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Gingrich Suggests Illegally Firing Federal Employees Over Liberal Views

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Republican Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich suggested at a Fox News forum hosted by Mike Huckabee in South Carolina on Saturday that it would be a good idea to fire federal employees for being too liberal. Federal law, on the other hand, says Gingrich’s plan would be illegal.
“I think an intelligent conservative wants the right federal employees delivering the right services in a highly efficient way and then wants to get rid of those folks who are in fact wasteful, or those folks who are ideologically so far to the left, or those people who want to frankly dictate to the rest of us,” Gingrich said in response to a question from a federal employee at the forum (emphasis ours).

This sounds like it would come uncomfortably close to being in conflict with a Federal law
making it illegal to take any personnel action against an employee “based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, handicapping condition, marital status, or political affiliation.” Accusations that political affiliation was taken into account would be investigated by the Office of Special Counsel (except in certain government agencies).
That said, a putative Gingrich administration would be following in the footsteps of George W. Bush’s. A report by the Justice Department’s internal investigators found that Bush administration officials discriminated against liberal employees in the Civil Rights Division and hired lawyers based on their conservative ideology.

Gingrich Suggests Illegally Firing Federal Employees Over Liberal Views | TPM2012


Rather Orwellian...
 
That dumb Gingrich. All he had to say is fire the employees who engage in fraud, waste, and abuse, and it'll most likely be a liberal.
 
That dumb Gingrich. All he had to say is fire the employees who engage in fraud, waste, and abuse, and it'll most likely be a liberal.

Surely you have statistics to back up such an inane claim?
 
That makes me want to vote for him even more.
 
That dumb Gingrich. All he had to say is fire the employees who engage in fraud, waste, and abuse, and it'll most likely be a liberal.

Yeah, because the government contracts to Halliburton were the height of efficiency.
 

More evidence that some of those who scream the loudest about FREEDOM and LIBERTY simply use the words the way a lounge lizard uses the word LOVE fifteen minutes before closing with the girl down at the end of the bar. And their intentions are exactly the same.

So Gingrich becomes President and introduces his unique brand of FREEDOM to the nation and we take a giant step towards fascism. Wonderful. :roll:
 
That makes me want to vote for him even more.

Gingrich has strong appeal to the fascist element of the GOP. This will only increase that appeal and get him votes from those who would use FREEDOM and LIBERTY as mere slogans to place the USA under their extremists heel.
 
And when a liberal president starts firing every conservative?

there is a huge difference in the way the republicans and democrats now replace political hires
at least in the federal agency where i worked
the republicans would come in and clean house of all demo political appointees in the months immediately after a change of presidential party
the democrats would allow the republican political appointees to remain or at least burrow in elsewhere
if the career civil servants were subject to termination based on their political lean, i would expect a similar outcome, where the republicans acted politically while the dems failed to act
 
That makes me want to vote for him even more.

Of course. The law, and respect for others' viewpoints, means nothing to you.
 
After looking at a few of the responses here, is there any remaining doubt as to why I left the Republican Party 8 years ago?
 
GW Bush replaced eveyone from janitors to judges with "Bushies" and grew the public payroll more than any President doing it. We got the biggest deficits in history and a bloated Federal budget that haunts us to this day. And who can forget.... "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job," The numbskull hired his college roomie and horse trainer to be head of FEMA. I guess Gingrich is promising more of the same.......one hand washes the other and the rest of us get the finger. How appealing.
 
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Yeah, because the government contracts to Halliburton were the height of efficiency.
Probably should be pissed at Clinton for granting them the IDIQ contract, huh?
 
Of course. The law, and respect for others' viewpoints, means nothing to you.
Well, technically, they're FEDERAL employees....and if the federal government doesn't want them, then they can be fired for absolutely no reason at all. At least on the military side.
 
More evidence that some of those who scream the loudest about FREEDOM and LIBERTY simply use the words the way a lounge lizard uses the word LOVE fifteen minutes before closing with the girl down at the end of the bar. And their intentions are exactly the same.

So Gingrich becomes President and introduces his unique brand of FREEDOM to the nation and we take a giant step towards fascism. Wonderful. :roll:

It's not that unique. Many Presidents had come to similar conclusions. Their inkling was that the federal bureaucracies were filled with employees who intentionally stymied the administration's agenda. Most of this is more perception than reality, as most bureaucrats do the job well regardless of who is in charge.
 
GW Bush replaced eveyone from janitors to judges with "Bushies" and grew the public payroll more than any President doing it. We got the biggest deficits in history and a bloated Federal budget that haunts us to this day. And who can forget.... "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job," The numbskull hired his college roomie and horse trainer to be head of FEMA. I guess Gingrich is promising more of the same.......one hand washes the other and the rest of us get the finger. How appealing.
I know libs love to hate to love that line...but considering it took Clintons FEMA dirtector over 4 weeks to get people on the ground post Floyd and FEMA was on the ground IMMEDIATELY post Katrina in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and MOST of Louisiana and only 3 days after the levies broke in New Orleans, the "doing a heck of a job" line was very appropriate. Oh...I know...lets not facts get in the way of silly histrionics and race baiting. Sure...those were some sad and devastating scenes we saw in New Orleans, that old 'chocolate city' abandoned by Mayor Nagin, the democrat governor of Louisiana, and their sure fire cant miss plan of "**** the citizens...I'm flyin my ass to Houston!" Sad...tragic...a city VERY unprepared. A disaster plan with 12 million dollars in fed funds that consisted of "hey...ummm...good luck y'all...you can all gather together at the SuperDome...we'll check in on you from time to time..." I mean...come on...how could that fail? And the REAL beauty...when it DOES fail (because lets be honest...the correct question is how could it NOT faily) you can have people like Jesse Jackson who INTERVIEWED Clintons FEMA director and was just FINE with that 4 week response time turn around later and call George Bush a racist for causing the Katrina debacle.
 
After looking at a few of the responses here, is there any remaining doubt as to why I left the Republican Party 8 years ago?

It took you until then?

I guess if Gingrich wants to load the government with people who agree with him, that's fine. We'll just replace him in 4 years after his results look a lot like Obama's. Though I suspect that most of the people we see talking about "Obama's results" won't have the same opinion of Gingrich's.
 
That dumb Gingrich. All he had to say is fire the employees who engage in fraud, waste, and abuse, and it'll most likely be a liberal.
Really? That sounds like Gingrich himself if you ask me.
 
Probably should be pissed at Clinton for granting them the IDIQ contract, huh?


what IDIQ contract are you referring to?
was it bid or sole sourced?
 
i don't buy it. It looks like he's talking hypothetically, which really, this is something that already goes on, and I would only be shocked if it was private employees he was talking about. on the federal side, it's not really illegal, just illegal in name only.

with the exception of political appointees, it is illegal to fire civil service staff only because of their personal political views
 
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