A brief (and pitiful) follow-up to this morning’s post abut Newt Gingrich’s rough launch.

It gets worse. In an interview with Greta van Susteren on Fox, Gingrich said that any Democratic ad that quotes (accurately) what he said on Sunday about the Medicare provisions in the Paul Ryan budget blueprint being a case of “right-wing social engineering” is a falsehood.

Not kidding here. Here is the exact Gingrichian quote:

“Let me say on the record, any ad which quotes what I said on Sunday is a falsehood. Because I have said publicly those words were inaccurate and unfortunate.”

Cuiouser and curiouser. I said it. But it is a falsehood to say that I said it. And tomorow, it may be a falsehood to say that I said what I said today. If it turns that what I said today is unfortunate. Which is quite likely.

Here’s Gingrich saying it:

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11 Comments

  1. He can run, but I doubt he’ll be elected. After all, we already know he’d just dump us halfway through his term to go be the president of a younger country.

  3. Some corollaries:

    “If I tell a lie, anyone who quotes me is telling the same lie.”

    “If I misspeak, anyone who quotes me misspeaks on my behalf, and I cannot be held accountable.”

    “If I make a mistake, anyone who speaks accurately about my mistake is guilty of making the same mistake.”

    “If I make an unfortunate comment, anyone who repeats it verbatim is dishonestly making me make it again.”

    “Anyone who holds me justifiably accountable for any misstatement I have made is dishonestly denying that I have retracted my earlier misstatement.”

    “Any words which I have uttered or statements I have made are subject to my later clarification, revision, and/or retraction. Anyone who quotes my words is telling a lie about me unless they also include any and all of my later amplifications, explanations, backpedaling, clarifications, obfuscations, or any reference of any kind which I may have made at another time.”

    “I am not bad. Anyone who makes me look bad is being dishonest.”

    “Sometimes I have to lie. Anyone who repeats those lies accurately is also a liar.”

    “Sometimes I say what I mean but then find out it makes other people mad. If you’re mad about something I said, and you repeat it exactly the way I said it, you’re mean and I don’t like you.”

  4. I’d say that his already shaky candidacy has now officially gone up in flames.

  5. Or, as Tina Fey said during one of her Sarah Palin bits on SNL, the “lamestream media” are not to be trusted because they “twist my words by quoting me verbatim.”

    I think I see a trend developing here…

  6. This ranks right up there with Sen. Kyl’s “I did not intend this [statement that well over 90% of Planned Parenthood’s activity is devoted to abortions] to be a factual statement.”

  7. Or Tina-Fey-as-Sarah-Palin on SNL saying, “I just hope the lamestream media won’t twist my words by repeatin’ em verbatim.”

  9. I think the real story is that when a Republican candidate has a inexplicable flash of integrity, he has to renounce it almost immediately. So much for big the tent. This just illustrates the intolerance of contemporary conservatives in the US.

  10. Paul (#9) is probably on to something. The current Republican tent looks like it has room for only a single viewpoint.

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