Think Progress, May 6, 2007
This morning on CBS’s Face the Nation, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich advised fellow conservatives not to talk about President Bush’s record. “President Bush is not the future. He’s not a solution. He doesn’t solve Social Security. He doesn’t solve Medicare. He doesn’t solve the economy. He doesn’t solve the environment. He doesn’t solve education. He’s a current fact,” Gingrich said.
It’s also a “current fact” that the conservative agenda has failed to “solve” these important issues over the past six years.
Gingrich went on to say that conservatives “have to say, this is not what we want to debate. It’s not in Baghdad, it’s not in Katrina, it’s not at Walter Reed, it’s not with the U.S. attorneys, but I have a better plan for a better solution that fits your values.” When Host Bob Schieffer suggested that Gingrich seemed to advocating steering clear of President Bush, Gingrich responded, “Well, I think that’s clear.”
Gingrich’s “hush-hush” list will only grow as the American public learns more about the fallout from policies that the administration has pursued. And as the Congress continues to provide the type of aggressive oversight that uncovers these administration failures, it becomes more obvious that conservatives have served as silent enablers, refusing to correct course when they had the opportunity to do so.