My Baloney Has a First Name, It’s M-I-T-T
My Baloney Has a First Name, It’s M-I-T-T
Will Newt Gingrich’s attack on Mitt Romney’s “pious baloney” change the New Hampshire race?
By John Dickerson|Posted Sunday, Jan. 8, 2012, at 6:29 PM ET
Newt Gingrich spoke for everyone in America when he asked during the NBC News-Facebook New Hampshire debate, "Can we drop a little bit of the pious baloney?" Gingrich was talking to Mitt Romney, but let his exasperated call reach President Obama and leaders in Congress and let it ring in the ears of all the GOP candidates on that stage. Newt Gingrich is not immune to the request. Any candidate who says his adultery came in part from loving the country too much knows how to slice that baloney thick and wriggling.
Gingrich's call may have been a little rude, but it represents progress. Fifteen debates and finally the exchanges are getting a little more frank, a little more serious, and inching towards some identifiable lines of reason. The candidates are talking about the leadership attributes necessary to be president and pressing each other on their qualities. They are actually debating, owning up to their arguments, and stating them clearly. In prior debates, the candidates merely recited their stump speeches in parallel. Or they sniped over useful things like Mitt Romney's lawn care company.
There are two kinds of pious baloney (at least). One is the lunch meat you hurl at your opponents or dish out to cover up a shortcoming. When Gingrich called himself a small businessman during questions over his payments from Freddie Mac, this was pious baloney. He wanted to align himself with the noble, dry-cleaning Mom and Pop to duck being charged as an influence peddler. So too when he inveighed against highly paid Washington commentators, in the last debate, since he was one. This is called politics. Sometimes politics requires a dash of pious baloney during negotiations, public ceremonies, and other times that call for mild prevarication. Mostly, though, it's regrettable and we'd all like to see less of it.
Then there is the pious baloney that points to a deep character flaw. It is that posture you take easily, frequently, and dishonestly on all manner of issues because you have no core and you're constantly re-characterizing your motivations and positions.
This second type of baloney is what has dogged Romney this entire campaign. Some conservatives don't think he has a core. Romney said in Sunday morning’s debate that he's gotten more conservative as he's grown older, but if he has no core, how do voters believe him?
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http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2012/01/pious_baloney_will_newt_gingrich_s_attack_on_mitt_romney_change_the_new_hampshire_race_.single.html#pagebreak_anchor_2
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is like Hugh Hefner asking someone to drop the sexual harassment!
rocktivity