I've noticed the media with it's undies in a bunch trying to figure out what Newt Gingrich is up to. And as usual the media suffers from short-term memory loss. If you look back at Gingrich through the years after stripping away the false veneer of "elder statesman" you find a con man, pure and simple. Over the years, I've seen dozens of different mail-outs with Newt's latest "Policy Group" or "Action Committee" "Leadership Council", with the outrage-du-jour from "Liberals" "Nancy Pelosi" "Harry Reid" "Michael Moore" "Nancy Pelosi" "the left-leaning media" "Nancy Pelosi."
Did I mention he really doesn't like Nancy Pelosi?
Come and take a trip below the magic, swirling ship....
Rachel Maddow covered another aspect of his continuing scams. She also was the first to point out his "strip club problem" which is not what you'd first think when you hear "Gingrich" and "strip club" in the same sentence. Instead it's an opportunity for those with enough scratch to attend an event with the Great Man himself, and the further possibility of dropping more Benjamins to be in an actual PHOTOGRAPH with him. Autographs are extra, I'm sure...
They do get a nifty gavel out of it.
And it's not just Rachel. When the guys raising your money think you're a crook, you're probably a crook. All he has EVER done is sell himself. (There's a word for that, I believe...)
So what does this have to do with whether he actually WANTS to be da Prez?
Well, my speculation is this: Newt knows he's damaged goods. He knows he can NEVER be president. But if he can stay in the public spotlight (with his trophy wife) repeating the same lies to his gullible public, which has dwindled in the past few years, he can grow a new fan-base and remind the stupid and forgetful know he's still around and-all-those-stories-about-my-previous-wives-are-urban-myths-perpetrated-by-the-Liberal-Media-and-if-you-can-give-$500-or-$250-or-even-$100-dollars-we-can-protect-our-right-to-blah, blah, blah.
So he's re-branding. He's burnishing his "elder statesman" credentials and promoting the unspoken meme that during this election, he will be the "kingmaker" though he actively denies it. He will come out of Tampa looking (to his base) like some sort of knight who did his conservative best to uphold the principles of St. Ronald Reagan (who deserves to be on Mt Rushmore and if you'll send $500 dollars....)
Don't get me wrong. We all know he's going to ride this pony as far as it will haul his sorry ass. But I don't believe for a second that he believes he can win anything beyond enough delegates to piss-off R-money and the Sheet-Stain. Newt likes the TV machine. And like his hero, Bill Bennett, he wants to be the guy who tut-tuts and wags his finger at the latest Right-Wing Outrage Du Jour(Tm pending....) and if you would only send $500.00 or $100.00 or even $10.00 along with your last tin of cat food. You know you don't own a cat, granny.... tut-tut...