Newt Gingrich, that amazing political combination of great intelligence and great recklessness, is thinking of running for president. I kind of doubt that even with the intelligence he possesses he will be able to overcome his years of mistakes and the great liability of a messy private life. But he cannot have helped himself with an amazing set of flip-flops on the question of military intervention in Libya.
Here he is on March 7th, on Fox News with Greta van Sustern.
VAN SUSTEREN: Let me ask you about Libya. It’s in the news. The president has said that military options with NATO are not off the table. What would you do about Libya?
GINGRICH: Exercise a no-fly zone this evening, communicate to the Libyan military that Qaddafi was gone and that the sooner they switch sides, the more like they were to survive, provided help to the rebels to replace him. I mean, the idea that we’re confused about a man who has been an anti-American dictator since 1969 just tells you how inept this administration is. They were very quick to jump on Mubarak, who was their ally for 30 years, and they were confused about getting rid of Qaddafi. This is a moment to get rid of him. Do it. Get it over with.
Clear as a bell, no? Well, here he is a couple of weeks later, on March 23, after the U.N.-authorized military intervention had begun, speaking to NBC’s Matt Lauer:
GINGRICH: I would not have intervened. I would not have used American and European forces, bombing Arabs and that country.
Back on Fox the following day, he reiterated that point. “We are not in a position to go around the world every time there’s a local problem and intervene.” He also said “If they’re serious about protecting civilians, you can’t do that from the air. .?.?. This is a fundamental mistake, and I think is a typical politician’s overreliance on air power.”
Three days later, in Iowa on the 26th, he said “Now I believe the only rational objective of the current intervention is to defeat Qaddafi as rapidly as possible. I would do it by using Egyptian, Moroccan, Jordanian, and Iraqi ground forces as advisers and as air controllers, with the rebels, using all of western air power as decisively as possible.”
Finally, on Fox with Chris Wallace on Sunday morning, he seemed to finally be able to forge an agreement with himself:
GINGRICH: Well, I think I hope the president tomorrow night will be dramatically clearer than he has been up until now. I hope the president will say. . . .that it’s clear that the Qaddafi dictatorship has to leave, and that we are prepared to do whatever it takes to make sure the Qaddafi dictatorship leaves. . . .Once you engage air power, you should use the air power in its most effective way. You don’t need to send in ground forces.”
Once some of those clever film editors at the DNC digest these golden moments into a commercial, I think Newt’s ambitions to ever hold elective office are effectively squelched–unless people have to start running for Blowhard. Or Laughingstock.