Sweet Nothings: Nasty Newt's on the Attack

Newt Gingrich is fighting for his political life, slinging mud, playing the race card, and using dirty tricks to keep his presidential hopes alive.

The latest incident occurred at the start of CNN sponsored South Carolina Republican Presidential Debate when Newt viciously attacked CNN's John King for raising a question on allegations from one of Newt’s ex- wives.

Excerpts from an ABC News interview with Marianne Gingrich had been released earlier in the day, where she alleged that Newt had asked her for an “open marriage”, which she declined. The full interview was scheduled for the evening’s “Nightline” program. Newt’s alleged “open marriage” had been the buzz on many broadcasts throughout the day.

Debate moderator John King presented Newt with an opportunity to respond to his second wife’s allegations as the debate began.

“I am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like this,” Gingrich said.

“I am frankly astounded that CNN would take trash like that and use it to open a presidential debate,” he said.

After attacking John King in particular and the Press in general, Gingrich issued a blanket denial.

“The story is false,” he said.

One of the pundits covering the story made an interesting proposition on South Carolina Christian conservatives, stating that they would rather forgive a sinner (Gingrich) than embrace someone who’d never sinned (Romney). Maybe it says that there are some in the GOP that will back anyone regardless of past history rather than Mitt Romney. Obviously no one believes the old adage "once a crook, always a crook".

In a classic example of “the best defense is a vicious offense”, history tells us that Newt is a master at that game. He used the same offense to field comments questioning his use of tired dog-whistle racially charged phrases. He continues to call President Obama a “Food Stamp” president and consistently implies that African Americans are too lazy to work and would rather be on welfare. Whenever someone questions these statements as moderator Juan Williams did in the prior debate, Newt bellows about the Press distorting his comments to mean something other than the words imply.

This blatantly racist verbiage seems to appeal to the Republican base in South Carolina, getting Newt a standing ovation. They appear to still be fighting the Civil War, obviously believing as Robert E. Lee stated that the wrong side won the war. In testimony to their deeply entrenched beliefs, the confederate flag still flies over the capitol building in South Carolina.

When Jenny Stanford, wife of disgraced South Carolina Governor Mark Stanford, was questioned about the troubling remarks and the cheering response from the audience, she blamed the Press. She denied any racial discord in her state by citing the fact that her representative in Congress was African American and that the current South Carolina Governor, Nikki Haley, is Indian. Personally, I failed to understand why these two things had anything to do with the question she was asked. Interestingly though, she implied that she wouldn’t be voting for Newt Gingrich.

Finally, you’ve seen Newt’s attacks on Mitt Romney after Gingrich lost his momentum in New Hampshire. The former Speaker of the House seemed to launch a personal war against the front-runner Romney, focusing on Mitt’s time at Bain, his former business venture. Newt’s attack was so vicious that established conservative warned him to back off his strategy, which he eventually did. Instead, he sought an alliance with another candidate Rick Santorum, hoping to jointly pool their efforts against Romney.

Armed with endorsements from Sarah Palin and Rick Perry, it will be interesting to see the outcome in South Carolina and whether Newt's malicious attacks, race bating and conservative coalition politics win or lose. All I can say is that this whole show should be frightening for the entire country and reaffirm that there is only one person to lead us during the next four years...President Barack Obama.