Last night, Rachel Maddow had a segment about the lack of real leadership in the Republican party. Bush couldn't sway enough votes, neither could McCain or Boehner. She made the claim that Eric Cantor was the reason the bailout failed. I knew this was not the case because he voted for the bailout even though he harped about Nancy Pelosi afterword. Rachel was wrong, there's someone else pulling the strings of the House Republicans.
We all know that Cantor's idiocy about Pelosi's speech being the catalyst for causing the bailout bill to fail didn't smell right. In fact Rep. Shadegg (R-AZ)threw cold water on that theory this morning:
Today in the Huffington Post, there's an article up about a report by Andrea Mitchell saying Newt Gingrich was working behind the scenes to whip up opposition to the bailout without knowledge of the Republican leadership. It's not a pretty picture:
Gingrich was whipping up votes for the opposition, Mitchell said, apparently without the knowledge of the current GOP leader, John Boehner, who was responsible for recruiting enough support from his caucus to help ensure the bill's passage. Ultimately, the GOP was only able to rally roughly a third of its members.
"Newt Gingrich," she said on MSNBC, "I am told reliably by leading Republicans who are close to him, he was whipping against this up until the last minute, when he issued that face-saving statement. Newt Gingrich was telling people in the strongest possible language that this was a terrible deal, not only that it was a terrible deal, it was a disaster, it was the end of democracy as we know, it was socialism -- and then at the last minute [he] comes out with a statement when the vote is already in place."
It seems to me that Newt Gingrich is systematically undermining the Repuplican leadership. What are his motives? If this report is true and he did do one thing and then say another, wouldn't this hinder any possible future run for office? What are his motives?
UPDATE
Here's a little bit of context from an ABC news article:
ABC News' Teddy Davis Reports: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich reversed course on Monday, issuing a statement saying that if he were still in office he would "reluctantly and sadly" support the $700 billion Wall Street bailout bill.
Gingrich, who led the charge against the bailout last week, explained his change in position by saying that the House Republicans, "reinforced by John McCain," have improved the bill "significantly" so it is "less bad" than the original proposal offered by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
UPDATE 2
Think Progress has another article with video of Andrew Mitchell on Morning Joe this morning. I'd embed the video but it's giving me problems, so just check it out in the TP article.