Roger Simon writes for Politico: It was a new Newt. Gone was the haughtiness and disdain that had marked his previous performances. In the two-hour CNN broadcast, he complained about the debate format only once. Once! And he delivered his lines with steely confidence and a bulldog set to his jaw.

It was as if he truly believed — for the first time — he might actually win the Republican presidential nomination.

It was the most amazing of all the debates so far: A Republican candidate for president said, “Let’s be humane about enforcing the law,” and he was not booed.

“I’m prepared to take the heat,” Gingrich said Tuesday night, explaining that he would not deport illegal immigrants who had been in the United States for 25 years or so and had put down roots. He said he did not want to break up families. [ READ MORE ]

Newt Gingrich Sticks Neck Out On Immigration, Risking Conservative Backlash

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I am no fan of Newton Leroy Gingrich as evidenced in my postings over the years, but last night, I warmed up to him(a little bit).

Newt took the bull(immigration) by the horns and wrestled it to the ground — expertly and without the clumsiness of Rick Perry(on the same issue) a few weeks ago.

The newly minted “soft” Newt’s delivery was profound and grandiose(as always), and seemingly showed himself to be willing to fight for a principle — making the other GOP contenders look exactly what they are — petty, stupid, uninformed and hopelessly mean-spirited.

But hey, it’s political sociopath Newt, scam-artist extraordinaire.

Tomorrow he might make a 180 degree turn — and ask immigrants to take a bath first before coming to the United States — and/or his new found decency about undocumented immigrants could kill his chances with the hopelessly racist Republican/Tea-Party base.

But, if Newt survives a backlash and maintains the same composure he showed last night during the debate, for the rest of the GOP primary — he just might snatch the nomination from the lying, serial flip-flopping Mitt Romney, thus setting up a titanic trilogy of debates with Obama in 2012.

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P/S — Ex Clinton aide Paul Begala thinks Gingrich pulled a fast one on everyone in last night’s debate:

“……So Gingrich showed real guts in refusing to pander to the most mean-spirited xenophobic tendencies of the far right. I suspect that on careful examination we will learn that what Gingrich actually supports is a netherworld for immigrant workers–neither full citizenship nor subject to deportation. That is far from the DREAM Act–more like a dream come true for any employer seeking cheap labor. [ READ MORE ]

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Newt Gingrich Has Taken The Front-Runner Status Across The Board

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Really, Newt?
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Newt Gingrich wants to fire union workers and hire kids to clean schools. Here’s what he said last week:
“Saying to people you shouldn’t go to work before you’re 14, 16. You’re totally poor, you’re in a school that’s failing with a teacher that’s failing.

I tried for years to have a very simple model. These schools should get rid of unionized janitors, have one master janitor, pay local students to take care of the school. The kids would actually do work; they’d have cash; they’d have pride in the schools. They’d begin the process of rising.”

Great idea, right? That Gingrich is a real big thinker — let’s fire janitors and hire their children instead. Let’s assign children as young as nine years old to do hard manual labor cleaning up after their more fortunate classmates. Let’s all pretend this isn’t vicious, backwards and wrong.

Please let Newt Gingrich know that his “idea” is outrageous — and then let your friends, family and others know exactly what kind of hogwash Gingrich is proposing.

Sign the letter here

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Bonus Right-Wing Smear News
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Limbaugh’s “Rhetorical Question”: “When Will The Media Do An Anal Exam Of Obama?”

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This time the Texas cowboy came riding hard — with guns blazing, aimed squarely at the flip-flopping maestro, the multiple-choice liar, Mr. Massachusetts — Willard Mitt Romney. The “Texian” came close to stepping over that fine line separating measured aggression and unchecked aggression….but stopped short of punching Willard.

The hot issue this time: IMMIGRANT BASHING! …and of course, the usual dose of venom aimed at that DARKIE occupying THEIR White House!

   [ ENLARGE ]

Bashing helpless people (immigrants) is a Republican staple:

“Mitt, you lose all of your standing from my perspective because you hired illegals in your home,” Mr. Perry said. “And you knew for — about it for a year.”

He went on, “And the idea that you stand here before us and talk about that you’re strong on immigration is, on its face, the height of hypocrisy.”

Mr. Romney at first sought to deflect Mr. Perry’s attack by giving a stage laugh and saying: “Rick, I don’t think that I’ve ever hired an illegal in my life. And so I’m — I’m looking forward to finding your facts on that.” Mr. Perry snapped back, “It’s time for you to tell the truth.”

As the two continued to speak over each other and Mr. Perry kept pressing his attack, Mr. Romney turned to his opponent and said sharply, “This has been a tough couple of debates for Rick, and I understand that, and so you’re going to get — you’re going to get testy.”

Mr. Perry’s eyes narrowed and he licked his lips, before yielding the floor to Mr. Romney.

The exchange drew from a Boston Globe report in 2006 that found that illegal immigrants were among the members of a crew hired by a company working on Mr. Romney’s lawn. A year later, the newspaper found that the yard workers still included illegal immigrants. At the debate, Mr. Romney said the company had hired the workers and that he had eventually stopped using it because of the lapses.

[ READ MORE ]

Riding along, with a roll of quarters tucked in his pants, buoyed by contender poll numbers — was uncle ruckus, the pizza-man Herman Cain.

Nigger came to the “lynching” swinging a 9-9-9 RUNGU, and frothing FRAUD in the mouth.

Alligator Moat!!…That’s an Apple!!…That’s an Orange!!…Electric Fence!!…Kill Immigrants!!…9-9-9!!…Obama The Kenyan!!…To Hell With The Jobless!!…There is No Racism in America!!…9-9-9!!…9-9-9!!…, sung nigger Herman, while sambo-dancing.

Peering from the far end of the podium, cuckoo doodle Michele Bachmann pooped in her thong, while scam artist Newton Leroy Gingrich bounced his fat belly like a weight on a trampoline — as the racist tea-bagger audience cheered enthusiastically, biting and sucking in the ugliness — with the gusto of a hungry lactating hyena.

Republican-on-Republican Cage Match in Vegas

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Herman Cain Blames The Unemployed, GOP Debate Audience Cheers

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Obama Bashing

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FactChecking The Las Vegas Smackdown:

Summary: Republican candidates hammered each other for 2 hours in a lively Nevada confrontation — and often strayed from the facts. •   Cain denied that his tax plan would boost taxes for 84 percent of Americans, or fall heavily on those with lower incomes. A new study by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center says just that. •   Santorum and Bachmann denounced Cain’s 9 percent “business flat tax” as a European-style “value-added” tax, which Cain also denied. The TPC study agrees with Santorum and Bachmann. •   Romney claimed his Massachusetts health care plan “[doesn't] have a government insurance plan” and relies on private insurance. Actually, his plan expanded Medicaid, and relies on that state-federal government program to cover many of the state’s previously uninsured. •   Perry and Romney clashed on job creation. Perry was mostly right in claiming Texas saw a greater number of jobs created than Massachusetts. But he was wrong that his state created more jobs in the last two months than Massachusetts did in four years under Romney. •   Romney relied on a disputed study from an anti-immigration group when he said “almost half” the jobs created under Perry were for illegal immigrants. Perry called that “an absolute falsehood.” But more neutral estimates support the idea that some portion of the Texas job gains were due to illegal immigration. •   Perry accused Romney of hiring illegal immigrants, to which Romney said, “I don’t think I’ve ever hired an illegal in my life.” In fact, there’s no evidence that Romney knowingly hired illegal immigrants — but he hired a lawn service that did, and was slow to fire the contractor. •   Santorum and Perry were both off base in claiming that Romney once touted his Massachusetts plan as a model for the nation. He didn’t. He said it wasn’t necessarily right for all states. Note: This is a summary only. The full article with analysis, images and citations may be viewed on our Web site: Desktop users go here: http://factcheck.org/2011/10/las-vegas-smackdown/ Mobile users go here: http://m.factcheck.org/2011/10/las-vegas-smackdown/

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Conservatives jumped and screamed with Joy yesterday when a right-wing federal judge Sharon Blackburn — upheld most of the provisions of the racist, racial profiling immigration law in Alabama. The law, which, among other things, makes it illegal to knowingly give an undocumented immigrant a ride, also requires schools to check students’ immigration status.

Alabama’s H.B. 56, is draconian, worse than those already passed by Apartheid Arizona, Georgia and Indiana. There are also provisions making it a crime for an undocumented immigrant to apply for or perform work, making it a crime to conceal or harbor an undocumented immigrant, and barring employers from failing to hire a U.S. citizen while employing an undocumented worker.

As explained in the video below, the law “drips with racism.”

Apartheid: Alabama Joins The League of Immigrant ‘Racial Profiling’ Republican States

PLAYLIST: Apartheid Republican States in The U.S.

Fox Nation Screamed: “Holder Loses: Court Upholds Alabama Immigration Law,” while the hoodlums at WorldNet Daily exulted — STUPIDLY comparing opponents of the law to Civil War-era slave owners who opposed emancipation. [ READ MORE ] | WND’s Vox Day likened “Mass Invasion” Of U.S. By “Mexicans And Others” To Nazi Invasion Of Europe.

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Fox’s Megyn Kelly: Judge’s Ruling On Alabama Immigration Law “Is A Victory” For AL

No, Eric Bolling: “Apprehensions Dropping Dramatically” Doesn’t Mean Immigrants Are “Getting Here” And “Staying Here“

GOP Debate Puts National Spotlight On Fox’s Use Of “Illegals” Slur [ READ MORE ]

Reference: HB 56 & Anti-Immigrant Hate: ‘Apartheid’ Republicans Slide Alabama Back into ‘Jim Crow’ Terrorism

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Texas Gov. Rick Perry, whose campaign bus is plastered with the slogan “Get America Working Again,” has made his record on jobs the centerpiece of his run for the Republican presidential nomination. As proof that he’s the GOP candidate best positioned to beat President Obama, he points to the so-called “Texas miracle” — Perry’s state has added, not lost, jobs in the faltering economy. But critics say Perry’s claims are “overblown,” and that others, including President Obama, also deserve credit for Texas’ good fortune.

There is evidence that Perry has grossly overstated his Job’s growth claim — The “Texas Miracle” is a myth, a big FAT lie! — a fact which his wife Anita confirmed yesterday (see video below)

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Perry Flip-Flops on Immigrants

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The TOP Lines This Week

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   [ By: Richard Cohen ]
The lovable Rick Perry: I am beginning to feel about Rick Perry the way Fay Wray felt about King Kong. The big ape is starting to grow on me. First I was shocked and then I was scared but now, the more he gets attacked by those on his right (imagine!), the more a certain sympathy stirs in me. Here and there, the big lug is downright lovable.

A touch of sympathy swells within me when I see him on some debate platform, squinting hard to explain to a conservative audience how, on occasion, he has let his feelings get the better of him. He unaccountably felt a need to protect teenage girls from cervical cancer, and he wanted the children of illegal immigrants to get a good education.

He vainly tried to explain his compassion. But his audience remained cold. His biggest crowd-pleaser came in the Sept. 7 Republican debate when he took credit for 234 executions; “more than any other governor in modern times,” moderator Brian Williams said. The audience cheered.

It was downhill after that. Perry reeled, disoriented, chained to some of the more reckless actions he has taken in his three terms as Texas governor. He was pummeled for wanting to inoculate prepubescent girls against the human papilloma virus. This was the smart, sensible, humane thing to do, since about 6 million Americans get infected every year, and an estimated 12,000 of them will get cervical cancer. Of those, more than 4,000 will die from it.

Perry looked dazed. He virtually pounded his chest and proclaimed his hate for cancer. He acknowledged that he had erred; hatred of cancer can do that to an hombre; and should have left the good fight about HPV to the state legislature, which wouldn’t have passed it anyway. He had been slow to appreciate how conservatives felt that such vaccinations were the immunological equivalent of rape. They believe that vaccinating sixth-graders will somehow make these girls sexually promiscuous. As seventh-grade boys can tell you, there is no evidence for this.

Next came immigration. Once again, the party turned on him for lacking ideological purity. What was happening? All he had done was treat the children of illegal immigrants as ordinary students, but he was excoriated by his fellow Republican presidential candidates. Even Mitt Romney, a virtual Bolshie by GOP standards, came down on Perry as, in effect, not conservative enough. Perry squinted. He smiled. What in Sam Hill was going on?

Rick Perry was being hogtied by a bunch of conservative Lilliputians. He was being lectured by the high-living Newt Gingrich, who was most definitely not still married to his high school sweetheart. He was being pummeled by the shifty Romney. Jon Huntsman was snippy, Rick Santorum was sanctimonious, Herman Cain was verbose, and Ron Paul; well, Paul is beyond adjectives. Michele Bachmann, who sometimes goes days without lying, kept referring to “innocent little 12-year-old girls,” making Perry seem like a guy in a raincoat. My God, what has happened to American conservatism?

Perry stood on the stage and tried to get words out. They clotted in his throat. They came out like spit teeth. His conservatism was being questioned! How was that possible? He had stood his ground on global warming: The science was lousy. Human beings were not responsible. Lots of scientists said so. He’d get the names.

He stood his ground on evolution. It was a theory, sort of like Keynesian economics. He rued the ratification of the 16th and 17th Amendments to the Constitution; the former permitting the federal income tax, the latter calling for the direct election of senators. How can you get more conservative than that? Repeal of both amendments would bring Washington to its knees. And these are not new debating positions. They are laid out; actually, sketched out; in Perry’s book “Fed Up!: Our Fight to Save America from Washington” It must have taken days to write.

Then came the Florida straw poll and Perry lost to — Herman Cain. He almost got beat by Romney. He was being mocked by the pundits, scorned by party activists (who had booed a gay soldier); and held responsible for taking some principled positions. He was right about the HPV inoculation and he was right about the kids of illegal immigrants, and he was being attacked for the sheer decency of his positions. I felt sorry for him. The big lug may not have much of a brain, but he sure has a heart.

The Rick Perry Playlist [69 Videos]

Road To 2012 — The Republican Debates