Do you mind, Mr. Gingrich? We’re trying to have an election here.
Newt Gingrich, Washington influence peddler and cashiered speaker of the House, promotes himself as the smartest guy in the room. But were he able to read the writing on the wall — or the Florida election returns — he might be clever enough to see that it is time for him to abandon his vain (in both senses of the word) presidential campaign.
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But, thanks to Gingrich’s own self-importance, and the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling that allows one or two of his super wealthy supporters to run an "uncoordinated" campaign of vicious attack ads against his rivals, there seems little hope that the former congressman will retire from the field.
Gingrich has a history of selling himself to special interests. But today his actions benefit a pair of narrow constituencies that, as far as we know, aren’t paying him a dime: TV comedians and political reporters, neither of whom are ready to give up the excitement of a prolonged horse race. Washington Post wag Dana Milbank said as much the other day, writing, only somewhat satirically, that while Gingrich likes to blame the media for his own woes and those of the nation, the press just can’t quit Newt.
The same may have been said of Republican primary voters in South Carolina a couple of weeks ago. Apparently not yet ready to anoint Mitt Romney as the GOP nominee, that electorate gave Gingrich a surprising and firm victory. But Tuesday, apparently realizing that it was time for the grown-ups to reclaim the direction of the campaign, Florida Republicans instead sided overwhelmingly with Romney.
Gingrich, though, promises to march on. But every step he takes reminds voters of his many outrageous words and deeds. It only starts with his extramarital affair with a staff member, carried on precisely as he was excoriating Bill Clinton for similar behavior. His baggage includes incendiary statements and racial stereotypes that blame the poor for their own state, advocate child labor, back an American "official religion" and routinely compare people he disagrees with to the Nazis. Or atheists. Or radical Islamists. Or all three.
His recent call for the establishment of an American base on the moon is among his more rational expoundings.
Newt’s continued presence on the campaign trail sucks far too much air out of what should be a national debate over how we will come to hard decisions over complex problems.
And it just makes us that much sorrier that Jon Huntsman is no longer in the race.
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