There's nothing that unifies conservatives more than this: We love to hate the media.
And no one knows how to take that shared passion and incite us into a mob better than Newt Gingrich.
He is a formidable debater, a skillful politician, and a master of manipulation.
And in the presidential debate Thursday night he showed just how quickly he can deflect attacks, whip a crowd into a frenzy, and turn his foe into a blubbering, whining, blob.
When the evil anchor of the evil CNN dared ask the man-who-would-be-king a question about the ex-wife who claims she want us to know about his character, he turned the debate attendees into something akin to a lynch mob.
The liberal media is a blight on our nation. They are a poison in a nation of free people that are seeking to know the truth.
And what we need right now more than anything is an intensified search for truth about all the candidates.
We as conservatives have complained for years about how Obama's past is a mystery - that we have a right to know about his former and current relationships, what he studied, with whom he associated, and how he makes decisions.
So why is Newt's past suddenly off-limits? Mind you, we aren't talking about his "private" life as an average American going about his own business. We're trying to examine the life and actions of a very privileged and powerful politician while he was serving as the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. And how he may have abused and used that prestige while representing us - the people.
One's ethical behavior while entrusted with the public interest matters. And I, for one, care about such things: Whether it's an intern in the Oval Office or a Mistress in the Speaker's Chamber.
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It would be very easy to change the debate from who should be president and start piling on the media right now. They have deserved public scorn and ridicule for decades. But we can't let our deep distrust of the Fourth Estate to take us off our current mission: Deciding who should run the Executive estate.
We can't allow ourselves to be whipped into a frenzy by a skilled politician and master debater who doesn't want us asking too many questions about his judgment, standards of ethics, or ...arrogance. There really are more choices than to side with the media, or to side with Newt.
What's at stake here?
Only who will become the most powerful man in the world.
And when I'm making that decision, character counts. In fact, everything about them counts.
And in my own bouncing around between Republican presidential hopefuls, searching for the candidate I can believe in - the person who must beat Obama - I looked long and hard and deep into Newt Gingrich. For a period of a few days, I even thought he might truly be a changed man. Then I looked deeper. When I laid it all out, a disturbing pattern emerged: Newt's obsession with himself and his insatiable appetite cloud his view of what is right and what is wrong. He is a genius - smart enough to understand the basic truth that freedom works. But he is so hyperactive, so hyper hungry in every way that when he wants something he can justify his actions, change the argument, and control the conversation. In Newt's mind, the rules don't really apply to him when he's busy doing "good" for so many - whether they are conservative principles that must be abandoned or wives that must be betrayed.
My disdain for the liberal media does not blind me to the facts that the would-be-King is naked as a jaybird.
If you have a record of repeated infidelity, of serial womanizing, of ethics violations, of making a buck (or a few million of them) off the demise of our housing economy, you don't get to be president. If you force workers out of jobs and destroy local economies as a champion of the Endangered Species Act, or usher in the largest government program since the Great Society through a prescription drug debacle, or destroy the free-market system within the energy industry through mandating ethanol usage, you don't get to be president.
Don't get me wrong - the thought of a milquetoast, moderate mushy diet of Mitt Romney makes my stomach queasy. And he's not getting my vote either.
Read my previous column and you'll find out why the best choice has always been right under our nose - why I have come to the conclusion that Rick Santorum is the man who should be president.
In the meantime, regardless of who you choose to support, don't let your hate of the media blind you to the fact that the "Emperor" is naked.
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