Perhaps the best news of the day is that Newt Gingrich has made it clear that he is available to take over the leadership of the Republican Party and reverse the current political catastrophe.
In 1994, Gingrich engineered the Republican return to power after forty years in the Democrat wilderness called Congress. It was no small feat, but even genius can be flawed and, in time, Gingrich had to give up his job as Speaker of the House and ultimately turned to writing some excellent novels based on Civil War events and a host of other activities.
He had arrived in Congress from Georgia after having been a professor of history and nothing will serve him so well, should he become the GOP choice to head the party, than that long sweep of the past that, for the Republicans began with a candidate from Illinois named Abraham Lincoln. We had some really nifty ones like Teddy Roosevelt, Ike Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan, as well as others like the less memorable Calvin Coolidge who historians say did a good job too.
Then we had Nixon; twice elected, once resigned for crimes against the Constitution and pardoned by Gerald Ford whom few can recall. And, it would appear, two Bush’s too many.
Over the years since Franklin Delano Roosevelt struggled unsuccessfully to get us out of the Great Depression and led, successfully, the nation through World War II, Republicans have drifted with the rest of the population toward an ever-growing, ever-expanding federal government. Even Reagan could not rid us of the Department of Education that has ruined our schools.
Liberalism like the “Blob” of the movies engulfed everyone and everything in its path. Unlike Al Capp’s “Shmoo” of the Little Abner comic strip, the Blog does not provide for all our daily needs. Instead, it sucks the life out of its victims until they no longer want to take responsibility for their lives.
Republicans have spent the last week attacking one another for either attacking or supporting the McCain-Palin ticket. This kind of blood-letting is predictable and one hopes will be short-lived.
It is time now to rally the troops. Republicans have to organize, organize, organize for the next four years if they are ever to regain the White House and Congress.
This last election suffered seriously from a ticket that was too squishy and semi-liberal with McCain and, dare it be said, a tad too far to the right with Palin. Neither should be regarded as the future of the party if the party is to have a future.
Republicans are not totally bereft of talent and new faces. Let me suggest just one. Michael Steele has the look of a potential presidential candidate for 2012. There are others.
For now, we must be good soldiers and brave.
