It reads:
During recent months, pollsters have called asking who I support for the Republican candidate for president. My answer: "Newt Gingrich or Mike Huckabee." Because Huckabee has declined, that leaves Gingrich.
Gingrich is a smart man. He knows the political system. He says what he thinks. There is very little equivocating. Some say he is too brusk and combative. Harry Truman didn’t mince words and people knew where he stood and why.
In the Iowa debate, Gingrich spent little time attacking other candidates but said what he thought about Congress adjourning and the president leaving for vacation while a committee of 12 takes over the job of sorting out the mess we are in. He said the committee was the dumbest thing that had ever happened: 520-some representatives abdicating their responsibility and the president relaxing while the country is in turmoil. I say if the 12 can do the job – why do we need the 500-plus? Just fire them; think of the money we will save.
It is said that Gingrich has "baggage" (in the negative sense). To be practical, I ask "who doesn’t?”
Through the years other presidents have had baggage but theirs was not allowed to be viewed by the public, at least until they were out of office. Only lately with the speed of communication and the "got-cha" mentality of the press has a person’s character been under such scrutiny, for better or worse.
This is not to excuse deliberate wrong doing. The media have a responsibility to hold a bright light on the actions of our elected officials but at times a little compassion and understanding and civility should be taken into consideration.
There are those who will have a partisan objection to this, but that’s the way I see it.
Sam Y. Perkins
Bristol, Va.
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