Politics in the Valley

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich declared that Republican presidential candidate John McCain won’t win in November unless “he [tells] the truth about the big government mess.”

“You can’t be 10 points behind and say he’s done an effective job,” Gingrich said during a barbecue fundraiser for 6th District Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, at the Andre Viette Farm and Nursery in Fishersville. “I mean, they have not focused on the economy, they have not given a clear message. They haven’t focused on what the American people want.”

That includes telling the truth about government’s part in the financial crisis, Gingrich said.

“But if he remains confused, and the message remains confused, then I think in reaction to the failure of the Bush administration, Virginia will go Democrat for the first time since [1964],” Gingrich said.

Like Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, McCain supported a $700 billion bailout package that has drawn sharp criticism from conservatives, including Gingrich and Goodlatte, who twice voted against the legislation passed Oct. 3 by Congress.

McCain followed that with a $300 billion plan for the Treasury Department to buy up distressed mortgages and renegotiate the loan terms, a move Gingrich criticizes as another step toward expanded government.

Instead, Gingrich called for the firing of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who has orchestrated a series of bailouts as the economy has careened toward recession. McCain, Gingrich said, also must forcefully attack House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has hinted that she may call lawmakers back to the Capitol after the election to push for a $150 billion economic stimulus package.

“We are in a total mess. We’ve had [$1.2 trillion] of extra spending this year,” Gingrich said. “That is a fundamentally wrong strategy, and we’ve watched for three weeks as the markets have rejected this kind of approach.”

Voters are responding similarly as the McCain campaign drifts and Obama surges in the polls, Gingrich said.

“… I think that it’s tragic that you have a Republican administration, a liberal Democratic Congress and the mess, I think, could lead to the election of a liberal president,” Gingrich said, “and an even more liberal Congress, which means just massive tax increases and, I think, a long-term shift toward more big government, more bureaucracy and slower economic growth.”

Republicans have failed to communicate the true meaning of conservatism, Gingrich said.

“People, I think, in response are almost out of resignation thinking about voting for a liberal Democrat who will raise taxes,” Gingrich said.

Gingrich, whose popularity among conservatives has surged since he became a regular on Fox News, is pushing McCain to produce a comprehensive recovery plan that includes energy diversity.

In his new book, “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less,” Gingrich calls for drilling for oil offshore and in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and developing an energy portfolio that includes nuclear power, clean coal and renewables. Government is getting in the way of a cohesive energy policy, he said.

Goodlatte agreed.

“We have the resources right here, right now, in this country … to address these concerns,” Goodlatte said.

Richard Streck, of Covington, said he believes Gingrich’s message resonated with the Republican crowd. Even with doubts about McCain’s economic acumen, Streck said he’s “100 percent” behind the Arizona senator.

“I think the word needs to get out, ‘What’s the plan, and what are you going to do about it,’ ” Streck said.

Scott Cole, a Woodstock pediatrician, said McCain “missed a big opportunity” when he backed the bailout.

“[I]f that’s his philosophy, how is he different than Barack Obama?” Cole said. “How is he different than the big-spend Democrats? I think he is, but that vote certainly didn’t tell me differently.”