From Standard.net:
How about this presidential ticket? Huntsman-Gingrich 2012?
Gov. Jon Huntsman, by all signs, is making a push into the national political scene. In an interview with the conservative national newspaper, The Washington Times, he found a target that is, frankly, easy to bash — Republicans in Congress.
And, he’s embraced as an ally a GOP leader from the past — Former Speaker Newt Gingrich. The pair have spent time discussing reform ideas for health care, energy and the environment.
Huntsman told the Times he never talks to current GOP congressional leaders Sen. Mitch McConnell or Rep. John Boehner. He labels their ideas as completely “inconsequential.”
They’re just empty words, or as Huntsman, speaking Mandarin Chinese, says “fei hua.”
(To read the news story on the interview, go to: http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/24/utah-governor-ignores-top-gop-legislators/)
No one likes to see a political party decline, but right now Huntsman is right. Republicans, particularly on the national stage, have no credibility on fiscal restraint. Huntsman told the Times: “Our moral soapbox was taken away from us because of our behavior in the last few years. For us to now criticize analogous behavior is hypocrisy.”
Not surprisingly, Huntsman sees — besides Gingrich — Republican governors and state officials as the ones who will drive the ideas that resonate with the public. He says Congress can’t focus on those ideas so long as the GOP partisan rhetoric dominates the debate on issues.
Huntsman is right to unapologetically take the federal stimulus money. The growing economic crisis has dragged down state budgets. It is appropriate for the federal government to do something to boost state revenues. Huntsman is the CEO of Utah. He would be derelict in his duties if he rejected the money for narrow ideological reasons. His chief responsibility is to the well-being of Utah and its residents.
So what of Huntsman’s chances as a 2012 presidential hopeful? We venture to say that they are not too bad. Huntsman shares Mitt Romney’s reputation for competence and fiscal prudence. What’s more important is that Huntsman will not make the key mistake that sank Romney’s presidential bid. He will not make a craven shift to the right that repudiates his moderate stances on many issues. Huntsman is not that type of politician.
Although many may still regard Gingrich as an overly ideological GOP ally for Huntsman, the truth is that the former speaker of the House has moved closer to the center in recent years. He’s no longer the petulant, rigid ideologue who threw a tantrum in 1995 because he got a bad seat on President Clinton’s plane. Gingrich’s organization, American Solutions (www.americansolutions.com), is a conservative-leaning think tank seeking bipartisan solutions to issues and policies. That’s pretty wonky stuff, but we need leaders — from both parties — who can be policy wonks and voices of moderation.
Who knows, maybe “no more fei hua” will be a rallying cry in a few years?