They Saved Newt's Brain

A frightening specter from David Brooks: "Perhaps, as my friend Daniel Casse notes, what the G.O.P. needs is Newt Gingrich’s brain lodged in Fred Thompson’s temperament."

I think the GOP needs to look harder at the reanimated corpse of Ronald Reagan as an option. Seriously, though, to me the striking thing about the Gingrich section of Jeffrey Goldberg's profile of Republicans adrift is that for the self-proclaimed candidate of new ideas and new directions, Gingrich seems mighty short on actual new ideas for the country.

Comments

I know a winning ticket in '08. Gingrich/Brooks. Do you think Brooks will give up his punditry job for a chance to replace Shooter?

Posted by Joe Klein's conscience | June 1, 2007 2:21 PM

That might be what they need, but first you'd have to dislodge Newt's head from his ass and then dislodge Thompson's head from his ass before you could even begin the transplant...

Posted by Tasteless | June 1, 2007 2:34 PM

You didn't really expect that a conservative would have actual new ideas, did you? That would be an oxymoron . . .

Posted by rea | June 1, 2007 2:50 PM

I can hear Thompson now:

"He turned me into a NEWT!"

"Uh, I got better . . ."

Posted by Barry | June 1, 2007 3:16 PM

Tom Tomorrow has a better idea: a guy in a Reagan mask for President!

Posted by abb1 | June 1, 2007 3:35 PM

So is anyone ever going to point out that good ole boy Fred Thompson decided, mere months after 9/11, that he could better serve his country by acting in "Law and Order" rather than running for re-election to the Senate? Talk about cut and run.

Posted by Col Bat Guano | June 1, 2007 3:37 PM

Can we just vote for the mask? The guy in it seems rather superfluous.

Posted by BruceR | June 1, 2007 3:39 PM

The whole notion of the late 80's and early 90's that the Republicans were the party of "new ideas, was one of the more signal triumphs of marketing form over substance (sorry, that's the definition of "marketing," isn't it?). They were new ideas in 1880, but had been thoroughly discredited by the time of Teddy Roosevelt. If we had a sense of history, any time a Republican announced he was running for the presidency, those nearest him would wrestle him to the ground, while others would be gathering feather pillows and boiling tar.

Posted by Primigenius | June 1, 2007 3:48 PM

Fred Thompson IS the reanimated corpse of Ronald Reagan.

Posted by jayinbmore | June 1, 2007 4:19 PM

Fred Thompson IS the reanimated corpse of Ronald Reagan.

Not true--Reagan was a much bette actor.

Posted by rea | June 1, 2007 4:32 PM

>for the self-proclaimed candidate of new ideas and new directions, Gingrich seems mighty short on actual new ideas for the country.

Substitute Gary Hart for Gingrich, and the sentence could have been written in 1984. I presume Gingrich's luck won't be any better than Hart's.

Posted by Jay Gold | June 1, 2007 4:35 PM

As a true conservative, I'd never vote for Gingrich or Fred Thompson. They are both neocons.

http://www.conservativeexodusproject.com/

I have proudly signed the Conservative Exodus Project, and I'll only vote for real conservatives.

Posted by Real Conservative | June 1, 2007 4:37 PM

Priomigenius has it exactly right. The alleged "new ideas" of the GOP have mostly been warmed over items from the agendas of William McKinley and Warren G. Harding. A new era combining the worsts of the Guilded Age and the age of Laissez-faire. What could go wrong?

As for Gingrich, his brain should be well preserved as he uses it rarely. What an arrogant, know nothing asshole he is.

Posted by Klein's Tiny Left Nut | June 1, 2007 4:47 PM