ASK ROSCOE

Dear Roscoe,

I’m confused. Are you, like, endorsing Newt Gingrich for president? If not, where do you stand on the candidates?

--L. LaRouche

Dear L.,

So glad you asked. We have to admit to getting a little carried away recently after Newt did his mea culpas about his moral failures. We do believe in repentance and forgiveness. And with hardly a Republican in sight whom we could support—and who actually has a chance of gaining the nomination—the Newt option seemed almost irresistible.

However, we have yet to hear any similar repentance from the former Speaker about his other disqualifications—i.e., the relational problems with his fellow Republicans that so undermined his leadership that Newt was facing open revolt among his colleagues if he hadn’t resigned first. Reportedly there’s a lot more detail about that issue in the new Tom DeLay book, No Retreat, No Surrender, being released even as we speak. (We may be reporting more on that soon.)

That’s a long way of saying we’re still way up in the air, unfortunately. If we’re being intellectually honest, we have to say on many of the issues we really care about neither Rudy nor McCain is any better than Hillary. Our conscience would not allow a vote for any of those. Perhaps we could bite the lesser-of-the-evils bullet, however, if the nominee were Mitt Romney.

That, then, leaves us in the unenviable position of hoping for the emergence of a dark horse like Mike Huckabee or Sam Brownback, who are genuine social conservatives without any of the flip-flop questions nagging Romney. Short of that very remote eventuality, there’s really only one other option: The dreaded Third Party Candidate.

Yes, that. Yes, we know all the arguments about wasting your vote. But again, what’s really gained in stopping a Dhimmicrat Hillary in favor of a Republican one? So, we’ll be looking into that third-party option—and reporting what we find, if it’s helpful.

Sorry that it’s come to that. And aren’t you sorry you asked?

--Roscoe