Gingrich Savors Another Turn in Spotlight

At the New York Times, "Resurgence on the Right Puts Gingrich Back in Style" (via Memeorandum):

Newt Gingrich still relishes stirring the pot of the culture wars.

There he was last month in Akron, Ohio, telling an audience of 300 people that President Obama was out of touch. Why? Because the president did not understand the gut-level appeal of the pickup truck at the center of Scott Brown’s winning campaign to wrest a Massachusetts Senate seat away from the Democrats.

“What if I have to haul a moose?” Mr. Gingrich said, to laughter. “You cannot put a gun rack in the back of a Smart car.”

The audience was enraptured, and many called out for Mr. Gingrich to run for president in 2012. He said in an interview that he was considering it and would make a decision by this time next year.

Of course, Mr. Gingrich, 66, carries substantial political baggage from his downfall as House speaker after the 1998 elections, and even some allies are skeptical that he will run (he opted out in 2008). But even if he is merely playing to the truism that potential presidential candidates garner more attention than noncandidates, he is clearly enjoying a moment back in the limelight.

Shortly after his visit to Akron, Mr. Gingrich spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. He waded to the lectern across the ballroom floor to the throbbing beat of “Eye of the Tiger,” with lights flashing and thousands of well-wishers shrieking his name. No one else made such a rock-star entrance.

Like Sarah Palin and others who have discovered that they can command a political platform and a good income without running for office, Mr. Gingrich remains relevant by having built himself into a one-man industry churning out speeches, books, films and policy positions. And as the architect of the Republican takeover of the House in 1994, he is much sought after for advice on how to replicate that feat this year.

“People frequently begin a conversation with, ‘Newt called me and said X and thought we should do Y,’ ” said Bill McInturff, a Republican pollster. “He’s a former speaker, former third-in-line to the president, and people respect his energy and ideas.”

Mr. Gingrich knows how to convey ideas in pithy language (“death tax”). He created the “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less” slogan in support of domestic oil drilling that the party adopted in 2008. He helps train candidates on how to run successful campaigns. And his Contract With America, the 1994 document that spelled out the Republican agenda and helped nationalize the Congressional elections, has inspired at least two spinoffs this year — one by House Republicans, the other by the Tea Party movement.

I seriously doubt that many tea partiers will credit Newt Gingrich as an inspiration. And after meeting him in February, my sense is that he's a one-man special interest group looking out for the interests of no one but himself. He talks a great show, but he's cozy with the big monied factions of American politics, and he's all too ready to help moderate/leftists take over the GOP (i.e., Dede Scozzafava). As my friend Grizzly Mama said at my post:

I have been quite shocked at Newt's seemingly new love for the left - what with his coziness with Pelosi and defense of Scozzafava. I'm like, DUDE, what is going ON with you???!!