Gingrich to GOP: Recruit anti-tax Dems

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, whose signature manifesto swept Republicans to power in the mid-1990s, called Wednesday for conservatives to recruit Democrats who oppose tax increases and big government and form a coalition to do battle with President Obama’s “fantasy wing of the American left.”

Mr. Gingrich in an interview pointedly left the door wide open for a 2012 run for the White House, proposing a specific prescription for the ailing conservative wing of the Republican Party. He offered stark alternatives to the Obama agenda on health care, spending, education and national security that could build a framework for what he called a “potential” run for the presidency.

“If you look at California on the recent vote against raising taxes or spending, when you get 64 percent of the state voting with you, it tells you that in the most Democratic districts of the state, there was a solid majority against raising taxes and spending,” Mr. Gingrich told editors and reporters at The Washington Times.

“So I would urge, for example, conservatives in California to find a Democrat to run in every Assembly and Senate seat in California that can’t be contested by Republicans, and then to run a Republican in every seat they could possibly win, and then have an overt goal of creating a bipartisan conservative coalition,” he said. “I’d do the same thing nationally.”

He said Republicans need to broaden their base to all conservatives, especially in light of a Gallup Poll this month that found 40 percent of Americans describe their political views as conservative, 35 percent as moderate, and just 21 percent as liberal.

“You need to have a national movement that focuses not on the presidency. It focuses on 513,000 elected offices, because this is a very densely, freely elected society, and you can’t get the changes just from the top,” he said. Then, he added, build a “tri-partisan” coalition of conservatives, independents and even moderate liberals - “a red, white and blue majority.”

To the Republican National Committee chairman, Mr. Gingrich delivered the same directive.

“I would say to Michael Steele and others, ‘The first duty is, for the next eight months, don’t worry about the message, worry about recruitment.’ A rising tide only lifts the boats that are in the water. … Barring some extraordinary change in the economy, we’re going to have a relatively good election in 2010 because high taxes, big government [and] politically corrupt systems don’t lead to economic growth,” he said.

With President Obama expanding government at an unprecedented rate - and pushing the national deficits to unseen heights - Mr. Gingrich said the country won’t toe the line for long. “You have a very left-wing government trying to impose its will on essentially a center-right country,” he said.

Several polls in the past week have reported a decline in public support for Mr. Obama’s economic stimulus and other spending measures, reinforcing Mr. Gingrich’s claim that a bolder conservative agenda could have widespread appeal in next year’s midterm elections.

A Washington Post/ABC News poll released Monday found support for the stimulus program in states that were decided by fewer than 10 percentage points in the 2008 presidential election had fallen to 50 percent, down from 63 percent at the 100-day point in his presidency. That poll also found that a 54 percent majority of Americans - including 61 percent of independents - favored “smaller government with fewer services” over “larger government with more services.”

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