Newt Gets Tough

Quasi-presidential candidate Newt Gingrich gave a hard hitting speech last night in, of all places, New Hampshire. He went back to his popular Armageddon talk of this summer, when he seemed to be on Fox News every night spouting off about "The End" and the imminent beginning of WW III. He continued his assault on free speech in this "age of terror", actually calling for a semi-reversal of free speech laws during wartime.

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich yesterday said the country will be forced to reexamine freedom of speech to meet the threat of terrorism.

Gingrich, speaking at a Manchester awards banquet, said a "different set of rules" may be needed to reduce terrorists' ability to use the Internet and free speech to recruit and get out their message.

"We need to get ahead of the curve before we actually lose a city, which I think could happen in the next decade," said Gingrich, a Republican who helped engineer the GOP's takeover of Congress in 1994.

"Lose a city". Perfect fodder for his right-wing base. Maybe this is how he feels he can "make" conservatives push for a Newt '08 campaign. Hey, whatever works for Newt. Maybe the GOP will see him as the only alternative to McCain and Rudy's "GOP-lite".


UPDATE: PB just discovered Newt's new column in Human Events Online. Besides relaying his family trip to Mount Vernon (!!??), Gingrich goes beyond hawkish on Iraq, trashing the Baker-Hamilton commission as worthless (even though they're backing Bush on Iraq) and calling for a final push in Mesopotamia for "victory or death". Looks like Newt is embroiled in a tit-for-tat with McCain over who can be the greater hawk on Iraq.