Gingrich Leads The Right-Wing Hypocrisy Brigade On Libya: First Slams Obama For Not Acting, Then Slams Him For Acting

[Cross-posted at Crooks and Liars.]

Of course you knew that no matter what President Obama did in regards to Libya, right-wingers were going to slam him for it -- damned if he did, damned if he didn't. But few have been quite as naked in their two-faced hypocrisy as Newt Gingrich.

Via George Zornick at ThinkProgress, here's Gingrich giving Greta Van Susteren his prescription for dealing with Libya two weeks ago, on March 7:

Exercise a no-fly zone this evening. Communicate to the Libyan military that Gadhafi is gone, and that the sooner they switched sides the more likely they were to survive.

Provide help to the rebels to replace him. I mean, the idea that we're confused about a man who has been an anti-American dictator since 1969 just tells you how inept this administration is. They were very quick to jump on Mubarak, who was their ally for 30 years, and they're confused about getting rid of Gadhafi. This is a moment to get rid of him. Do it. Get it over with.

… We don’t need to have the United Nations. All we have to say is that we think that slaughtering your own citizens is unacceptable and that we’re intervening.

Then there he was last night on Fox News with Sean Hannity:

HANNITY: So, did he make a mistake by not seeking Congress' authorization, and do you view that as a violation of the War Powers Act?

GINGRICH: Well, no, the War Powers Act technically gives him 45 days. But it's a violation of common sense.

And then he went on Today this morning with Matt Lauer and actually said he wouldn't have intervened:

GINGRICH: The standard [Obama] has fallen back to of humanitarian intervention could apply to Sudan, to North Korea, to Zimbabwe, to Syria this week, to Yemen, to Bahrain. … The Arab League wanted us to do something. The minute we did something, the Arab League began criticizing us doing it. I think that two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is a lot. I think that the problems we have in Pakistan, Egypt — go around the region. We could get engaged by this standard in all sorts of places. I would not have intervened. I think there were a lot of other ways to affect Qaddafi. I think there are a lot of other allies in the region we could have worked with. I would not have used American and European forces.

Of course, what else do you expect from Newt Gingrich? If nothing else, we can always count on him to explore new depths in naked hypocrisy.