Krampus of the Year: Newt Gingrich

[robertpaulsen]

http://americanjudas.blogspot.com/2010/12/krampus-of-year-newt-gingrich.html">Krampus of the Year: Newt Gingrich

This is officially the second annual Krampus of the Year award, an American Judas exclusive. For an explanation of who Krampus is and why I gave the award to Joe Lieberman a year ago, please read this http://americanjudas.blogspot.com/2009/12/krampus-of-year-joe-lieberman.html">link.



This year, it was a much tougher choice. I thought I might bestow this honor on one of the loudest complainers in what has become a perennial "War on Christmas" that those to the right of http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAcoughlinE.htm">Father Coughlin seem to think is not only real but is a real threat to America, or even Christian civilization itself! Where it got too humorous to seriously consider giving an award to these social baboons was how certain people in Congress expressed this concern. I'll let Andrea Stone explain:


It began when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/12/senate-house-face-full-week-ah.html">senators might have to work through the Christmas break if that's what it takes to get through a spending bill, a nuclear arms treaty, the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" and other pressing legislation.

That prompted Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona to accuse the Democrat of Grinch-like behavior, saying it was not possible to stay in session "without disrespecting one of the two holiest of holidays for Christians."

AP
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., shown near the floor of the Senate in Washington on Wednesday, called plans for the Senate to work through the Christmas break "sacrilegious."

South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1210/46422.html">soon piled on. He told Politico the schedule was "sacrilegious," suggesting Reid, a Mormon, was acting in a most un-Christian fashion. "What's going on here is just wrong. This is the most sacred holiday for Christians," he said.

Reid would have none of that. He took to the Senate floor to blame Republican filibusters all year long for keeping lawmakers at work.

more...



http://www.aolnews.com/2010/12/16/congress-latest-battlefield-in-annual-war-on-christmas-debate/



Sorry Senators Kyl and DeMint, you came close but no cigar. You just had to pick on a Mormon, didn't you? You just had to imply that the Church of Latter Day Saints doesn't consider the day of Christ's birth to be holy? What, Mitt Romney and Glenn Beck weren't around to chastise you? I was all set to give those bloviators, as well as Congressman http://newsbusters.org/blogs/geoffrey-dickens/2010/12/16/lauer-pushes-pence-compromise-tax-deal">Mike Pence the award, but a latecomer from out of the blue yesterday blew those pretenders to the throne out of the water.

And the winner of the American Judas 2010 Krampus of the Year Award is...

Newt Gingrich!

How did he come to deserve the honor of being considered an honorary Bad Cop of Christmas? Check out what Laura Bassett reported that he had to say yesterday:


Newt Gingrich Blames Nation's Problems On Unemployed People

First Posted: 12-20-10 05:48 PM | Updated: 12-20-10 05:56 PM


Newt Gingrich, who is currently http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/05/newt-gingrich-presidential-run-2012_n_792174.html">mulling a presidential bid in 2012, said at a political event in South Carolina on Thursday that most of America's problems can be blamed on the "leftist news media," Hollywood, tenured academics, overpaid federal workers, and unemployed people.

"I'm opposed to giving people money for doing nothing," he told the crowd of 250 cheering GOP activists in a state with a 10.6 percent unemployment rate.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/dec/19/nation/la-na-gingrich-20101220/2">The Los Angeles Times reports:

Comparing unemployment benefits to welfare, a system he worked with former President Clinton to overhaul in the mid-1990s, Gingrich asserts that the country spent $134 billion last year on unemployment compensation "and got nothing for it." Instead of wasting money "paying people to do nothing for 99 weeks," he would make job training mandatory for anyone getting an unemployment check.

There are five jobless people for everyone one job opening right now, making it difficult for even the most industrious job hunters to find work, yet Gingrich's comments echo the sentiments of a number of GOP Congressman who believe unemployment benefits make people lazy. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), for instance, said jobless benefits mean people are "encouraged not to go look for work," and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) told South Carolina's http://www2.scnow.com/news/2010/dec/06/senator-demint-speaks-tax-cuts-unemployment-benefi-ar-1175754/">News 13: "We can't just keep paying people to stay at home."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/20/newt-gingrich-blames-nati_n_799391.html


That headline is from the Huffington Post, not http://www.theonion.com/|The Onion>. The Huffington Post may host some humorous columns, but the one above was not intended for humor. But how can you not read the headline "Newt Gingrich Blames Nation's Problems on Unemployed People" without your jaw hitting the floor? So Gingrich wins the award in a breakaway final sprint, with Sen. Jim DeMint a close second since he had the misfortune of being quoted in the same article. What fine Christian men!

But wait, perhaps I'm being too hard on him and rushing to judgment! After all, this potential presidential nominee claims he has a solution to this problem. He wants to make job training mandatory for anyone getting an unemployment check. Way to put the cart in front of the horse, Newt! Since Newt didn't mention that his prospective mandatory job training would be 100% faith-based, I think I'm safe in assuming that Newt is proposing that our tax dollars go to fund a http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/22/AR2010042204207.html">secular-http://www.amazon.com/Save-America-Stopping-Secular-Socialist-Machine/dp/1596985968">socialist program! Which I think is great, I have no problem with such a blatantly hypocritical 360 degree reversal if the program actually created jobs in America for Americans. But see, that's the problem: it doesn't. Training people for jobs that don't exist would be a real waste of taxpayer money. At least when unemployed people spend their unemployment checks (which by the way Newt, is a government program that unemployed people payed into when they were employed, which technically makes it their money that they're receiving!) that money gets spent on food, clothing, rent, electricity - you know, buying things that actually help the economy grow, Newt!

But when unemployed CEOs get their golden parachutes, do they spend that money creating jobs? No, they spend http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/From-the-Wires/2010/1103/Meg-Whitman-concedes-defeat-asks-supporters-to-unite">hundreds of millions of dollars trying to convince the same people whose jobs they outsourced to China, India and Bangalore among other countries that they should be given job titles like http://www.whorunsgov.com/Profiles/Meg_Whitman">Governor and http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2010/11/fiorina-concedes-defeat-in-senate-race-.html">Senator where this time, they'll do the job right, by gum! So it seems to me that the only fiscally responsible way for Newt Gingrich to employ (no pun intended) his plan for training the unemployed would be to force them upon graduating from this mandatory job training program to empty out their savings account or their closest relative's savings account and buy them a plane ticket so they can fly (after a full cavity search courtesy of TSA, of course!) to the nearest or farthest foreign country where the golden parachuted CEOs outsourced all our jobs!

Would Newt Gingrich consider such an austere solution? Why else would I name him Krampus of the Year? To quote a fictional 19th century Krampus, “Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?”

[robertpaulsen]

1. Kicking for all you Krampus lovers out there.

:kick: