Tom Kludt
WASINGTON — (CNN) Newt Gingrich thinks the current Clinton running for president is nothing like the last one.
“I worked with Bill Clinton,” Gingrich tweeted Tuesday. “Bill Clinton and I got a lot done — welfare reform, balancing the budget. Hillary Clinton is no Bill Clinton.”
Gingrich also took issue with how Hillary Clinton pointed to the economic success of 1990s during Monday’s first presidential debate as an indicator for how her presidency would be.
“If Hillary Clinton is going to cite 1990s she needs to drop tax increasing, red tape increasing left wing policies. She is opposite of 90s,” he tweeted.
For Gingrich, a supporter of Donald Trump, it was praise for an old adversary — done at the expense of Clinton’s wife and the current Democratic presidential nominee.
During his tenure as House speaker in the 1990s, Gingrich was frequently at odds with Bill Clinton during an acrimonious period of a divided Washington that included a government shut down.
The tweet came the day after the first debate between Hillary Clinton and Trump, and it called to mind a famous quip from a previous debate. At the 1988 vice presidential debate, Democratic nominee Lloyd Bentsen fired off an indelible retort to the Republican Dan Quayle, who had invoked John F. Kennedy to defend his qualifications for the office.
“Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine,” Bentsen said, while staring down Quayle. “Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.”
The-CNN-Wire ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved. (Photo: CNN)
