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If South Carolina congressional candidate Catherine Templeton wanted to convince first district voters she wasn’t a creature of the Washington Swamp, her first major endorsement isn’t likely to do the trick.
Templeton touted the backing of former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich earlier this week – insisting the definitional status quo politician was some sort of agent of change during his four years at the helm of the “Republican Revolution” in 1994.
“Speaker Gingrich achieved serious results by standing up to the DC Establishment,” Templeton said. “I am proud that he knows I will do the same.”
Wait … “standing up to the DC establishment?”
Gingrich?
That statement is laughable. Gingrich utterly and completely caved to D.C. establishment during his tenure as speaker – betraying the “Republican Revolution” that ushered him into power and squandering what was arguably the last, best chance to restore some semblance of fiscal sanity to this country.
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In addition to his own sellouts, Gingrich has lent his imprimatur to other “Republican” politicians who have betrayed citizens and taxpayers. Among them? Mitt Romney, whose job-killing socialized medicine plan (“Romneycare”) introduced America to individual mandates and universal coverage.
“The health bill that Governor Romney signed into law this month has tremendous potential to effect major change in the American health system,” Gingrich wrote in April of 2006, praising the plan and its controversial individual mandate as encouraging “personal responsibility.”
I’m sorry … but it’s not “personal responsibility” when government makes it compulsory.
Gingrich also rallied to the defense of über-liberal U.S. House speaker John Boehner, who caved on literally every major spending issue that came across his desk during his nearly five years running the GOP minority in Washington, D.C.
“Speaker John Boehner is a solid conservative who worked with every fiber of his being to move America back to a conservative path,” Gingrich wrote on his Facebook page.
Wait … what? Was Gingrich smoking crack when he wrote that?
(Click to View)
And is Templeton smoking crack thinking this endorsement somehow makes her look like less of a status quo marionette?
The only person “standing up to the DC establishment” in this race is incumbent Nancy Mace, who is being targeted for defeat in this race for demonstrating the sort of political courage swamp creatures like Gingrich, Boehner and Romney could never seem muster.
But we are to believe the endorsement of Gingrich is reason to oust her?
To be clear: I’ve always liked Templeton – and she did an excellent job during her brief tenure in state government running a pair of cabinet agencies for former governor Nikki Haley. I also supported many of the planks of her failed 2018 gubernatorial bid. But this endorsement is embarrassing – and even worse, it plays directly into the hands of those who view Templeton as nothing but a tool of the very DC establishment she claims to be “standing up to.”
First district voters already have a representative who is standing up to the Washington Swamp: Nancy Mace. They don’t need a documented sellout like Newt Gingrich to tell them who they should support in this – or any other – political race.
South Carolina’s first district encompasses parts of Charleston, Berkeley, Dorchester and Beaufort counties in the Palmetto State’s Lowcountry. Mace won it in 2020 – defeating incumbent Democrat Joe Cunningham.
BANNER: Travis Bell Columbia SC Photographers
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina and before that he was a bass guitarist and dive bar bouncer. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven (soon to be eight) children.
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5 comments
Outstanding, Will! I almost spit out my drink when I read the “smoking crack” line! Well done!
In defense of Romneycare, an important distinction between in and Obamacare is that it only affected people in Massachusetts. That’s the great thing about the 10th Amendment to the US Constitution. I don’t really care what kind of healthcare system the citizens of Massachusetts choose for themselves.
The 10th Amendment deserves a major re-visting….it has been demoted to almost nothing since the FDR fascist era, and the cold war republican fascists like Nixon didn’t help us either. It needs to be placed back on equal footing with the rest of the bill of rights and given some teeth by SCOTUS. Several major federal agencies should not even exist at all of the 10th was enforced as plainly written, and we would be all the better for it. But what does it matter,- the federal government is going to collapse financially within the next 20 years. The financial damage of Obama, Trump and Biden is beyond recovery. For all our state’s problems, at least we are financially strong with a triple-A credit rating. Hopefully we won’t suffer as much when it all comes crashing down.
1 Timothy 2:12 ESV /
I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.
Was that picture of her taken at 6:00 a.m.?