The quote "Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican," described as the Eleventh Commandment of Ronald Reagan was not actually written by Ronald Reagan. It was actually the work of California Republican Party Chairman Gaylord Parkinson. Yesterday on "Meet the Press", Newt Gingrich broke that commandment in a way that will cost Republicans in Congress and cost Newt in his quest for the presidency.
Byron York at the Washington Examiner commented on the incident this morning on Bill Bennett's "Morning in America" radio show.
The article reports:
"Republicans are particularly angry about the timing of Gingrich's "Meet the Press" remarks because they came the day before Ryan was scheduled to make a high-profile defense of his budget plan in a speech in Chicago. Gingrich's attack, those Republicans say, makes it much easier for Democrats to attack Ryan, too."
Aside from the fact that the statement made on "Meet the Press" contradicts earlier remarks he had made previously on the "Morning in America" show ( "Paul Ryan has stepped up to the plate," Gingrich said. "This is a very, very serious budget and I think rivals with [what] John Kasich did as budget chairman in getting to a balanced budget in the 1990s, just for the scale and courage involved..."). That sort of inconsistency is not acceptable in a presidential candidate.
As a country we desperately need a solution to our spending and debt problems. Paul Ryan has studied the federal budget for years and has come up with a very workable solution. It would be a shame to have a Republican with presidential ambitions give Democrats the ammunition to fight that plan.
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