More Gingrich Crazy Talk – This is Why We Put the Adults Back in Charge

Ostensibly on Fox News Sunday to talk about re-branding the Republican Party, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich let the world know today that he’s still just as faux-intellectually nutty as ever.

You see, Gingrich would have just blown that pesky North Korean rocket off the launch pad two or three days ago.  From a transcript of the show:

WALLACE:  …  Mr. Gingrich, before today’s launch, you said the North Koreans should not be allowed to fire a missile and that the U.S., quote, “should take whatever preemptive actions are necessary.” Are you saying that “President Gingrich” would have taken out that missile on the launch pad?

GINGRICH: Yes, I’m saying if you look at the new book by my co- author Bill Fortune called “One Second After,” and you look at electromagnetic pulse capabilities, which can take out — one weapon could take out a third of the electric generating capacity of the United States.

We do not appreciate the scale of threat that is evolving on the planet, and North Korea is a totally irresponsible dictatorship run by a person who is clearly out of touch with reality, and I think to say, you know, we’re now going to have another meeting at the U.N. to have another paper resolution that has meaningless effect is very dangerous.

I think both with Iran and with North Korea, you have countries which could decide at any morning to try to actually use their weapons.

WALLACE: So you’re saying that “President Gingrich” would have taken out that…

GINGRICH: There are — there are three or four techniques that could have been used, from unconventional forces to standoff capabilities, to say we’re not going to tolerate a North Korean missile launch, period.

I mean, the world’s either got to decide that North Korea is utterly dangerous — and again, I’d recommend — look at electromagnetic pulse, which changes — which we’ve known about since 1958. It changes every equation about how risky these weapons are.

Ahh, Newt.  That same smug, all-knowing air is still all about him.  Just like 1994, only this time he’s expounding on actions that could put us at odds with China and see North Korea’s million-man army pouring into downtown Seoul.

National Republican leaders still seem to see every world problem as a nail and all we’ve got is the hammer.  Consider this – 30 miles or so from the Korean Peninsula’s Demilitarized Zone is the capitol of South Korea, Seoul.  In South Korea there is an army of around 600,000 soldiers and U.S. forces numbering around 25,000.  Person for person, we’re outnumbered by around two to one.  If the North Koreans go pouring over the border any time soon, I don’t think there will be a 2009 replay of Inchon – our troops are tied up elsewhere.

Is one rocket/missile worth Korean War II?  Can Newt guarantee that if we were to send some “unconventional forces” – be they cruise missiles or Navy SEALS – that their destruction of North Korea’s rocket wouldn’t lead to getting us into our third major military adventure?

I do believe that Newt is a fairly smart guy, and I find it hard to believe he’s being honest with us.  What he engaged in today was, surprise, partisan politics.  The fact is, President Barack Obama has been in Europe for about a week kicking diplomatic ass.  These guys can’t stand it.  They still can’t believe they’ve repudiated and their trickle down economics and neo-con worldview have been thrown into the dustbin of U.S. and world history.  These guys will take every bad thing, for the next three years and nine months and try to spin it as Obama weakness, naivety, or some nefarious Marxist plot.

We only need return to the reason why Gingrich – a non-serving fairly irrelevant politician – was even on Fox News today in the first place:  How do Republicans rise from the ashes?

Any current Democrat or Republican currently in federal service is working in a national and world context that is, as my company commander in Navy boot camp would have said, “All dicked up like a soup sandwich.”

It’s undeniable that what got us here in terms of foreign policy, America’s diminished status in the world and our over extended military is the Republican Party of Newt Gingrich and George Bush.  There was a cast of thousands that helped them since 1994 – including the ultimately wasted second term of Bill Clinton – but the soup sandwich came from the Republican kitchen.