RUSH: Last night on the Fox Business Network, John Stossel’s show, Stossel spoke to former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin. And they had a discussion about the Republican primary, and this is what Governor Palin said.
PALIN: Newt Gingrich, what’s going on with him? The establishment’s attacks, they’re trying to crucify this man and rewrite history, rewrite what it is that he has stood for all these years. So it’s not just Ron Paul, I believe it’s also Newt Gingrich that the establishment, that the liberal media, certainly that the progressives and Democrats, don’t like.
RUSH: She was responding to the coordinated, or the apparent coordinated, assault on Newt yesterday. And I don’t know whether it was coordinated or not, but there were about five or six anti-Newt things from across the spectrum of the media, and she’s clearly upset about it. So it doesn’t sound like Sarah Palin’s changed her mind. She said in South Carolina, if she lived there, she’d vote for Newt. Obviously she has not changed her mind. Now, after that, on the Fox News Channel’s On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, Brit Hume appeared as a guest, and he said this.
HUME: The Republican Party can’t fool around with Newt Gingrich who’s a fireball. He could be terrific in a debate, but my sense about it is the one thing Newt Gingrich nationally has never been in all the arc of his career since he became Speaker and beyond, he’s never been popular with the public at large. Independents in this campaign are worried about deficits and debt, and of course the overall economy. People are looking for government to do less, to spend less, and for the private economy to flourish, because I think a significant majority of people believe that’s how it works. So in this election, I think you don’t necessarily want to be a candidate who has a big idea for something new for government to do.
RUSH: So, Gingrich, the Republican Party can’t fool around with Newt. That’s not gonna work. That’s Brit Hume. Gingrich negatives, disapproval numbers are at 60%, and the conventional wisdom is nobody is gonna win the presidency with 60% negatives. Just isn’t going to happen. And that’s what Brit Hume, without citing it, is referring to. Last night on PMSNBC, The Last Word, Lawrence O’Donnell’s show, he spoke with New York Magazine national affairs editor John Heilemann about the Republican primary. O’Donnell said, “Look, in Florida Gingrich is clearly taking on the establishment. He’s not trying to duck and pretend that this stuff isn’t happening. He’s saying you, the Florida voters, have to rise up against these people trying to take me out.”
HEILEMANN: There’s a really clear divide between the kinds of crowds that are showing up for Romney events, the kinds of crowds that are showing up for Gingrich events. You’re talking about a big class divide where you have a much more blue-collar, much more Tea Party, much more populist crowd showing up for Gingrich events and a much more upper crust, wine track, you know, when people used to divide voters into the wine track and the beer track, you’ve got the beer track for Gingrich and very much the wine track and the cucumber sandwiches with the crusts trimmed off kind of crowd showing up for Romney events.
RUSH: Ha! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. The brie-and-croissant crowd shows up for Romney and the beer guzzlers show up for the Newtster, this according to a liberal at New York Magazine.