Gingrich Defends His Alliance With Hillary Clinton

Gingrich Defends His Alliance With Hillary Clinton

Susan Jones, CNSNews.com
Tuesday, June 7, 2005

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says he and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton teamed up at a May 11 press conference with one goal in mind - to get Congress to pass, and the president to sign, a health information technology bill.

Gringrich told Fox News's Bill O'Reilly that the bill's sponsors (Reps. Patrick Kennedy, a R.I. Democrat, and Tim Murphy, a Pennsylvania Republican) said if he and Sen. Clinton appeared together at the press conference, they'd get a lot more publicity for the bill they both support.

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As for the suggestion that Sen. Clinton is using Gingrich to show that she can work with conservatives, Gingrich said, "If Hillary Clinton is willing to support a good, practical, common-sense [bill], than we should take her support."

He said Sen. Clinton's voting record will show the world where she stands on other issues of concern.

Gingrich described Sen. Clinton as liberal, but "more practical" than Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean or Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.).

Dean has upset some of his fellow Democrats with his recent attacks on Republicans. Over the weekend, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) and former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) both distanced themselves from the remarks Dean made at a "Take Back America" conference.

Among other things, Dean told the gathering of Democrats last week that Republicans have time to wait in line to vote "because a lot of them have never made an honest living in their lives."

Edwards was quoted over the weekend as saying that Dean "is not the spokesman for the party," and Biden told ABC's "This Week" that Dean "doesn't speak for me with that kind of rhetoric, and I don't think he speaks for the majority of Democrats."

Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman told NBC's "Meet the Press," "I'm not sure the best way to win support in the red states is to insult the folks who live there. I think that a better approach might be to talk about the issues you're for."

On Monday, Gingrich told O'Reilly he thinks Dean has made a mistake with his "vicious" attacks: "I don't think the country wants a Democratic National Chairman who can do nothing but be negative for four solid years."

Gingrich commented that Democrats are good at telling everything they're against, but, "Can they tell us anything that is positive?"

Gingrich noted that adopting a positive image helped Republicans take back the House of Representatives in the 1994 midterm elections.

Editor's note:
The Stunning Truth About Hillary in Ed Klein`s New Book!