Dave Ross Commentary – Listen: Newt Gingrich: How DARE you quote me!

Newt Gingrich — former House speaker, latest Presidential candidate — decided the way to stand out from the pack would be not only to slam President Obama for being too deep into left field, but to criticize REPUBLICAN budget hawk Paul Ryan for being too deep into RIGHT field with his Medicare reform plan:

“I don’t think right wing social engineering is any more desirable than left wing social engineering. I don’t think imposing radical change from the right or the left is a very good way for free society to operate,” said Gingrich.

That was on Meet the Press, and it seemed pretty clear. It seemed to reflect the way a lot of Americans feel — they don’t want to be part of someone’ social experiment left or right; they want solutions that don’t scare them.

But conservative commentators pounced, and Gingrich got so spooked by the reaction he went on Fox and not only took it all back, but issued a warning to any opponent who would use that quote:

“Any ad which quotes what I said on Sunday is a falsehood, because I have said publicly those words were inaccurate and unfortunate. That was a mistake,” said Gingrich.

ESSENTIALLY SAYING I never intended to say what I said, and it’s unethical to quote me when I make clear statements that I don’t mean. So now comes his wife’s financial disclosure statement from four years ago, showing that at one time he owed as much as half a million dollars to Tiffany’s. That would imply some very generous gifts, or a secret life as a rap artist. But so far — no comment. However, based on his handling of this other thing, my guess is he never intended to buy it and any ad saying he did is a falsehood.

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