Thursday, February 23, 2012

Newt's last hurrah

There are no more debates planned for the GOP primary campaign, so last night could very well have been Newt's last hurrah.   And it wasn't much to shout about.

The big action was between Romney and Santorum, with Paul chiming in with his quirky appeal.  Newt kept out of the fray for the most part, throwing in a few zingers as only Newt can hone them.

His claim that, as a state legislator, Obama supported "infanticide" is just not worth spending any time on.  No, Newt.  Supporting legal abortion rights is not the same as baby-killing.  So just get over it.

The other one left people scratching their heads, because it came from out of the blue and has no factual basis.   Newt declared that reforming the federal civil service system -- which he, of course, will do as president -- "could save a minimum of $500 billion a year."   Wow !!   Could it be?

Josh Marshall of TPM did some math.   The entire federal payroll -- even including the military -- is only $432.6 billion a year.    So, he concludes, if you fired every single person who works for the federal government (which includes far more people than the civil service system), it would not amount to $500 billion.

As of this writing, Newt's campaign had not returned Marshall's request for clarification.

Ralph

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