What’s Newt?

by tristero

Many moons ago, I pondered the question: Is Newt Gingrich an idiot or a moron? Today, he has forced the question anew.

Apparently, Gingrich’s odious endorsement of specious World War II analogies has backfired. Not missing a beat, he now has an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal in which, in goosestep with Rice, he compares the mess Bush has created around the world with the American Civil War. The parallels are striking, Newt says. Lincoln, like Bush, had to face the option of the defeatists to stop the war, or stay an unworkable course, or change direction and bring “the full might of the industrial North to bear until the war was won.”

My mind boggled when I read that. Why? Because it sure sounds to me like Newt Gingrich, former representative of Georgia, actually compared the Confederate Army to al Qaeda, the leaders of the Confederacy to Iran’s mullahs, and Jefferson Davis to Saddam Hussein.

I suppose I should take this as good news, that white folks in the South, like Newt Gingrich, are finally coming to terms with the truth of the Civil War, that it really was about slavery and not “state’s rights,” and that the racist Confederacy was, in fact, a 19th century Axis of Evil comprised of people who hated American values and wished to destroy us. But for some reason, I don’t think so: I think Newt never fully thought through the implications of his ridiculous analogy or is hoping no one notices he just insulted one of the most rock solid of the Republican bases.

And so, once again, we are left to ponder exactly what Newt is. I still believe “moron” most closely describes him. But I’m open to other opinions.

[Updated to add link to Newt’s op-ed.]