Say Anything

Today on Rush Limbaugh’s show Newt Gingrich tried to claim that it wasn’t Paul Ryan he was talking about when he made the now-infamous comments to David Gregory about proposed Medicare reforms being “radical” and “right wing social engineering.”

Which kind of makes you wonder why, if Gingrich wasn’t talking about Ryan, he apologized to Ryan for making the comments?

From The Atlantic:

In a live interview with Rush Limbaugh Thursday afternoon, Gingrich said he hadn’t actually criticized Ryan’s plan in his Sunday appearance on “Meet the Press,” and that he wasn’t referring to the Wisconsin congressman when he said those words.

“It was not a reference to Paul Ryan. There was no reference to Paul Ryan in that answer,” Gingrich told Limbaugh, who was in the process of gently grilling him about why he used those words in the NBC interview.

Limbaugh asked Gingrich why, then, did he call Ryan to apologize for the remark, if it wasn’t made in reference to Ryan.

“It was interpreted in a way which was causing trouble which he doesn’t need or deserve,” Gingrich said. “My answer wasn’t about the budget, and I promptly went back to say publicly that I would have voted for the Ryan budget.”

Newt Gingrich must think it’s still 1994. Back then, this sort of history revisionism might have been an effective political tool. He could toss it out there, and unless some journalist got it in his mind to prove him wrong, the average citizen would have the means to go back and look up the transcript and/or video footage of what was originally said.

But it isn’t 1994 any more. It’s 2011, and we have YouTube and blogs and when you say things just about everybody on the planet can fact check you.

This goes beyond a mere policy difference between Gingrich and proponents of Paul Ryan’s reforms. That in and of itself is disappointing enough for conservatives, but now Gingrich is just being dishonest.