Tony Lee of Human Events interviews Newt

Newt will be on the cover of the paper edition of Human Events. In it, Tony Lee, who is covering the 2012 race for the conservative publication, interviews him.

His answer when asked what his first three steps to fix the economy would be:

Within the first few weeks of my administration, I will work with Congress to repeal the job-killing ObamaCare, Dodd-Frank and Sarbanes-Oxley acts, eliminate the death and capital gains taxes, lower the corporate rate to 12.5%, and put forward a budget that dramatically scales back spending and returns power to the states. In terms of items that we can do on day one: 1) I will immediately sign off on the Keystone XL pipeline, which will create jobs from North Dakota to Texas and bring almost a million barrels of oil a day, 2) I will immediately direct my Secretary of the Interior to reauthorize all permits in the Gulf of Mexico and get thousands of Americans back to work, and 3) I will direct the NLRB to immediately halt all investigations so that it ends its assault on job-creators.

The whole interview is great. Here's the link again.

Another big Sarah Palin supporter endorses Newt

On Wednesday, Josh Painter, who has been one of the top pro-Palin blogger since 2008, endorsed Newt.

Tony Lee, who is covering the Presidential race for conservative weekly Human Events, sent out two tweets:

Wow. @Josh_Painter (!!) supports @NewtGingrich, has "Reagan-Palin conservatives for Newt" website (conservatives4Newt). This dude is FIERCE. (link)

Josh Painter is one of the most ferocious online Palin supporters. Now, he's supporting Newt. Got my attention. (link)

Here is the website Painter has started.

Go check out the website, but here is an excerpt:

What is clear, at least to this Palin supporter who has done his homework, is that when the records, policy positions and treatment of Sarah Palin by the announced GOP presidential candidates are stacked up next to each other, only Newt Gingrich stands out as the real Reagan conservative among them. There is no other logical second choice. I'm convinced an increasing number of Gov. Palin's supporters will eventually come to the same conclusion.

In fact, several other major Palin supporters have jumped on board Newt 2012.

Sheya wrote:

Newt Gingrich is a man of ideas, is smart, has solutions, knows how the world works, and has leadership qualities. No one can argue that Gingrich is not qualified to be president. I can see Gingrich in the situation room making tough decisions without needing 16 hours to adjust or calculate how it will affect him politically. A President Gingrich would be feared by dictators and respected by our allies.

Tennessee4Palin re-tweeted the above post, writing "Agreed!"

Coloradans4Palin wrote:

Newt Gingrich may be the closest thing we now have to Reagan. Someone with an optimistic spirit to lift the country out of its misery. Someone who knows how to practically renew and restore America. Someone who can rise above petty bickering and just plain fix things. And as a professor with carefully reasoned ideas, he may be the only person who will be able to lecture Obama instead of the other way around.

...

Gingrich is electable, conservative, and has a good track record to boot. Go Newt!

And I think it's safe to say that this won't be the last Palinista to support Newt.

(Newt also recently went on the radio with Stephen Bannon, the filmmaker of "The Undefeated.")

Newt 2012 has raised over $175,000 since Tuesday's debate (and more great news)

From a fantastic piece on HumanEvents.com:

“Over $175,000 since Tuesday, average contribution of $84, with three out of four donations from new donors. The campaign is currently on pace to raise more in October than it did over the entire FEC [Federal Election Commission] third quarter,” Hammond said. “The average contribution during the FEC third quarter was $76—and 50% of contributions in the third quarter came from new donors,” he said. The increased cash flow to the campaign is making it possible for Gingrich to expand the states in play, and hire new key staff, Hammond said.

The strategy is to concentrate on the first three states, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Iowa, and then have people and structure in place to leverage success into more success, he said. “In New Hampshire, the campaign has hired Andrew Hemingway as its first paid staffer, to work with volunteer Team 10 Leader Michelle McManus, a 912 project organizer from Bow, N.H.,” he said.

“Hemingway was the most immediate chairman of the NH Liberty Caucus, which helped elect 100 new conservative legislators to the New Hampshire State House,” Hammond said. “In South Carolina, the campaign has deployed its National Coalitions Director Adam Waldeck to organize the state,” he said. “Adam is working with volunteer Allen Olson,” he said, “who was the founder and most recent chairman of the Columbia Tea Party.” “The campaign will soon announce its Iowa team and open a Des Moines office,” he said.

Hammond said he is seeing the resurgence in the size and enthusiasm of the crowds. “Newt has spoken to overflow crowds at town halls in Phoenix on Wednesday and in Dallas today. He will campaign in Iowa over the weekend and on Monday, and New Hampshire the middle of next week, then to South Carolina on the 28th,” he said. Hammond said people outside the campaign did not understand what happened inside the campaign during its rocky first six weeks. “When the staffers quit there was a panic for maybe 10 minutes,” he said. “Then, Newt talked to us and we were fine.” The former speaker told the remaining staff that it would take the whole summer to work through the tough launch, but if they stuck to his plan they would be ready in the fall to challenge the front-runners.

The press secretary, who has been with the campaign from the start, said Gingrich was liberated after the staffers quit. “It was like he no longer had to argue with his own staff about what he wanted to do with his campaign.”

Newt's newsletter this week is about Columbus Day (and I touch on the SC news)

The whole thing is worth reading, but here is an excerpt:

Our history is crowded with people who came to America and achieved what was not possible at home. For millions of immigrants, America has meant a life freer and more prosperous than they had before. And individually, they have made historic contributions to this country. Albert Einstein, one of our greatest scientists, immigrated from Nazi Germany. Sergey Brin, a founder of Google, came here from the Soviet Union. I. M. Pei, one of our greatest architects, was born in China. Alexander Graham Bell, Irving Berlin, Cary Grant, Bob Hope, and Madeleine Albright all immigrated to the United States.

From the beginning, being an American has meant striving to form a nation of people from such different origins as these. These immigrants and many others brought with them cultures and ideas that shaped our society profoundly. At times, these interactions have been far from perfect. But starting with the earliest settlers, the trend has been toward greater recognition of individuals' equal rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

(Going back to yesterday's great news out of South Carolina: I just wanted to say that Adam Waldeck, who will be heading up the Newt 2012 effort in the Palmetto State, is a great guy. He's done a terrific job as the campaign's Coalitions Director the last few months, bringing in diverse groups, such as those concerned with the Dodd-Frank bill, those in the Lean Six Sigma field, individuals wanting to enforce the 10th Amendment, and others.)

Tony Lee of Human Events on Newt's big day Thursday

Tony Lee of the conservative weekly wrote an article today previewing Newt's rolling out of the 21st Century Contract with America tomorrow.

I recommend reading the whole thing, but here are some excerpts:

Newt Gingrich​ will unveil a new Contract With America in Iowa on Thursday, and it seems as if it will allow him to both unleash his ideas while also corralling them into a grander campaign theme and strategy for his revived presidential campaign.

Gingrich, who has polled as high as third in national surveys after a string of impressive debate performances, spoke in Doylestown, Pa., on Tuesday at a packed event organized by the founders of the Kitchen Table Patriots, a local Tea Party organization.

In the last week, Gingrich has said his new contract will be an evolving document that will be formed by his ideas and those of voters.

Gingrich, as he said again on Tuesday, has also been asking voters to be "with him" and not just "for him." Gingrich said that if people were just for him, then they would just vote for him, go home, and expect him to clean up the country's mess. Instead, Gingrich asked the audience to be with him not just through November, but for eight years after that to help return power back to the citizen from czars and bureaucrats in a big government run amok.

This framing strategy potentially allows citizens to be stakeholders in a Gingrich campaign and potential presidency, while giving him a way of organizing all of his ideas and potential supporters around one fundamental theme of returning power back to the citizen.

He jabbed Gov. Rick Perry's Texas DREAM Act, which gave instate tuition rates to illegal immigrants, by joking about how, if citizens want cheaper tuition, they should attempt to cross the border, come back, and declare themselves noncitizens.

He also praised the spirit of the FairTax, but said he would be leery of the federal government imposing a national sales tax and an income tax because it would give Congress two methods in which to further tax Americans.

In doing so, he differentiated himself from businessman Herman Cain​'s "9-9-9" plan that calls for a 9% flat tax on income, a 9% corporate tax and a 9% national sales tax.

Gingrich also spoke, as he brilliantly does, about why America is exceptional. He said he has been shaped by Gettysburg, Valley Forge, and the events leading up to the writing of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

"Freedom survives one generation at a time," Gingrich said. "You are the land of the free if you are the home of the brave." Gingrich's task ahead is to get enough people to join him in finalizing a contract that becomes an eight-year blueprint that can be used to return more freedom to individuals and, in so doing, strengthen and restore the country's foundation.

Cain's plan, while catchy and a good step forward, does leave the door open for future Presidents and Congresses to both raise income and sales tax. If the FairTax ever is to be implemented, the 16th Amendment -- which allows for an income tax -- needs to be overturned first.

Tony Lee: Newt Gingrich Best Articulates American Exceptionalism

(I would have posted this Monday but with all the debate news did not want to deluge those who get the morning e-mail.)

Lee, who is covering the GOP Presidential nomination for the conservative weekly Human Events, wrote:

No current presidential candidate articulates what American exceptionalism is about more clearly and concisely than Newt Gingrich​. In addition, in an era where campaigns and candidates seem to have forgotten what a thesis statement that serves to tie together a campaign's message is, the former history professor also uses American exceptionalism to articulate not only what he is fighting against but what he is for.

...

To put it simply. More than anything else, what makes America exceptional (more than her geography and ability to historically assimilate different groups of people under a common culture and set of values) is that rights cannot be taken away from its citizens because they are granted to Americans by God and not a sovereign. According to Gingrich, this exceptionalism is under siege by liberals, led by Obama, who seek to slowly take away those rights. This framing allows Gingrich to use the Gibson Guitar incident, the Dodd-Frank legislation, and ObamaCare (in addition to a litany of other things) as supporting pieces of evidence to indict Obama and liberals as unexceptional. It is a powerful message that perfectly frames what election 2012 is really about.

Go read the rest of it; really an outstanding article.

Lee also includes the video of Newt's opening statement at the Palmetto Freedom Forum:

Another quote by Tony Lee of Human Events about Newt

Lee put out an article previewing Wednesday's GOP debate at the Reagan Library. He had this to say about Newt:

His summer was turbulent, but he is not that much worse off than he was when it started. Gingrich won the last debate and he performed the best out of all the candidates at the Palmetto Freedom Forum in South Carolina. He’s proposing ideas on getting rid of regulations such as Dodd-Frank and using social media, including Twitter, Facebook and Google+, effectively. He speaks of American exceptionalism in a way that resonates. Gingrich has a chance to keep the momentum going at a debate held at the library of a President (Reagan) he not only worked with, but whose life and ideas he has so richly chronicled.

Human Events' Tony Lee on Newt at Palmetto Freedom Forum

The Chase 2012 reporter for the conservative weekly:

There is not a more exceptional person in the 2012 GOP presidential field than Herman Cain in terms of life experiences and private sector success. And there is not a person who is capable of explaining American exceptionalism better than Newt Gingrich.

...

To put it simply, American exceptionalism matters in Republican primaries. It is why immigration issues will matter in 2012 because it is a way for Republicans to speak about and discuss Americanism.

At the Forum, Gingrich stole the show by proposing ideas to eliminate the regulations such as Dodd-Frank that are screwing up the economy, reign in the federal judiciary and activist judges and even comparing himself to the University of South Carolina football team by saying that, like South Carolina did in their first game of the season last Saturday, his campaign has had some early fumbles but that he would prevail in the end.

But it was his discussion of "melting pot" Americanism that reverberated. Here's Gingrich's words:

When you have a country which is proud of its history, which is proud of its language, which is comfortable saying to people, come to America to be Americans, you can absorb more people than if you have a country whose elites are totally confused and are prepared to give up on being an American.

...if we're not going to be a melting pot, we can't afford to have very many people come here. When you realize that there are over 200 languages spoken in the Chicago school system, there are over 180 languages spoken at Miami-Dade Junior College, it's why I favor English as the official language of government.

We need a unifying system which says, yes, we are eager to have people come to America, as they always have, but we want you to come here to be American. We don't want you to come here to be confused about how this country operates.

It is hard to find a Republican who does not see the 2012 election as a pivotal election that will determine whether the country remains exceptional or begins an even more rapid descent to becoming an unexceptional version of Europe that is plagued by fiscal problems and multiculturalism.

Newt's newsletter: "The Super Committee Disaster"

From this week's newsletter:

Nothing illustrates the gap between Washington and America better than the difference in reaction to the "Super Committee" that the debt ceiling deal set up to cut spending.

In Washington, a 12-member group with tremendous power to dictate the details of debt reduction is seen as a great idea.

Outside Washington, people applaud every time I condemn the process.

The rest of America sees a plan to skip 523 members of Congress while focusing power on a select 12 as a dangerous centralization of authority.

People instinctively understand that their Senators and Congressman will be on the outside lobbying the "powerful 12."

Ninety-seven percent of the American people have now lost representation in critical decisions about the size and scope of their government.

The rest of America also intuitively understands the absurdity of reducing the 217 committees and subcommittees that normally contribute to policy decisions in the House and Senate to one "super" committee for the whole Congress.

The group Strong America Now estimates that Congress could save $500 billion per year simply by modernizing the federal government's management system. They argue that the Lean Six Sigma technique for dramatic cost reductions could identify billions in savings with a careful examination of processes and expenditures across the government.

If that sounds implausible, consider that the Defense Department has already used Lean Six Sigma to save more than $22 billion, increasing productivity 1,000 percent in some facilities.

The Strong America Now estimate is more than three times the goal of the Super Committee. You can learn more about anti-waste budgeting and Lean Six Sigma in my newsletter here and at StrongAmericaNow.com.

For a full overview of my case against the Super Committee and an alternative method to balance the budget in a publicly accountable way, you should watch the speech I gave last Tuesday at the Heritage Foundation.

I think you will agree that targeted savings with full representation for all Americans is a better solution than unaccountability and concentrated power.

Let me know: Would you prefer the 12-member Super Committee or the involvement of all 535 members of Congress?

Click here to vote.

Human Events linked to my post from Saturday

Earlier today, I quoted from Tony Lee's Human Events' article. What I did not realize until I was almost done with the post was that Lee linked to this post of mine about Newt's Friday in Iowa last week.

Getting even a small mention on that website is especially cool for me because I have been a subscriber to the weekly paper since December 2005. It was also President Reagan's favorite newspaper.

Also, in a funny way, it is partially responsible for this blog. I first read about Newt's e-mail newsletter in the paper edition of Human Events, and those are what really got me wanting Newt to run for President. After purchasing Winning the Future -- in August 2006, coming up on five years -- thanks to the newsletters, I was sold that Newt needed to be in the Oval Office.

Two pieces from Human Events: one by Newt and one about Newt

Newt put out his weekly newsletter today, and the topic was United Nations funding. Newt writes:

Only at the United Nations is it possible to imagine a Palestinian state announced on a meeting agenda.

U.N. corruption was on full display last week when, as the Hudson Institute’s Anne Bayefsky​ noted, the U.N. published its provisional list of speakers for the September opening session.

It listed the speaker from “Palestine” as the “Head of State” for the first time ever.

This is just a preview of a diplomatic crisis and an existential threat to the state of Israel that is shaping up for September.

The Palestinian Authority is promising to ram ahead with its bid in just over a month to be recognized as a state at the United Nations, and the General Assembly will likely approve it over the objections of the United States and Israel.

This will define a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, stretching to the 1967 borders and encompassing territory that currently is home to thousands of Israelis.

It is a dangerous plan.

It would violate every standing agreement the Palestinians have with Israel, including the Oslo Accords, to negotiate a final border agreement.

U.N. recognition would take place totally apart from any negotiation with Israel, and without the Palestinians renouncing violence or acknowledging Israel's statehood.

...

In spite of the U.N.’s totally dishonest approach to Israel, President Obama apparently retains faith in what is clearly a corrupt organization. The Administration’s commitment to “multilateralism” at the U.N. is nothing more than appeasement.

President Obama and the State Department must be clear with Western allies. They should reject action that would reward terrorist groups who refuse to abide by the basic principles of human dignity and freedom.

...

The United States has the leverage to prevent this diplomatic disaster if the Obama Administration wants to use it: we are by far the largest donor to the U.N., financing roughly a quarter of its entire budget.

We should be willing to say that if the U.N. is going to circumvent negotiations and declare the territory of one of its own members an independent state, we aren’t going to pay for it. We can keep our $7.6 billion a year.

We don’t need to fund a corrupt institution to beat up on our allies.

That is exactly how President George H. W. Bush and Secretary of State James Baker handled a similar drive to force Palestinian statehood in 1989.

...

That is the resolve we need to show today. Washington should make clear immediately that it will not accept dangerous stunts that threaten Israel’s survival.

When the U.N. is set to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state and Israel is the only country in the world not even permitted to determine its own capital, something is very wrong.

The time to stop this disaster is before it happens. The time for Congress and President Obama to set out the cost of a United Nations betrayal of Israel is before the General Assembly meets.

Here is the link to the full newsletter again.

Also appearing on HumanEvents.com today was an article by Tony Lee, who is helping cover the GOP Presidential Primary for the conservative publication.

Some excerpts:

"We had a group of paid professionals who had not worked for me before," Gingrich said. "If I were to do it over again, I would not have hired the paid professionals."

When the consultants left, Gingrich had to reboot his strategy, and said he would finally run the campaign he had always wanted.

Gingrich rattled off what seemed like an idea a second, which included repealing the Dodd-Frank and Sarbanes-Oxley Acts that he says are discouraging investors. He called President Obama​ an "anti-American energy" President. He called for a modernized Food and Drug Administration that can help create jobs. He spoke of Executive Orders he would sign on his first day in office and ways to make the legislative process in Congress more open and transparent to gain back the trust of the American people. He cited his time in Congress, when he believes he was responsible for balancing the budget and helping end welfare programs and begin the modernization of some previously untouchable entitlement programs.

Gingrich said he's building a "substantive, solutions-oriented" campaign with positive ads and speeches. He also said he'll be upbeat at the debates and hinted he would not cut down his competitors.

"My debates will be positive," Gingrich said. "Not so much about Obama and maybe not about the news media, but I will be [positive] about the other candidates."

In the pre-social media days of campaigning, Gingrich probably would have had no chance of reviving his campaign.

But with the proliferation of social media that makes access to information cheaper while proliferating it at a rapid clip, a candidate can gain momentum as fast as he can lose it.

With a lean budget, Gingrich will rely ever more on social media to put himself into the conversation.

For instance, his campaign to repeal the Dodd-Frank bill cost the campaign nothing because it took them three hours to set it up on Facebook. The same is true for video and telephone conferencing services.

And today, Gingrich rolled out a “Team 10” initiative, which is “about reasserting this basic principle, and creating smaller government by working together and being bigger citizens” and reminding Americans that the country “is exceptional because we believe sovereignty begins with the individual” and “we loan power to the government, not the other way around.”

According to a press release, Tea Party and 912 Project leaders will lead Team 10, and through a Facebook app, they will solicit ideas on how to limit Washington’s overreach and enforce the 10th Amendment.

In addition, according to the release, “through voting, online and in-person events, and talking with each other, the best of these ideas will eventually become a ‘10th Amendment Enforcement Act,’ and “as the Republican nominee, Gingrich would include” it as part of a new Contract with America.

These initiatives that integrate social media with politics and policy put Gingrich ahead of the curve, which is why he scoffed at unsubstantiated rumors that many of his Twitter followers (Gingrich was ahead of the curve in successfully adopting the medium) were artificial.

“Folks who want to criticize me about using technology should come on [Google +] with me and create a hangout,” Gingrich said, insisting that unfounded rumors that a majority of his Twitter followers were artificially generated were “baloney.”

Gingrich also noted that he is proud that he has called for the Republican Party to be a more inclusive to minorities and noted the diversity of his audience at a recent Iowa campaign event.

“We did an event in Des Moines last Thursday night, and we had over 20 Chinese-American students,” Gingrich said, noting such diversity is sometimes lacking in Republican audiences.

Gingrich feels confident enough in his ideas that he still sees a viable path to the nomination.

“As the economy gets worse and the world gets more dangerous, people will look up and say, ‘Who could debate Obama successfully next October and who could actually govern effectively if they were elected?” Gingrich said. “And that will steadily lead to an increase in support.”

As proof, Gingrich cited a recent Johnson County event in Iowa in which, according to him, “Every reporter who was there said the room changed decisively when I was there, and the people walked out saying ‘He’s the guy [to beat Obama].’ ”

The coverage of Gingrich’s event in Johnson County backs up Gingrich’s claim. Reporters from outlets across the spectrum noted that, among the four presidential candidates who were present at the event, Gingrich received the longest standing ovation and generated the most buzz.

Here is the full article link again.

A News Station in the UK quoted me

From Channel 4 News in the United Kingdom:

But Josh Gosser who set up the Team Gingrich blog thinks the opposite. He explained why he thinks Gingrich is so big on Twitter.

He told Channel 4 News: "He doesn't just use it as a way to get out press releases; he says things in a way that fits the platform of Twitter very well.

"Newt will actually reply to people on Twitter, which is very unusual for someone running for any office, let alone president."

Someone from the station e-mailed me last week, and that was my reply.

Here were my full answers:

1. I think he has a large following for the reasons Politico gave in this article. He doesn't just use it as a way to get out press releases; he says things in a way that fits the platform of Twitter very well. Tony Lee of Human Events also noted on Twitter the other day that Newt was ahead of the game on most every other politician when it came to Twitter. To quote him: Newt "was one of the 20 everyone followed when 1st signing up. Even DC chefs got on Twitter bc of Newt." I will also say that Newt will actually reply to people on Twitter, which is very unusual for someone running for any office, let alone President.

2. Twitter is important because many people feel that the traditional media leaves them out of the conversation.As with Facebook, it gives those people a voice as well as allowing campaigns to cut through all the clutter and communicate to their supporters easier.

Human Events reviews the first Twitter Debate

My apologies for not seeing this before today, but Tony Lee of Human Events had a very interesting take on the Twitter debate that took place almost two weeks ago:

While only Michele Bachmann​, Newt Gingrich, Gary Johnson, Herman Cain​, Thad McCotter​, and Rick Santorum​ participated, Gingrich showed his savvy in answering questions in 140 characters while also utilizing the medium to his advantage, something which has been a trademark of the former Speaker of the House.

For instance, at one point in the Twitter debate, @secupp asked the debate participants, "As Pres, if you could enact any policy to fix the economy w/o congressional approval what would it be? Be specific"

While the other candidates responded by tweeting they would repeal ObamaCare or eliminate agencies, @NewtGingrich was savvy enough to reply first by tweeting that "I wouldn’t even if I could b/c congressional passage offers legitimacy of the consent of the governed to the law."

Gingrich then tweeted "Big impact can be made with executive orders though. I would stop EPA from regulating carbon & abolish all White House Czars"

By acknowledging the importance and legitimacy of Congress, Gingrich, in a savvy way, put him on the side of limited government conservatives who worry about any branch overreaching their constitutional authority. It

Then after the debate had wrapped up, Gingrich tweeted his followers to join him on the new social media site, Google +, which is a hybrid between Facebook and Twitter, for another discussion.

And at the very beginning of the debate, Gingrich used the one external link that each participant was allowed to link to an introduction video he specifically made for the event.

Can you guess which word Newt most often uses on Twitter?

Human Events had an interesting article today about how the 2012 Republican Presidential candidates are using Twitter. They linked to a sort of word cloud using what each person tweets.

Here is Newt's.

Surprised what the most commonly used word is? Me either.

Human Events: "Why Newt Gingrich Will Be a Formidable Contender"

Tony Lee, who is covering the 2012 Presidential election for the conservative newspaper Human Events, wrote an article touting Newt's "politics, policy, and publicity."

"Last week, Newt Gingrich showed why he will be a more than formidable candidate," Lee wrote. "During a series of events, he displayed how he can combine politics, policy, and publicity to leverage his ideas and brand."

Lee then recaps Newt's week. It started with a tele-townhall with Tea Party groups in which "Gingrich showed his depth and range on a variety of issues ranging from immigration, to allowing people to opt-in to a flat tax rate, to criticizing President Obama for seemingly caring more about offshore drilling in Brazil than in America."

Then he called on George Washington University to invite Paul Ryan to give a response to President Obama's speech in which he attacked Ryan after inviting the Wisconsin Republican to it.

Newt told CNBC host Larry Kudlow that he would not reappoint Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

In front of Tea Party groups in Charleston, South Carolina, Newt ran through what his energy policy would look like:

1) Replace the Environmental Protection Agency, which has become a job-killing regulatory engine of higher energy prices, with an Environmental Solutions Agency that would work cooperatively with local government and industry to achieve better environmental outcomes while considering the impact of federal environmental policies on job creation and the cost of energy.

2) End the ban on oil shale development in the American West, where we have three times the amount oil as Saudi Arabia.

3) Give coastal states federal royalty revenue sharing so that state’s budgets directly benefits from offshore development.

4) Enact a loser-pays law to force the losers in environmental lawsuits to pay all legal costs for the prevailing side, which will reduce frivolous lawsuits that are employed simply to stop energy production.

5) Finance cleaner energy research and projects with new oil and gas royalties.

6) Appoint a commission of engineers and scientists, not politicians, to study the damaged nuclear reactor in Japan and determine if any changes need to be made to US nuclear power standards.

Gingrich wrapped up his week at the Brookings Institution ,at which he gave a detailed speech about health care policy.

Lee concludes:

When on his A-game, Gingrich is an intellectual force and heavyweight who knows how to market his ideas in a compelling way that is understandable by the general public. Gingrich is also savvy and nimble in framing how his ideas can be solutions for contemporary problems that the country faces at the moment.

The more the 2012 contest is focused on wonkish policy, Gingrich will have more of a homecourt advantage and the better off he will be.

Lee's point about Newt being able to market his ideas is an important one. He not only is the best ideas man in the party; he also is the one who comes up with such slogans as "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less."

Newt on reconciliation

In his weekly newsletter published by Human Events, Newt lays out the history of reconciliation, the procedural trick the Senate may use to pass "fixes" to their health care bill to make it more palatable to the House.

He does a great job of explaining what it is meant for -- legislation that goes about reducing the deficit in narrow ways or tax bills -- not for new entitlement programs. "The reconciliation process was only intended to be used for legislation directly related to meeting budget resolution spending and revenue goals."

Since reconciliation was started, it "has been used for 22 bills....Notice the similarity between them? All of these bills were obviously directly related to taxation and spending."

He then gives a few scenarios under which it may be used, including the most likely: the House passes the Senate bill and then the Senate turns around and patches a few disagreements. Of course, the bill will be immediately signed by President Obama should the House pass the original Senate bill. If that happens, the White House and Senate leadership may just undergo a half-hearted effort to pass the fixes.

The only thing that may force them to proceed with the reconciled bill is the lack of trust such a move would create in the House, especially among moderate Democrats. On the fence because of the bill's popularity, a major selling point to them will be that, "Don't worry about the problems in the Senate's bill. We will correct those." If they vote yes, confident that will happen, only to see Obama and congressional leaders give up -- after all, they already have passed "health reform" -- it would create bad feelings and make it less likely they would put their necks on the line the next time.

The last section of Gingrich's newsletter is entitled: "Republicans Must Vow To Replace the Left’s Health Bill." He writes:

If the Democrats are bound and determined to exert all their power and manipulate every rule they can to pass their big government health bill, Republicans may not be able to stop its passage.

We’ll find out today as President Obama is set to announce his recommendation on the way forward.

But no matter what President Obama, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid decide, the bottom line for Republicans is that they must stand with the American people in opposing this bill.

This doesn’t just mean voting against it and using every parliamentary maneuver available to delay its passage.

It also means running on a platform of replacing whatever left-wing health bill the Democrats manage to pass with real health reform that empowers patients and doctors, not bureaucrats, to bring down health costs. And delivering on that promise in 2011 if Republicans gain control of Congress.

And if President Obama is still determined to ignore the will of the people by vetoing the Republican bill after such a clear message from America, it means that the Republican candidate for President in 2012 must run on a platform that includes signing the replacement of the left’s big government health bill.

After all, no matter what dirty tricks the politician may try to get his way, in America, the people have the final say.