Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich explained his support for Republican squish Dede Scozzafava in New York’s 23rd Congressional District race:

“Through my experience as Speaker of the House and building a Republican majority in 1994, I have learned that if America wants a conservative majority in Washington, parts of that majority are going to disagree. I was elected Speaker because a number of moderates voted for me. They gave us control of the House for the first time in forty years, allowing us to balance the federal budget, cut taxes and reform welfare for America.”

Who is Newt kidding? Those moderates torpedoed any meaningful reform attempted by conservative members of the House by siding with Democrats to undermine the “Contract with America” and Newt’s speakership. By the time 2006 rolled around,  the Republican majority’s  “compassionate conservative” style of governance was indistinguishable from that of liberal Democrats.

“My number one interest in the 2009 elections,” said Gingrich, “is to build a Republican majority.” If the purpose of that Republican majority is to continue dragging us down Obama’s nihilistic road to ruin, what exactly is the point?

“If we are in the business about feeling good about ourselves while our country gets crushed then I probably made the wrong decision,” Gingrich said, defending his endorsement of Scozzafava. Newt misses the point. Squishy Republicans side with liberal Democrats to “feel good about themselves” due to the positive coverage their squishiness generates in the Op-Ed pages of the Washington Post and New York Times. This is why Gingrich’s endorsement of Scozzafava is wrong. The “blurred distinctions” of many leading Republicans, as Gov. Sarah Palin correctly noted, paved the road for Obama’s ascendency. That is why our country now groans under the crush of “hope and change.”

– Mr. Curmudgeon