Does Newt Gingrich Believe in Limited Government?

I'll admit I haven't been watching the presidential campaign very closely, having skipped all but a few minutes of the so-called debates and mostly skimming news articles.  But it feels like I woke up from a long Rip van Winkle nap and heard Newt Gingrich was leading in the polls.  What the heck?

I've already skewered Mitt Romney on these pages during his prior run, for flip-flopping and for stealing the Aqua-Fresh logo, and blasted Rick Santorum for his big government policies and for then claiming he would have been fiscally conservative if the Tea Party had his back.  So now let me turn my ire to Newt Gingrich:

• Gingrich has long supported an individual mandate to buy health insurance.  He is trying to distance himself from his prior stance now, the only problem with that is he kept endorsing an individual mandate over and over again.  Indeed, President Obama has defended Obamacare recently by noting both Gingrich and Romney endorsed an individual mandate.  The individual mandate is such an extreme and irrational policy that even candidate Obama opposed it.  Gingrich also supported another key component of Obamacare: government-run or subsidized electronic medical records.

• Gingrich endorses taxpayer subsidies for ethanol, which makes no policy sense as ethanol is both inefficient and results in greater carbon emissions, but makes political sense when you consider big campaign donations and Gingrich's background as a well-paid ethanol lobbyist.

• Gingrich today says it was a "mistake" to do an ad with Nancy Pelosi about "climate change" (though I'm guess he got paid for that too).  But he also has supported carbon cap & trade, a big government scheme dreamed up by Goldman Sachs and Enron.

• You have his lobbying for Freddie Mac a quasi-government body that contributed mightily to the financial collapse then got billions in taxpayer bailouts.  His ties to the causes of the problem help explain why he decided to endorse the Wall Street Bailouts and TARP.

• Gingrich famously attacked the Paul Ryan plan to reform Medicare, calling it "right-wing social engineering" (though maybe that was really a compliment, Gingrich seems to appreciate right-wing social engineering). Less famously, he lobbied for Medicare Part D, a multi-trillion expansion of taxpayers' entitlement liabilities.

• On everything from earmarks to pandering to union bosses that underwrite Occupy Wall Street to pushing for a national ID card, Gingrich has chosen big government, or at least political expedience, over free enterprise.

In my review of his book, I noted Gingrich is generally committed to "efficient" government and bringing new technology into government, rather than a commitment to limited government.  I found nothing in his record to make me change my mind.

As I mentioned in a Twitter conversation, I understand that there is not "perfect candidate," but there's a difference between having a "purity" test and demanding a candidate who will expand liberty, not government.  Newt Gingrich is not that candidate.