GOP Tea-bate – Perfesser “Gingo” Gingrich: The Tenacity Of Mendacity
Perfesser Gingo, aka Newt Gingrich, a GOP presidential sorta-hopeful, was in full Gingo last night at yet another sorta-presidential debate. Showing off what makes him simultaneously interesting and tiresome, he pulled out one of his characteristic bits of “truthiness” (i.e. lying) when discussing “Obamacare” and “Romneycare.” Here’s the CNN transcript of the exchange between the Perfesser and Mitt Romney:
Perfesser GINGO: And candidly, Mitt, your plan ultimately, philosophically, it’s not Obamacare, and that’s not a fair charge. But your plan essentially is one more big government, bureaucratic, high-cost system, which candidly could not have been done by any other state because no other state had a Medicare program as lavish as yours, and no other state got as much money from the federal government under the Bush administration for this experiment. So there’s a lot as big government behind Romneycare. Not as much as Obamacare, but a heck of a lot more than your campaign is admitting.
(APPLAUSE)
COOPER: Governor Romney, 30 seconds.
ROMNEY: Actually, Newt, we got the idea of an individual mandate from you.
Perfesser GINGO: That’s not true. You got it from the Heritage Foundation.
ROMNEY: Yes, we got it from you, and you got it from the Heritage Foundation and from you.
Perfesser GINGO: Wait a second. What you just said is not true. You did not get that from me. You got it from the Heritage Foundation.
ROMNEY: And you never supported them?
Perfesser GINGO: I agree with them, but I’m just saying, what you said to this audience just now plain wasn’t true.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMNEY: OK. Let me ask, have you supported in the past an individual mandate?
Perfesser GINGO: I absolutely did with the Heritage Foundation against Hillarycare.
ROMNEY: You did support an individual mandate? Oh, OK. That’s what I’m saying. We got the idea from you and the Heritage Foundation.
GINGRICH: OK. A little broader.
That exchange is Gingrich attemting to weasel out of his support for an “individual mandate.” He often gets away with it. He’s like an accomplished shell player – very good sleight-of-hand. He has many techniques that attempt to skirt outright lying. Gingo – master of mendacity, “given to or characterized by deception or falsehood or divergence from absolute truth.” [Emphasis added] (Merriam-Webster) Yes, divergence from absolute truth, that’s it, that’s the shell game. Gingo’s sneaky dishonest. He’s arrogant. He underestimates his listeners, as I say, he often gets away with it. Not here.
The above exchange with Mitt Romney shows a few of his shell game tricks:
ROMNEY: Actually, Newt, we got the idea of an individual mandate from you.
Perfesser GINGO: That’s not true. You got it from the Heritage Foundation.
Here’s a deconstruction of Gingo’s comment:
- “You got it from the Heritage Foundation” – “It” is the individual mandate concept.” Yes, it is true that Romney got the idea from Heritage. Gingo, though, is here trying to confuse Romney and the audience through another of his methods, over-literalism. The facts that will emerge as the colloquy continues will prove, of course, that Gingrich did indeed support an individual mandate, and has done so for more than a decade. Here, though, he hopes to so befuddle Romney that he either drops the subject altogether or apologizes for mischaracterizing Gingo’s views. He’s using over-literalism to confuse, as you’ll see as we move along.
- Gingo’s next comment moves his ploy forward.
ROMNEY: And you never supported them [Heritage Foundation]?
GINGRICH: I agree with them, but I’m just saying, what you said to this audience just now plain wasn’t true.
Somewhat surprisingly perhaps, Gingo agrees that he agrees with Heritage about the individual mandate. His next comment is an attempt to paint Romney as a liar, “what you said just now plain wasn’t true,” referring back to Romney’s challenge that Gingo had agreed with Heritage about the individual mandate in regard to “Obamacare.” This is where he’s rolling out his use of the “distinction without a difference” ploy in earnest.
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