In "Newt Wants to Catch You Napping", there was the suggestion that Newt needs to be watched carefully because of his ability to do real mischief, and his clear lusting to be President. In that piece Newt's "logical" techniques were exposed so as to put people on alert, because they can be very disarming to the unwarned.
This is "Newt Watch II". Attacking Spanish as a "ghetto-language" is his latest obvious flap, and violated his own rules by being explicit about what he really is trying to accomplish. His attempts to destroy social security and Medicare were in bills to "save" them. This piece aims to expose his strategy of developing what passes for him as logic.
Newt began a recent speech (as he always does) by trying to sound high-minded. He bemoaned the use of 30-second attack ads in our politics (the only way Newt came to power, but he ignores that and, perhaps, he wants to do better by our country---as you will see below, he doesn't, but you don't know that yet), and proposed in its place 9 weekly 90-minute discussions between the two major Presidential candidates with a moderator only to ensure that each person gets approximately equal time. That sounds pretty good to me, [and note that Newt's real goal is to be able to ask Republican primary voters, "who would you NEED speaking weekly to Hillary Clinton for 90 minutes;he's right, no one on their side could do that as well as Newt], and he sucked Russert into agreeing to ask each candidate if they would agree to that in advance. Clever Newt.
He continued by remarking that government itself is not bad (a change we are supposed to applaud), but quickly proceeded to say "it's broken, it's broken." (One of his pet phrases). Now, just listen to this example to PROVE that government is broken: FedEx and UPS track millions of packages a day and you can go online to see where your package is 24/7. By contrast, says Newt, our government does not know where most of the 12 million illegal immigrants are.
Get the logic? A package and a guestworker are the same. Tracking is tracking, isn't it? That the FedEx packages do not have legs or independent thought, a mere detail to Newt. And you thought calling Spanish a ghetto language was obnoxious! Newt's prescription? A guest-worker program, but to have FedEx or UPS in charge of issuing the guest-worker cards so that they can follow them as well as they track packages. That's Newt's vision of the future. I wish I were kidding.
Next on Newt's list, the courts. Does he believe in the American constitutional tradition of separation of powers, checks-and-balances? Why of course he does...only, only, when the results are not what he likes. But, he does not want to attack the court system, not Newt. He just thinks that, well, the 9th Circuit (West Coast) might be eliminated.
So, after his high-minded talk about a "real issues debate" between the candidates, Newt immediately descends to the gutter, throwing out red meat to his base, equating illegal immigrants with FedEx packages and eliminating an appellate court whose decisions he does not like. To Newt, these are the issues of our time.
Jim Curley, a colorful Boston pol of the '30s, challenged an opponent whom he said he would "fight in the gutter". The opponent replied, "Jim, you'd have to step up". Newt's stride is not long enough.