Gingrich threatens loss of cities

Glenn Greenwald, writes at Salon.com about "Newt Gingrich, supreme fear-monger."

The substance of Mr. Greenwald's article is that Newt Gingrich, known for single-handledly destroying bipartisanship in the United States Congress as well as being a prominent philanderer, is also a "supreme fear monger."

Over the past several years, Gingrich has spoken on numerous occasions in various places, warning that "we will 'lose a city' unless we give up our core constitutional liberties."

Thus on June 16, 2008 on Face the Nation, Gingrich described the recent Supreme Court decision (which, as Mr. Greenwald notes "held that our Government can't abolish the constitutional guarantee of habeas corpus and must provide minimum due process to people before locking them in cages for life,") to be "the most extraordinarily arrogant and destructive decision the Supreme Court has made in its history."

This is because, according to Gingrich, it "could cost us a city. And the debate ought to be over whether or not you're prepared to risk losing an American city on behalf of five lawyers."

Greenwald responds: "Casually threatening Americans with the loss of a city unless they allow their Government to violate core constitutional guarantees is deranged fear-mongering in its most unadorned form, exactly what every two-bit tyrant tells his country about why they must be deprived of basic liberties. But what makes it all the more notable is how repeatedly Gingrich invokes this same deranged formulation in order to argue for a whole array of policies he supports -- we better accept what Gingrich wants or else we'll 'lose a city.'"

Thus, the New York Sun on November 29, 2006 quoted Gingrich as saying we have to give up our First Amendment rights -- free speech -- "in order to fight terrorism ... " or again we might "literally lose a city. ...

"Either before we lose a city or, if we are truly stupid, after we lose a city," warns Newt, "we will adopt rules of engagement that use every technology we can find to break up their capacity to use the Internet, to break up their capacity to use free speech, and to go after people who want to kill us to stop them from recruiting people."

On September 7, 2006, Gingrich argued "for a harder-line against Iran," because appeasement means "we will potentially lose a city."


Mr. Greenwald provides several other examples of Gingrich's "fear-mongering," using the threat of "losing a city." Unfortunately, as Greenwald points out, that kind of fear-mongering is effective - it works. Thus, Bush could attack Iraq with the support of most Americans and Congress.

Mr. Gingrich has a mind which is not merely authoritarian or radical, but "extremely disturbed," says Greenwald, rightly. He quotes Jonathan Turley, a professor of law who had this to say about Gingrich's warnings that we will "lose a city" unless we rescind the First Amendment:

"We saw that with John Ashcroft not long after 9/11, when he said the critics were aiding and abetting the terrorists. There is this insatiable appetite that develops when you feed absolute power to people like Gingrich.

"And people should not assume that these are just going to be fringe candidates, and this could never happen. Fear does amazing things to people, and it could lead to a sort of self-mutilation in a democracy, where we give up the very things, the very rights that define us, and theoretically, the very things that we are defending."


The professor is right on! Unfortunately, we've already given us some of our basic rights, witness the caving of the Democratic Congress to Bush's demand for telecom immunity and further authorization to spy on American citizens, pretty much at will!

So what is Gingrich all about? He must know that what he says is merely fear-mongering. If he doesn't, he is a true moron, and should be hauled off to a place where they put out-of-control crazies in white jackets.

Could it be he's positioning himself for the next Bush to come along; the next tyrant who would destroy the fundamental precepts of the United States of America? Maybe Gingrich sees himself as John McCain's Rudoph Hess?

Read Mr. Greenwald's entire article here.