Newt Gingrich is truly the ultimate candidate. Not only is he a Washington insider, as he told the press on Wednesday, but he’s also a Washington outsider.
Asked in Iowa on Wednesday whether news that he received at least $1.6 million from Freddie Mac might negatively impact his campaign, Gingrich told reporters that it would actually raise his stature by reminding voters about his extensive Washington experience.
“It reminds people that I know a great deal about Washington and if you want to change Washington, we just tried four years of amateur ignorance and it didn’t work very well,” he said. “So having somebody who actually knows Washington might be a really good thing.”
But just so you’re not confused, Gingrich told FOX News on Tuesday that he’s “the best of both worlds” — an experienced politician who’s still brings an “outsider’s viewpoint” to Washington.
“I think that a lot of the combined experience, with the outsider’s viewpoint … allows me to approach things like Washington that are probably very, very different from most traditional politicians,” he said, “but at the same time with a lot more knowledge than someone who has never served in Washington.”
Gingrich has deployed the “Washington outsider” line repeatedly throughout the campaign, arguing that his years as a politician and later as a highly paid consultant in the nations’ capital don’t disqualify him from using the insurgent title.
“I’m not a Washington figure despite the years I’ve been here,” he said in May. “I’m essentially an American whose ties are across the country and whose interest is how you change Washington, not how you make Washington happy.”
Benjy Sarlin
Benjy Sarlin is a reporter for Talking Points Memo and co-writes the campaign blog, TPM2012. He previously reported for The Daily Beast/Newsweek as their Washington Correspondent and covered local politics for the New York Sun.
Facebook Conversations