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After pressure from Climate Depot, Gingrich finally ‘regrets’ 2008 Gore climate ‘loveseat’ ad with Pelosi — But Newt still claims ad was ‘misconstrued’ & was somehow a ‘debate’

 

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:

GOP Presidential Candidate Jon Huntsman, still a warmist, but now disses cap-and-trade like all the other Republicans

Bye, Bye Mitt Romney! It Gets Worse! New Book touts his Gore like warmist views: Romney: ‘Scientists are nearly unanimous in laying the blame for rising temperatures on GHG emissions’

Other GOP candidates and prominent warmists have now reversed themselves completely. See:

Congrats to Tim Pawlenty! Fully reverses himself & calls AGW ‘bad science’: ‘The reality is the science of it indicates that most of it, if not all of it, is caused by natural causes’

Sen. McCain Climate Reversal Shocker: ‘I think it’s an inexact science, and there has been more and more questioning about some of the conclusions that were reached concerning climate change’

Shock: Sen. Graham reverses climate view! ‘The science about global warming has changed…they’ve oversold this stuff, quite frankly. I think they’ve been alarmist and the science is in question’

AP Profiles Climate Depot: ‘Morano now runs a website called Climate Depot where he attacks anyone who buys into the scientific consensus on climate change’

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’

New York Times Features Climate Depot’s Morano: ‘You can believe in the science of global warming if you’re a GOP presidential contender if you keep your mouth shut about it’

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’

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’

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’

Warmist Kloor: ‘The Morano Gauntlet’: ‘GOP contenders for Pres. will be forced to run the Morano gauntlet if they don’t march in lockstep with the newly hardened GOP orthodoxy on global warming’

‘Morano over at Climate Depot has been beating up on Gingrich unmercifully in recent days for the latter’s inexplicable dalliance with the despised Pelosi…It’s a hoot’

‘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?’

The New Skeptical Newt! After pressure from Climate Depot — Politico: ‘Gingrich doesn’t buy the established science of global warming’

Orlando Sentinel: ‘ClimateDepot.com, the official web site of ‘deniers,’ is demanding that Newt denounce his warmist ways’

Newt Gingrich on why he sat on sofa with Pelosi in Gore ad: ‘My point is conservatives ought to be prepared to stand on the same stage and offer a conservative solution’ – ‘Unlike Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich makes no apologies about his past advocacy on climate change’

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’

UK Guardian: Gingrich’s presidential bid clouded by his belief in climate change — Newt ‘put on defensive’ after Climate Depot ‘demanded he apologize for appearing in Gore ad’ — UK Guardian: ‘Now Climate Depot, the website run by a former aide to the arch-denier, Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, is trying to force Gingrich to issue a public apology. The web site sent out an email blast on Gingrich’s ideological transgressions on cap-and-trade on Wednesday and demanded: ‘Will Gingrich recant and apologize for appearing in the ad with Pelosi?’:

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’

Newt redefines the English language!? Spokesman: ‘Gingrich’s attempt to work with Pelosi is another testament to Gingrich’s willingness to debate his conservative solutions with liberals’

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?’

Watch Now: This is what Newt now claims was actually a ‘debate’?! Gingrich & Pelosi in Gore Ad: Newt declares: ‘We do agree, our country must take action to address climate change’

Fox News: Gingrich Feels the Heat for Appearing in Global Warming Ad With Pelosi — Newt has ‘a doozy in his closet’ — Climate ad will ‘come back to haunt him’

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’

Rolling Stone Mag.: ‘Deniers Hit Gingrich on Flip-Flop’: ‘Key players in the Climate Denial Machine, such as web spinner Marc Morano, are holding Gingrich’s feet to the fire’

More background on Newt Gingrich and Global Warming:

Gingrich aides resign, leave campaign in tatters: ‘The entire top echelon of Gingrich’s presidential campaign resigned, a stunning mass exodus’

Analysis: ‘It is inconceivable the GOP would select nominee who is so wrong on the issue of climate change as are Gingrich, Christie, Huntsman and Romney’

Warmist Kloor: ‘The Morano Gauntlet’: ‘GOP contenders for Pres. will be forced to run the Morano gauntlet if they don’t march in lockstep with the newly hardened GOP orthodoxy on global warming’

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’

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?’

Lou Dobbs: Gingrich’s climate ad with Pelosi ‘hurts him’ — will prove ‘more difficult than any charges about his personal life’ Bill O’Reilly: ‘Gingrich-Pelosi ‘political ad is all over the place’ — They are ‘a regular Sonny and Cher’

Newt Recants!? Maybe Gingrich DOES read Climate Depot now: Newly-minted climate skeptic Newt changes tune after pressure from Climate Depot!?

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’

Sorry Newt, the Pelosi climate love-seat proved too much for voters: ‘Poll confirms Gingrich tanking within the GOP’

Associated Press features Climate Depot: ‘GOP contenders have stepped back from their previous positions on global warming’ — Now apologizing for past support of climate bills

New York Times Features Climate Depot’s Morano: ‘You can believe in the science of global warming if you’re a GOP presidential contender if you keep your mouth shut about it’

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’

Orlando Sentinel: ‘ClimateDepot.com, the official web site of ‘deniers,’ is demanding that Newt denounce his warmist ways’

Morano on John Batchelor: ‘Newt claimed conservatives need a seat at the table…if you have a seat at the table with Gore and Pelosi, your goal should be to tip over the table — not capitulate’

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’

Listen Now: Climate Depot’s Morano on Heartland radio: ‘The problem with Gingrich is deception… he is trying to fool the voters…Newt thought AGW was the bandwagon winning issue’ Listen here.

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’

Newt lies?!: ‘If you read what I said on the couch. I said this is a topic worth debating. We should be able to find ‘incentives’, the specific word I used, to lower amount of carbon in atmosphere’

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.’

Newt lies?! Claims he said word he never used! : ‘If you read what I said on the couch. I said this is a topic worth debating. We should be able to find ‘incentives’, the specific word I used, to lower amount of carbon in atmosphere’

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.’

Barf Bag Flashback 2008: Gingrich Out-greens Al Gore! Newt ‘slams so-called ‘anti-environmental politicians; as ‘out of step with the American people” and the ‘patriotic worldview’

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’

Media Coverage Grows: Politico Covers Newt’s Epic Failure: Climate Depot’s Morano: ‘How stupid does Gingrich think American voters are?’

Gingrich claims Pelosi ad for Gore was a ‘debate’: Morano Responds: ‘Gingrich is spinning the Pelosi ad in ways that defy the English language’

Both Ways Newt — Which is it? Gingrich in 2007: ‘We have now passed the tipping point…the evidence is ‘sufficient’ to show that [global warming], to a major degree, is man-made’

Presidential Candidate Gingrich in 2011: ‘The truth is the people who say there’s global warming don’t know. The truth is people who say there isn’t global warming don’t know’

More Media covering the story: Gingrich, a ‘committed warmist,’ faces rising climate criticism — Pelosi ad is ‘exploding through conservative circles’ — Could ‘derail his political comeback’

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’

Wash. Times Cites Climate Depot’s Morano: ‘Mr. Gingrich, please stop trying to spin your low IQ moment with Pelosi and Gore. It is embarrassing’

Bravo! Anti-green group derides Gingrich’s likely ‘Democratic’ presidential bid: Newt is ‘Al Gore hiding under a Phil Donahue wig’

Watch Video Now! Pelosi-Newt Climate Ad for Gore: ‘Why Newt Gingrich Will Not Be Elected President — Professor reacts to ad by ‘throwing out my quite full barf bag’ — Skeptical Prof. Unloads: ‘Newt -you’re dead to me. You won’t get my vote. Period. Go ask Nancy to vote for you. Good luck and good riddance!’

Will Gingrich recant and apologize for the Pelosi Climate ad?

Flashback 2007: Sen. John Kerry and Gingrich Hugging Trees — & (Almost) Each Other — Gingrich folds like pup tent in alleged ‘debate’ on AGW — ‘Positions himself as a tree-hugging green’

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’s Candidacy, D.O.A.? Pelosi’s Buddy – The Big Green, Big Ethanol, Big Spending, Big Govt Republican — ‘Newt Gingrich is literally unfit for office, specially the Oval Office. He is the wrong man, at the wrong time’

‘Poor Newt. The preemptive spanks came early and hard’ — Climate Depot’s Morano ’emailed a blistering missive [on Gingrich] to everyone in his rolodex’

Flashback 2007: Newt supported cap-and-trade: ‘I think if you have mandatory carbon caps combined with a trading system… that’s very, very good. And frankly, it’s something I would strongly support’

‘Newt Gingrich’s environmentalism problem’

Gingrich’s ‘personal baggage and Pelosi video — present him as compromised — rendering him as damaged as Greek mythological hero’

Global Warming Non-existent in Newt’s Home State of Georgia

Hot Button Issue! Fox News article on Climate Depot & Newt Gingrich has generated 2430 comments so far! (Despite having to register to leave a comment)

Morano calls out Gingrich for climate hypocrisy: CFACT’s Rucker: ‘Politicians like Gingrich saw climate change as a chance to repair their damaged images by pandering to the mainstream media’

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’

Gingrich: I know it looked and sounded like I was spooning with Pelosi in that ’08 global warming hoax ad, but I was actually debating her

Gingrich’s climate & energy view: ‘If enough of us demand action from our leaders, we can spark the innovation we need’

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’

GOP Pres. Candidate Tim Pawlenty ‘did a lot more than ‘flirt’ with global warming and cap-and-trade. He got into bed with it and carried on the affair for years’

GOP Presidential Candidate Jon Huntsman, once a climate hawk, now disses cap-and-trade like all the other Republicans

‘Morano over at Climate Depot has been beating up on Gingrich unmercifully in recent days for the latter’s inexplicable dalliance with the despised Pelosi…It’s a hoot’

‘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

 

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