Andy Kaczynski snags a 2007 Charlie Rose interview in which Newt Gingrich envisions increasing the funding of the State Department by around 50 percent. That would help build a “truly professional, modern high technology state department, because when you have no competitor, you can’t throw your weight around without massive resentment.”
It surprises me just a little, because of Gingrich’s speech this month to the Republican Jewish Coalition. Gingrich newsily announced that John Bolton would be his first choice for Secretary of State. What made less news: His mission for Bolton. He would need to create a high-tech State Department “dedicated to the proposition that defending freedom and defending America is the first proposition of the State Department, not appeasing our opponents.”
From angst about “massive resentment” to a bull-in-china-shop Secretary who would never appease anyone.
