lot of thought.

I read a few weeks ago that Romney mocked some of Gingrich’s space statements from years ago. Sorry, I don’t have a link. But apparently Romney only regards space policy as a means to get cheap laughs from his audience. Therefore I cannot take him seriously as a candidate. That was the last straw. I’ve said it before, and I really mean it now: I will not vote for Romney under ANY circumstances.

Although I pay little attention to the MSM, I gather that Gingrich has gotten some ridicule for his speech, from people who are uninformed on the issues. Take this article from National Review Online last night: Gingrich: Let’s Make the Moon a State

The title is unconscionable, but the comments are even worse. Most of them range from abjectly ignorant to utterly moronic.

I’ve also seen several threads and comments at Ace of Spades from people who seem to believe that he is proposing a massive government spending program to put a base on the moon. Anyone who has actually read his statements knows that that is not the case.

If you want to read serious commentary, see here and here.

See also Rand Simberg’s article in the current issue of Reason magazine, which was written before Gingrich’s speech.

Bastards….