Newt Gingrich’s Rhetoric Signals Seriousness About Presidential Run

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has been ratcheting up his rhetoric lately, the latest iteration being a speech to the right-wing American Enterprise Institute suggesting that America remove the remaining countries in the “axis of evil” (via Think Progress). It is not a coincidence that he recently addressed the serious of his intent to seek the presidency.

Yesterday at AEI, the blustery and pugnacious nationalistic side was on full display. At one point in the hour-long speech comprised of platitudes, attacks on Muslims, and false comparisons to wars past, Gingrich suggested that the U.S. needs to finish what President Bush started when he identified his “Axis of Evil” in January 2002:

GINGRICH: I believe he was right but in fact could not operationalize what he said. That is, there was an Axis of Evil, Iran, Iraq, North Korea. Well we’re one out of three. And people ought to think about that. If Bush was right in January of 2002 — and by the way virtually the entire Congress gave him a standing ovation when he said it — then why is it that the other two parts of the Axis of Evil are still visibly, cheerfully making nuclear weapons? And it’s because we’ve stood at brink, looked over and thought, “Too big a problem.”

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.