In a Twitter rant last month, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich sounded-off against current Secretary of State John Kerry for comments he made in a speech to students in Jakarta, Indonesia, going as far as to ask John Kerry to resign from his position as Secretary of State. So what was the subject of the comments that got Gingrich in such a tissy? None other than the Republican Party’s greatest enemy: climate change.
In speaking to Indonesian students, Secretary of State Kerry stated that climate change is “the greatest challenge of our generation” and that “climate change can now be considered another weapon of mass destruction, perhaps the world’s most fearsome weapon of mass destruction.”
Gingrich took great exception to both comments, going to Twitter to speak his disapproval:
Every American who cares about national security must.demand Kerrey's resignation.A delusional secretary of state is dangerous to our safety
— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) February 18, 2014
The most direct reaction to kerrey's global warming speech is to ask if he is completely out of touch with reality.
— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) February 18, 2014
If kerrey believes his global warming speech it is a terrifying prospect for American policy. He is making policy in a fantasy world
— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) February 18, 2014
Does kerrey really believe global warming more dangerous than north Korean and iranian nukes? More than Russian and Chinese nukes? Really? ?
— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) February 18, 2014
One could debate the validity of Kerry’s or Gingrich’s statements all day and wind-up achieving zero progress. Thus, perhaps the more interesting question is, “Why in the world would Gingrich care so much about what Kerry has to say?”
While Gingrich was a presidential candidate in 2012, he has been irrelevant on the political scene for quite some time. He now spends his days hanging out as the lone out-spoken Republican at CNN.
His position at CNN allows him the perfect opportunity, though, to have a national media outlet serve as his personal soap-box and campaign platform. Gingrich took full advantage of this situation yesterday by publishing an essay at CNN.com entitled “Beyond empty symbols, a serious strategy for dealing with Russia.”
In his scathing critique, Gingrich states that the United States needs to do something more than spout “liberal symbolism” in order to deal with the threat of Russia: “What we have so far is symbolic liberalism offering words, symbolic liberalism flying around the world from capital to capital having meetings, and symbolic liberalism targeting narrowly a handful of people in a way that will have no impact on Putin. What we could have is serious, robust action that would have a genuine and immediate impact and would weaken Russia’s ability to act aggressively toward its neighbors.”
What is Gingrich’s plan to for action, you ask? Well, it’s fairly simple, actually. All Gingrich wants to happen if for President Obama to create multiple executive orders which lead to the construction of the Keystone Pipeline and also opens up the exportation of natural gas to Eastern Europe. Through this plan, Gingrich hopes to lower the international price of natural gas so much that it will cripple Russia’s economic stranglehold on Eastern Europe and thus save the day…. Just like Gingrich’s good ol’ pal Reagan did in order to bring down the Soviet Union….
One can only think that by lambasting John Kerry on Twitter and by releasing his plan of action to solve an international crisis that no one has been able to properly assess and address yet that Gingrich is prepping himself to become the next Secretary of State for whichever Republican presidential candidate wins the 2016 election.
Or perhaps Newt is just being Newt. Who knows? It’s American politics, after all.
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