Sleepwalking Into A Nightmare

Few readers thought they would hear me admit there was anything on which Newt Gingrich and I agree, but today I find myself agreeing with words the former Speaker recently wrote to his party faithful, and posted on his website. One could almost feel his pain as an exasperated Newt wrote, “We are sleepwalking into a nightmare." I agree.

At least, I agree the REPUBLICANS are sleepwalking into an election year nightmare. The rest of us are quite awake and preparing for a new day when a Democratic President will be sworn in and begin to govern by seeking a genuine consensus on the major challenges that confront the nation. Fully 82 percent of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track. Yes, a nightmare awaits the Republicans in November.

[And yet they persist in asserting that “Obama can’t win.” Really??]

But I digress.

Newt continues: "Republicans are isolated and trying to defend incompetence." He writes the Democrats are isolated, too, that they want peace but don't want to face the reality of fighting for it. Not true, of course. Bob Dole once said, "Democrats got us into more wars in the past 100 years than Republicans." If Dole means Democrats know how to go to war, that would be true, but they do so only when it is necessary. And that is the difference.

Newt is right when he points to the danger of terrorists or terrorist states gaining access to nuclear weapons. He says, "We are in a real war." I agree, but Iraq is not the place it should be fought.

The biggest danger to America and its allies in the world is instability in the region where nuclear weapons already exist in large numbers – Pakistan. Terrorists living freely in Pakistan AND nuclear weapons in abundance in Pakistan is a recipe for disaster. Newt understands this. And I agree with him.

Now if he would only encourage Republican candidates for federal office to READ the US Constitution again, and this time, read for a better understanding of the balance of powers doctrine contained therein, the parties might be able to come together to govern in the mutually accepted best interests of all.