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Subscribe to RSSGREENVILLE, S.C. -- The folks at Tommy's Country Ham House in Greenville are expecting a record crowd Saturday morning, and the mob's not coming for the grits.
In a state famous for its bizarre brand of Republican politics, mere hours after polls open in South Carolina, the primary's two frontrunners are hosting dueling campaign events at the restaurant over breakfast. Same time. Same place.
Call it the Ham House Showdown.
Incredulous reporters first thought there was a mistake. Both Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney scheduled events at Tommy's Country Ham House in Greenville, S.C., at 10:45 a.m. ET Saturday. For Romney, the event will be his final public appearance before results are announced Saturday night.
Not quite a duel at high noon, but close.
The Gingrich campaign put their public schedule on their website roughly an hour before the Romney campaign emailed out theirs to reporters. Now, neither campaign is backing down.
"We have had this event on the books. Our schedule went out first. We are confirmed at our event," Gingrich campaign spokesman, Nathan Naidu, told reporters aboard the USS Yorktown following a Gingrich event. "We are more than happy if Gov. Romney would like to join us at our event and have some ham."
A Romney aide said: "It is pure coincidence the events were scheduled at the same time and we are not changing our schedule."
The Gingrich spokesman added, "We are more than happy to treat Gov. Romney to ham at our event."
Reporters were told that Caroline Vinvick, Gingrich's Greenville regional director, called and woke up the owner of the restaurant, Tommy Stevenson, Friday night. He said none of Romney's people has contacted him about an event. The Gingrich campaign is confirmed for 10:45 a.m. ET, Stevenson reassured Vinvick. Meanwhile, outside Romney's rally Friday night in Greenville, volunteers were overheard telling supporters to head to Tommy's Saturday morning to support Romney.
National media -- seizing on the opportunity for pithy, ham-related headlines and the potential for a political showdown that could rival any from the debate stage this season -- are preparing to flock to the restaurant Saturday morning.
Some may want to bring helmets to prepare for what could be a dangerously packed house. All will bring their appetites.
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Who cares about those slam-head hillbillies Romney grits and Pig Newton
Freddy Newt, Mitt the corporate raider. Paul the humored isolationist and whacky religious Santorum. Variety is the spice of life!
Rufus,
Hopefully, you will get some help. Remember, Education and Fact Checks are the Key to the Truth.
Bye
No matter how hard republican's try to, find a candidate, that the anti-American progressive's could, cozy up to, their just not having any luck.
Maybe we should just ask the empty suit how he would prefer as an opponent?
Vote soros, van jones and obama out in November!!!!!
oh i want to see gingrich debate obama soo bad.
likability counts even in a debate.
I'm looking forward to that too Keck, who wants to watch Obama crush Mittens? I never thought I'd ever say this but GO GINGRICH!!
Fox news and Murdoch want to bring down the damned Capitalist Traitor Freddy Newt soooooo bad! I'm beginning to think they hate the dude more than Obama!
vote for the adulterer no vote for the tax cheat
Ha Ha Mitt won't let us see his tax returns for SOME reason! Let's just SPECULATE since he refuses to disclose them
I say he either used every loophole in the Solar System and gave a LOT of money to the Mormon Church instead! Or none
the caymans and the malfeasance on the Marriott deal will break him
Ha Ha Obama won't let us see his college records for SOME reason! Let's just SPECULATE since he refuses to disclose them.
Bruce, TheCaymans will kill him only if he is committing tax fraud and if not, only if simpletons think that having money in the Caymans is illegal. The US tax system taxes all US residents on their worldwide income, even income in the Caymans. Physician, heal thy self with your own party's tax cheats - Geithner and Rangel just to name a few. Rangel was on Ways and Means and they write the rules! He refuded to follow his own rules. I guess it's OK to throw acusations to the right while ingoring the hyporcisy on the left.
you mistake me for a person who has a party affiliation. that doesn't make watching the republicans implode any less fun all tax cheats should pay no matter their party
as for mittens lets see what his returns say. perhaps you can point me in the direction of the IRC that states your case. and as for Gringo well lets just say that one is a liar and the other convicted. "I really didnt make much money on the speaking circuit" yeah sure Newtie just 45 grand for an hours work for a total of 375K He made more in an hour that the average American makes in a year
this is great we now have newt polling ahead in SC Rommney losing Iowa to Santorum and essentially a split in NH Would love to see 3 different winners in 3 different contests. The Party of NO New Ideas really cant get it together. Heading straight to a crisis at the convention
I'm betting Mitt paid very little tax over the last decade and shoved a lot of his wealth into Swiss bank accounts
Are Swiss bank accoutns illegal? I'll save you Google time - No. Years ago the US came to terms with the Swiss taxing authority and have had all the names of the tax cheats for years. I would think we would have heard of that by now.
Could these two be funnier if they tried? LOL! Actually they do bear an uncanny likeness to Mutt and Jeff!
Was that the "Moron" church?
A debate between Obama and Newt would be great, Newt is obviously very smart and a master debater...
But let's be real.........it's easy to look good in a debate against Perry, Bachmann, Cain and the rest.
Gingrich will win this one, and it won't be by a slim margin.
considering his weight, it should be by a "Broad" margain
News Flash! Mitt and Newt bury the hatchet!
Seems Mitt raided the Maid Service company that Newt uses and now those damned rug rats getting food stamps WILL be cleaning Newt's toilet to earn them!! AND at a reduced rate! Glory be --a win win situation!!
The same 'service' comes and cleans up in Barney Frank's
cabaret, I mean DC apartment. They used to also clean up at Charlie Rangel's places too.I wonder how the Democrats will attack the eventual winner of the GOP nomination?
They have to resort to attacks; they certainly can't run on Obama's record.
We are worse off now than in 2008.
Worse off?
The Dow is up 50% since Obama took office, obviously you don't own stocks.......For those of us that do the $trillions in wealth created is quite nice.
6 months after Obama took office employment has increased every quarter.
I'll take that over what Bush was giving us.
Too bad you hate wealth and employment.
I know I am better off in 2012 than 2008... And although the economy started to sink in the last 6 months Clinton was in office... life was pretty damned minserable with George Jr. at the helm for 8 years. It was downright embarrassing for America. Sometimes I believe he had something to do with 911 to deflect attention away from his incompetance. My guess is that's why America revisited Iraq to renew "daddy's war".
That should make the OWS protesters and their supporters furious!
The unemployment rate has been higher than the 8% maximum Obama promised us, if we went into trillions of dollars in debt.
Bush's second term was a waste of time for everyone. Two wrongs don't make a right. Obama, and especially the radical Democrat Congressional leadership has not done anything for the nation but cause further polarization of the people. Obama's anti-small business tax proposals are misguided, and too many people today are takers instead of producers. These people receive what are essentially subsidies to further enable them to perpetuate a culture of entitlement instead of a desire to participate.
Interesting to hear that you like Wall Street.
Man you are wrong and misguided on everything you post.
Try looking at facts and being an American instead of a blind partisan.
Funny how the liberals like to tout Wall Street accomplishments; they comprise many of that 1% the OWS are telling us about.
The fat-cat Democrats smirk as their Beemers go past crowds of useful idiots protesting the 'greed' of the 1% folk.
Then, they mock those who point out their hypocrisy!
Sheesh!! :-)
With reguard to Newts infidility and his hypocrisy on family values. IF one is going to cite the bible on *forgiveness* the bible also says: " judge not, lest you be judged".
Also, if you REALLY believe in the bible? REALLY read it and you'll find Jesus was a progressive. On the day of your judgement, HOW are you going to answer God when he asks you WHY you treated your fellow man as you did. I also think he is going to tell you that Jesus also has some questions to ask you
As for Newts hyprocrisy and his disdain for being asked about his private life? As a line in the movie: "The American President" says -- when the aide says to the president about his possibly *dating* : "The American people have a funny way of deciding what is and is NOT their business"
AS for Romney? Its not the money he made at Bain Capital that bothers me, unless he did something illegal with it, or shifted it to off-shore accts so as to NOT pay as much in taxes on it. What bothers me about Romney is his constantly changing positions. As the Comedian Steven Colbert said yesterday at a rally in S.C., : "Whats the difference between Romney the candidate and Romney the statue? The statue doesn't change positions ! LOL
And more to the point, his statement that: " I made some money on speaking fees, but it wasn't very much".
THEN we find out he made 374 THOUSAND DOLLARS in ONE YEAR in speaking fees. But: "it wasn't very much"!?
Well, no, NOT to him. Considering what he made/has made with Bain Capitol, this was more like chump (pocket) change to him.
BUT to the "99%" of us, thats DAMN GOOD MONEY! THIS shows HOW INCREDIBLY OUT OF TOUCH he is with the rest of us. If he weren't running for POTUS I could care less. But he is. HE IS *NOT* "one of us" He is EXACTLY what the "99%" of us are complaining about.
HOW IRONIC it is that his father was the 1ST politician to release *multiple* yrs of tax records, and yet the *MITT* has so far refused to do the same. His refusal to release his records *Suggest* he is hiding something.
Maybe he is and maybe he isn't. Maybe he is just going to be flat out embarrassed to let the public know how much he made and where he is stashing it. I am not "envious" of what he made. I AM appalled at his disconnnect of whats been going on with relation to the 99%. And as well, if he were POTUS, he'd of let the Auto industry go down the tubes, and as many as 3 MILLION jobs with it.
Hyprocisy abounds in the GOP. On the one hand, they say they'd of NOT bailed out ANY company, and yet the represent Wall st!?!?!?!
Santorum wants to rule EVERY Womans uterus in the entire country. But he wants less Govt!?
Ron Paul wants to take us back about 60 yrs to pre-modern medicine. He is also almost 80. Which means he is close to -- if not already *old man yells at clouds*
Newt says even a 3 year old can haul around a mop and bucket to earn his keep and food stamps
Newt is a smart politician with a truckload of congressional experience. Its going to take more than Mitt (who seems like hes a quiet, timid guy so far in this race). The meia had to call him out as did his opponents to get him to say anything. People only know Mitt from his record and leadership in Massachussetts.
I think Newt gaining ground is not a fluke. If people can get beyond his marriage(s) debacle... I believe he's got a pretty good shot at the primary.
Having said this... I am an independent and won't vote Republican under any circumstance this year. But I would like to see a serious contender for the White House to challenge Obama. Its up to the unorganized right wing nuts to figure this primary out.
The righties have to stop bitchin' at Obama and the lefties. AND FOR ONCE, pick a solid candidates. NO MORE Bush mistakes (4 times you idiots selected a Bush run for office). Grow some would you?
My entitlement solution?: The Upper Class gets NONE DESPITE what they have put in. Sacrifices must be made and THEY sure as hell don't need the "handouts" I find a means test to be a VERY valid option
The majority of Americans see President Obama as the Clear, Clean and Best Choice for America.
Obama / Biden 2012
Oh yes, Vote for Newt in SC. We want a brokered Republican Convention
Fox News says the economy WILL suck come October by God, no matter HOW much damned spin they have to put into it. Hell they might even start supporting OWS
Ummmmmmmmmm Hammmmmmmm!
SC loves people who sin & ask forgiveness ---- Every time he cheats on his "Marriage Vows" & "Family Values" he says,,,
"Forgive me Jesus,, I'm just boinking these women because you chose not to"
"Forgive me Jesus, I blasphemed against Ronald Reagan"
"Forgive me Jesus, while I boink this other woman"
He gets 3 Boner Points for that from South Carolina conservatives
Well, Newt hasn't used any women as humidors, as far as we know.
Nor has Newt lied to the entire world and under oath about his private life.
But, Newt is a conservative, so he's not going to get the same forgiveness of the Democrats that they gave Clinton.
And, Newt hasn't driven any women off of bridges, then ran home to call his lawyer and other friends, but not reporting the accident (or the fact that there was a woman left in the vehicle underwater) for 24 hours.
But, as I have indicated above, Newt isn't a 'liberal lion'.
~
So, what were you saying about naughty Newt?
I realize that getting online and mouthing off is a Republican passtime, but if this were happening in my political party (as it has in the past) I would simply crawl into a corner and hang my head in shame.
Barry Goldwater & Ronald Reagan never thought it would happen either
Back then they put a halt to the John Birch Society's activities & power they had been accumulating in the GOP, it was hurting the party, now it's being over ran by the "Birchers"
Today's conservatives would definitely call Goldwater & Reagan liberal socialists
Newt's rendition of his record with Reagan is grotesque
I realize that name calling has been around since God created dirt. Ever since Reagon so famously and single handedly made "Liberal" a dirty word... the GOPers could not resist keeping it alive, slinging mud, and lowering themselves to subhuman disrespectful behavior. But, it has become a way of life everywhere we turn.
I am convinced that is why Rush Limbaugh and Fox News is so successful... especially down South. Name calling, Fox News (fair and balanced?), Bill O'Reilly, and the list goes on...
Conservatives hated liberals long before that.... It was one of the reasons I'm now a non-believer
In this country it was brought here by colonial Calvinists ordained by the Church of England... Roger Williams was kicked out of Colonial Massachusetts because his views of Christianity was liberal --- The right wanted government control to force strict adherence to the King James Bible, Williams didn't
You see the white collar draping over the Pilgrim's shoulders? ---- The right wing forced them to wear it with threats of hanging
Roger Williams founded Providence, Rode Island
Jim- They don't want you to ADHERE to the King James Bible. They simply want you to QUOTE the King James Bible.
Nope,,, Colonial Massachusetts was a very dangerous place... Strict Calvinists hung Quakers in the streets of Boston Commons for preaching their gospel on the streets & empowering women in the church.
That even led to other Quakers persecuting some of their own just so they could escape the wrath of the Calvinist radical right
Our history was not all church & goodness ---- It was very ugly
The search for "Ideological Purity" you see in today's politics just as them & it can be fascism