Yesterday, ThinkProgress documented Newt Gingrich’s complete flip-flop on whether the United States should have militarily intervened in Libya. In response, Gingrich offered multiple contradictory and incoherent “explanations.”
ABC News described Gingrich’s position as a flip-flop: “But it turns out that Gingrich, who is a potential Republican candidate for President, was for a no-fly zone before he was against it.”
In 2004, however, Gingrich repeatedly bashed then Democratic nominee for President John Kerry, saying his flip-flop on Iraq war funding disqualified him from being president. A sample:
Gingrich on Neil Cavuto, 9/17/04: “You can’t flip-flop and be commander-in-chief.”
Gingrich on Hannity & Colmes 9/27/04: “I think Kerry’s problem is one of identity… He can’t quite decide, you know — and so I think what you’re going to see more likely with him is a kind of schizophrenia. And if the moderator’s at all serious with Kerry, and puts Kerry on the spot as saying, now, you said a, and you said b. Which is it? I think Kerry’s got a big problem.”
Gingrich on Hannity & Colmes, 5/5/04: “I think maybe the pretzel should become the symbol of the Kerry campaign, because he kind of twists himself into a pretzel trying to fit every group he shows up in front of and trying to appeal to each group on the national issues. I’m beginning to think it’s not such a shock he’s running for president. It’s a little bit of a shock he survived as a Senator.”
What would the Gingrich of 2004 say about candidate Gingrich in 2011?