If there’s one thing the Republican Party can do without right now, it’s more branding issues. So it’s tough luck for them that disgraced former Speaker of the House and failed Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has been hired by CNN to represent conservative voices, alongside S. E. Cupp, whose abrasive style isn’t exactly big tent material either.
Joining Gingrich and Cupp are strong liberal voices Stephanie Cutter and Van Jones.
Gingrich quit as speaker of the House in 1998 after his own party members turned on him after he lost seats for the party with his Clinton witch hunt. Ironically at that time, Gingrich denounced the “hateful” Republicans “you see on TV”:
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Faced with the narrowest House majority in 33 years, Gingrich bitterly denounced fellow Republicans who used him as a post-election whipping boy: “The ones you see on TV are hateful,” he told members. “I am willing to lead, but I won’t allow cannibalism.”
It was only the year prior that Gingrich made history by being the first Speaker disciplined for ethical wrongdoing in the House’s 208-year history, for which he was ordered to pay an unprecedented $300,000 penalty.
Cupp is known among conservatives for her writing at the Blaze and Townhall, as well as for her belief that the liberal media is losing the Right’s religion for them, per her book: “Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Media’s Attack on Christianity”. (If your faith is so tenuous that an alleged attack from the alleged liberal media destroys it, it probably wasn’t worth much in the first place. See Jesus.)
On the other side of the aisle, liberals are getting a boost with Stephanie Cutter, who was not only the deputy campaign manager of Obama for America 2012, but also the Assistant to the President and Deputy Senior Advisor; i.e., she advised the President on message and communications.
Rounding out the liberal side will be Yale-educated Van Jones, author of “The Green Collar Economy” and “Rebuild The Dream”, who champions America’s middle class (somebody has to do it). Van Jones resigned his job as Special Advisor for Green Jobs under the Obama administration after he was targeted by conservatives like Glenn Beck (then at Fox News) and World Net Daily. For context, in July 2009 Van Jones went after Beck’s advertisers via his organization Color of Change, after Beck accused the first African American President of having a “deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture.”
It was shortly after Van Jones targeted Beck’s racism that a tape surfaced of Van Jones calling Republican politicians (as well as himself) “a$$holes”, among other “controversies”, such as his name appearing on a 2004 petition suggesting that the Bush Administration may have “deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen”.
Conservatives might hate Van Jones, but he’s a well spoken, articulate advocate for the middle class and green energy. He and the very likeable and brilliant Stephanie Cutter will be good representatives for liberal positions. On the other side, selling conservatism to the masses, will be Newt Gingrich and S.E. Cupp.
“Few programs in the history of CNN have had the kind of impact on political discourse that Crossfire did — it was a terrific program then, and we believe the time is right to bring it back and do it again,” CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker said in a press release, according to Deadline.
Prepare yourselves.
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