Gingrich Slams 'Floundering' GOP

Newt Gingrich took a hit at Republicans Sunday, comparing the GOP's "mid-level college team" to Democrats' "Super Bowl team."

Gingrich reflected on the GOP's rebranding while on ABC's "This Week." The former presidential hopeful said the issue Republicans have with technology is "a culture problem," and that Democrats are using "the most advanced decision processes" to communicate with constituants.

'[Democrats] are a Super Bowl team that we ought to respect deeply, and we are currently a mid-level college team floundering around,' Gingrich said. 'This is a fundamental re-thinking on how you relate to the American people.'

This isn't the first time Gingrich has criticized the GOP. Gingrich slammed the GOP's lack of diversity in House committee chairs as "a real problem" in November 2012, and he hit Republicans for using "a threat they can't sustain" on the debt ceiling in January.

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• Honeymoons... On The Moon?

  In his 1995 book <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=jK8fAQAAMAAJ&q=newt+gingrich+to+renew+america&dq=newt+gingrich+to+renew+america&hl=en&sa=X&ei=z6whT_aUDMLc0QG7p8mACQ&ved=0CDsQ6AEwAA" target="_hplink"><em>To Renew America</em></a>, Gingrich wrote, "Honeymoons in space will be the vogue by 2020. ... Imagine looking out at the Earth from your honeymoon suite and you will understand even more why it will be a big item."

• Sex In Space

  Gingrich also explained the appeal of sex in space in <em>To Renew America</em>. "Imagine weightlessness and its effects and you will understand some of the attractions," he wrote.

• Stellar Statehood

  In a 1981 bill, Gingrich <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/zekejmiller/newt-gingrichs-laws-for-governing-a-space-colony" target="_hplink">proposed</a> a path to statehood for a future space-based colony. The bill, which Gingrich called the "Northwest Ordinance for Space," would require a space outpost to have 20,000 residents in order to apply for statehood. "The Congress declares that the United States is committed to the expansion of free people and free institutions into space," reads the bill. Later, the bill briefly discusses the logistics of space statehood, saying that space colonies with enough residents will "establish a constitution and government for themselves."

• Farming In Space

  While giving <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/newt-gingrichs-big-1986-idea-farmers-in-space" target="_hplink">a speech</a> to the World Science Fiction Convention in 1986, the longtime sci-fi fan described the outer space agricultural hub that could have been. "If we'd spent as much on space as we've spent on farm programs, we could have taken all the extra farmers and put them on space stations working for a living ... in orbiting factories," Gingrich said.

• Star Wars

  In a 2002 <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/missile/interviews/gingrich.html#ixzz1fOvQH8Pv" target="_hplink">interview</a> with PBS' "Frontline," Gingrich predicted that within a decade, the United States would be able to deflect a missile attack from North Korea or Iran by using "directed energy weapons and laser pulsing systems ... that could actually do that from space."

• Light Highways And Fight Crime With Space Mirrors

  In his 1984 book <em>Window of Opportunity</em>, Gingrich <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/dec/12/david-brooks/david-brooks-says-newt-gingrich-once-proposed-putt/" target="_hplink">outlined</a> how building mirrors in space would save electricity and help fight crime. "A mirror system in space could provide the light equivalent of many full moons so that there would be no need for nighttime lighting of the highways," he wrote. "Ambient light covering entire areas could reduce the current danger of criminals lurking in the darkness."

• Contract With Space

  In 2010, Gingrich <a href="http://w3.newsmax.com/a/feb10/gingrich/?promo_code=0" target="_hplink">revived</a> the Contract With America, his famed call-to-action that helped bring a Republican majority to Congress in 1994. His "New Contract With America" was published in <em>Newsmax</em>. Gingrich's fellow conservatives were so inspired by his 21st-century version that one, columnist Matt Lewis, added to the former speaker's plan. One of the points in <a href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/01/25/republican-contract-with-america-version-2-0/" target="_hplink">Lewis' plan</a> was the "Science and Final Frontiers Act," which outlined the goal of putting an American on Mars by 2019.