Newt Gingrich is into
auftragstaktik,
Tim Murphy of Mother Jones points
out.
That doesn't mean
that we should think mission-based
orders (and the command philosophy from which that approach is derived) are
bad. But it does make me a mite uneasy. Gingrich, someone who had worked
alongside him on a defense study panel once told me, is as close as you
will find to a modern version of Aaron Burr, by which he meant smart,
manipulative, and unethical.
I've only interviewed
Newt Gingrich a few times, so I can't say I know him well. That said, this
comment, by David Brooks, strikes me as the
best analysis I've ever seen of Gingrich:
the two main Republican contenders, we have one man, Romney, who seems to have
walked straight out of the 1950s, and another, Gingrich, who seems to have
walked straight out of the 1960s. He has every negative character trait that
conservatives associate with '60s excess: narcissism, self-righteousness,
self-indulgence and intemperance. He just has those traits in Republican form.
As nearly everyone who has ever worked
with him knows, he would severely damage conservatism and the Republican Party
if nominated. He would severely damage the Hamilton-Theodore Roosevelt strain
in American life.
Not persuaded? Here's more.
And more.
I think President Obama would love to
run against Mr. Gingrich.
(HT to Josh K.)
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