Newt: The New Nixon

Monday, January 23, 2012 THE BIG STORY, BY E.J. DIONNE Back To The Future? Newt Lifts From Nixon's Playbook Conservatives may denounce class warfare, yet by shrewdly combining the politics of class with the politics of culture, Newt Gingrich won his first election in 14 years, humbled Mitt Romney and upended the Republican Party. While drawing on resentment and class lines to corner Romney, he also tapped in to South Carolina's old racial divides. When Fox News' Juan Williams, an African-American journalist, directly challenged Gingrich about the racial overtones of Gingrich's staple reference to Obama as "the food-stamp president," the former House Speaker verbally pummeled him, to raucous cheers. As if to remind everyone of the power of coded language, a supporter later praised Gingrich for putting Williams "in his place." READ MORE Send To A Friend >> FEATURED COLUMN: DAVID CAY JOHNSTON What Will Happen When Mitt Romney Releases His Tax Returns On Tuesday? A tax return says a lot about a man, especially one aspiring to be president. If Mitt Romney makes good on his promise during Thursday night's Republican debate to release "multiple years" of his returns, it will likely stir up rather than calm the political storm -- unless he makes public all of his returns from 1984 through 1999. Those are the years when he built a fortune of more than $200 million while running Bain Capital Management. READ MORE Send To A Friend >> REPUBLICAN PRIMARY Florida: It's Different Than The Other GOP Primary States The Sunshine State is six times larger than New Hampshire, has almost five times more Hispanics than Iowa, and, with ten media markets, is much more expensive for candidates than South Carolina. The unemployment rate here is 10 percent, much higher than the national 8.5 percent jobless figure. And more than 2 percent of all housing units in Florida -- which hosts the next Republican primary on January 31 --were involved in foreclosure last year. READ MORE Send To A Friend >> ARIZONA In Surprising Announcement, Gabby Giffords Retires From Congress Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona announced Sunday she will resign from Congress this week to concentrate on recovering from wounds suffered in the assassination attempt in January 2011 that shook the country. "I don't remember much from that horrible day, but I will never forget the trust you placed in me to be your voice," the Democratic lawmaker said in a video posted on her Facebook page. READ MORE Send To A Friend >> FEATURED COLUMN: LEONARD PITTS JR. Strippers, And Other Depressingly Creative Ways To Dishonor MLK, Jr. It seems that one Jeffrey Darnell Paul, a graphic artist from Miami Beach, had been tasked with creating a poster for a strip club's so-called "I Have a Dream Bash" last week in apparent "honor" of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. So this genius concocts an image of the nation's greatest human rights leader holding up a fan of hundred dollar bills like some low-rent "playa" while a scantily clad woman looks on. READ MORE Send To A Friend >> FOOTBALL Joe Paterno Dies; New York And Boston Prepare For Super Bowl Rematch Four years after New York stunned previously undefeated New England in the Arizona desert, the Patriots and Giants are going at it again at the Super Bowl -- this time in Indianapolis. And embattled former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, having been fired for his neglect in the child abuse scandal at that program, died this weekend of lung cancer. READ MORE Send To A Friend >> CARTOON OF THE DAY Send To A Friend >>

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