United Liberty

During the race last fall in NY-23, I wrote about the anger from conservatives directed at former House Speaker Newt Gingrich over his endorsement of Dede Scozzafava.

If you’ll recall, Scozzafava was/is a statist on economic issues, supporting card-check, the “stimulus” bill and tax hikes, among other troubling positions. This led many conservatives to endorse Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman. Gingrich, however, stood his ground, continuing to back the same candidate as Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos.

Gingrich has showed time and time again that he is no friend of liberty. He backed the Wall Street bailout and Medicare expansion in 2003. He also enabled the big spending way of George W. Bush.

Now Gingrich tells us that he learned a lesson from NY-23:

“She turned out to be a huge disappointment, and she turned out not to be frankly a loyal Republican,” Gingrich told an interviewer in New Hampshire this weekend.

The former speaker added that conservatives who criticized his endorsement at the time “had the better of that argument.”

Gingrich said he didn’t realize how “radical” Scozzafava was when he endorsed her. Conservatives lambasted her for supporting gay marriage and card check, among other liberal positions.

“She had some positions that were far more radical than I realized at the time, and I think in retrospect it was probably a mistake,” he said.

Well, apparently he hasn’t learned a lesson. Last week, Gingrich endorsed Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT), who has been targeted by conservatives for a number of reasons.

The Club for Growth identified some of them in a press release criticizing Gingrich. Among Bennett’s anti-taxpayer votes are:

• support of the Wall Street bailout
• refusing to block funding of automaker bailouts
• voting against a resolution stating there is a “moral obligation” to cut spending
• proposed a health care bill forcing all Americans to buy health insurance and increasing government’s role in health care.

Bennett has conservative challengers that Gingrich could have endorsed. Unlike New York, he has no excuse to support a statist Republican in a traditionally conservative state.

Gingrich has learned nothing. He will always support big government Republicans over principled conservatives. Why the Tea Party accepted him, I’ll never know.