Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has officially flip-flopped about his 2008 Al Gore ad with Nancy Pelosi on global warming. Gingrich declared he now regrets making the commercial. Gingrich’s announcement comes after months of pressure from global warming skeptics, led by Climate Depot. (See: Sierra Club’s Carl Pope recognizes Climate Depot as Kingmaker: ‘All seem to be mindful of the remarkable know-nothing standard set for GOP candidates by Marc Morano’)
The Hill – July 26, 2011 Excerpt: Gingrich regrets 2008 climate ad with Pelosi — By Michael O’Brien – 07/26/11 — Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said Tuesday that he regrets making a commercial with then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on the need to address climate change. Gingrich, who partnered with Pelosi while she was Speaker for the 2008 ad, said the spot was “misconstrued,” and for that reason, he wouldn’t do it again. “I was trying to make a point that we shouldn’t be afraid to debate the left, even on the environment,” Gingrich said on WGIR radio of the 30-second television commercial. “Obviously it was misconstrued, and it’s probably one of those things I wouldn’t do again.” That commercial has caused some difficulties for Gingrich in the Republican presidential primary. […] Gingrich said in January that he “meant exactly what [he] said in that commercial,” which was produced by the Alliance for Climate Protection, a nonprofit organization founded by former Vice President Al Gore (D). In the ad, Gingrich makes no endorsement of any policy solution, but says the “country must take action to address climate change.” [End The Hill article excerpt.]
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Climate Depot’s executive editor Marc Morano responded on July 27 to Gingrich’s latest evolving explanation of his 2008 Pelosi ad.
Morano: “Gingrich is now admitting the obvious, the Gore climate ad with Pelosi was rooted in sub-prime science, sub-prime economics and sub-prime politics. We welcome Gingrich’s last ditch attempt to grasp scientific and political reality, but still scratch our heads as to why Newt refers to the Pelosi ad as some kind of ‘debate’ that was ‘misconstrued’ by the public. Mr. Gingrich, please just admit your whopper of a mistake and stop trying to spin your embarrassing behavior.”
Watch Gingrich/Pelosi loveseat ad here.
Gingrich’s latest shift on global warming leaves only former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and Mitt Romney as the only two announced GOP candidates clinging to the Al Gore style global warming beliefs. Climate Depot led a nationwide effort to expose Newt Gingrich’s global warming views and resurrected the Pelosi ad in May of this year. See:
Other GOP candidates and prominent warmists have now reversed themselves completely. See:
AP: ‘Enemy No. 1 for Morano these days is Newt Gingrich’ — ‘Republican presidential hopefuls can believe in man-made global warming as long as they never talk about it, and oppose all the so-called solutions,” said Marc Morano, a former aide to Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, one of the most vocal climate skeptics in Congress’
NYT: ‘Morano called [Gingrich’s Pelosi ad] ‘toxic.’ ‘He’s acknowledging the problem. He’s accepting the science. He hasn’t backed away from endorsing Al Gore’s approach to man-made global warming. That’s why he’s going to have a problem. Gingrich was not just giving aid and comfort to the opposition. He was the opposition to the global warming skeptics’
Gingrich’s spokesman says Newt is ‘a fan of Morano’s [Climate Depot] blog and reads it often’ Politico: Gingrich’s ‘love seat’ predicament with Pelosi — ‘just won’t go away’ — Newt Digs In: ‘I don’t know what we’d apologize for’
‘And Newt deserves every swat…He’s no less deserving of ridicule today. In the words of some really smart guy: What was he thinking?’
Climate Depot Response to Newt: ‘Please spare us the explanations for your gullibility and poor political calculations. What ‘solution’ does anyone need to ‘offer’ to the alleged problem Gore presents? Please stop trying to spin your low IQ moment with Pelosi and Gore — it is embarrassing’
Update May 13, 2011: Newt Responds to Climate Depot! A Love-Fest is Now Called A ‘Debate’?! Gingrich now claims sitting on cozy sofa with Pelosi in Gore climate ad was actually a ‘debate’
Climate Depot Response: ‘Mr. Gingrich, your obfuscation is simply stunning. In 2008, you sat on a love seat with Pelosi and agreed that man-made global warming was a serious threat that required we ‘must take action to address.’ You gave legitimacy to Gore’s version of climate science. Now you claim you were actually ‘debating’ the issue with Pelosi and Gore. Just how stupid do you think the voters are?’
Morano: ‘Newt Gingrich is arrogant enough to believe that he doesn’t have to play by the same rules as everyone else’
Fox News: ‘Morano has devoted his blog Climate Depot to lambasting Gingrich’
More background on Newt Gingrich and Global Warming:
Pope: ‘Morano, the head of the new right-wing, climate-cynic website Climate Depot…We can be certain that if Michele Bachmann or Sarah Palin does decide to grace the Republican field, they will go after their opponents with this recycled question from the McCarthy era: ‘Do you now or have you ever believed in man made climate change?’
Welcome to scientific reality Newt! Gingrich: ‘Climate change is the newest excuse to take control of lives and you want a new bureaucracy to run our lives on behalf of the newest thing. But remember, in the mid-1970’s there was a cover of Newsweek and Time that says we’re in the age of a brand new glacial period and they had a cover of the Earth covered in ice. Now many of those scientists are still alive and they were absolutely convinced’
NYT: ‘Morano called [Gingrich’s Pelosi ad] ‘toxic.’ ‘He’s acknowledging the problem. He’s accepting the science. He hasn’t backed away from endorsing Al Gore’s approach to man-made global warming. That’s why he’s going to have a problem. Gingrich was not just giving aid and comfort to the opposition. He was the opposition to the global warming skeptics’
Listen Now: (Begins at 18:50) Morano: ‘Gingrich is spinning and spinning very badly. It is quite shocking to see how poor he is handling this. Newt not only gave aid and comfort to the enemy, he was the enemy! Newt praised Kerry, one of the most laughable U.S. Senators when it comes to AGW. Kerry is an embarrassment when it comes to the science’
Morano: ‘Newt calculated AGW would sell to the GOP & that is the most stunning & misguided interpretation of modern politics, science and economics. That is an epic fail…I guess sitting on a love seat with Pelosi is a ‘debate’ to Newt if you look at way he ‘debated’ Sen. Kerry — by preemptively conceding the entire debate in his opening remarks. A debate to Newt is capitulation to your opponent & that is very, very scary’
Update: Gingrich on radio (Begins at 14:20): ‘I am for incentives for bio-fuels such as ethanol which have a much lower impact on the environment’
Climate Depot Response: ‘Wrong again, Mr. Gingrich. You never once uttered the word ‘incentive’ or implied it was a ‘debate’ on that couch with Pelosi. Please improve your inaccurate spin, instead of continuing to insult our intelligence.’
Update: Gingrich on radio (Begins at 14:20): ‘I am for incentives for bio-fuels such as ethanol which have a much lower impact on the environment’
Climate Depot Response: ‘Wrong again, Mr. Gingrich. You never once uttered the word ‘incentive’ or implied it was a ‘debate’ on that couch with Pelosi. Please improve your inaccurate spin, instead of continuing to insult our intelligence.’
Gingrich, the militant greenie? Newt’s book exalted Sierra Club founder John Muir. Gingrich blithely mentioned Muir’s martial law-like view favoring use of the military to enforce environmental law. Disturbingly, Gingrich moved on without ever disapproving the policy’
‘Hogwash, says prominent global warming skeptic Marc Morano’
Gingrich claims Pelosi ad for Gore was a ‘debate’: Morano Responds: ‘Gingrich is spinning the Pelosi ad in ways that defy the English language’
Morano: ‘In 2007 and 2008, Gingrich actually believed that not only was global warming going to be a, ‘winning issue’ … but he actually believed the GOP base was going to accept this. Those are two horrible miscalculations’
Larry Sabato: Gingrich’s views on climate ‘went well beyond Republican orthodoxy. Joining forces with Pelosi will not prove popular with the GOP base’
Newt’s Presidential Bid Getting Trashed, And It’s Due To His Self-Inflicted Green Idiocy: How He Can Recover
Newt Gingrich: Global Warming Guru — ‘He claims to be a conservative firebrand, but when it comes to global warming, he’s almost as liberal as Jon Huntsman’
Will Gingrich recant and apologize for the Pelosi Climate ad?
Wash. Post: ‘Before Sen. John Kerry got a word in, Gingrich conceded that global warming is real, that humans have contributed to it and that ‘we should address it very actively.’ Gingrich held up Kerry’s new book, and called it ‘a very interesting read.’ — Kerry gushed: ‘I frankly appreciate the candor.’
‘Newt Gingrich’s environmentalism problem’
Global Warming Non-existent in Newt’s Home State of Georgia
Rucker: ‘Now that the threat is widely known and the propaganda widely debunked, it is very difficult for the Gingrich’s of the world to wiggle away from past opportunism’
Counter to Gingrich: ‘Yep, the untold billions already being spent developing a (real) ‘alternative’ energy source to replace those that work just isn’t enough. No, it takes the collective wisdom of a team of the best and the brightest — oh, and Congress — to gently minister to unforeseeable breakthrough technologies. Seems so 1960s’
‘And Newt deserves every swat…He’s no less deserving of ridicule today. In the words of some really smart guy: What was he thinking?’
Gingrich Announces Doomed Campaign
