Republicans Exposing Themselves

I wrote earlier that Newt Gingrich's campaign is one of mutually assured destruction for the GOP. No one, I wrote, has to lift a finger to destroy Newt Gingrich. Just stand back, give him room, and he'll do it himself. The thing is, you want to stand way, way back — otherwise Newt's liable to try and take you with him. The problem for the GOP is that they can't put enough daylight between themselves and Newt. And even if they manage to do that, they're still stuck with Mitt.

The latest self-destruction of Newt Gingrich will be televised. If he's able to carry on after losing the Nevada Primary to Mitt Romney, and make good on his promise to campaign all the way to the convention in Tampa, we can look forward to more performances like his post-Iowa temper tantrum, his post-Florida flame-out, and his bizarre concession-speech-cum-press-conference after Nevada.

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At the risk of repeating myself, my response to the Romney campaign staffer who summed up the Florida primary by saying "It's about destroying Gingrich," is the same as my response to Sarah Palin's claim that the "liberal media" and "the establishment" were out to destroy Newt Gingrich: Nobody needs to lift a finger to destroy Newt. All you have to do is sit back, give him room, and let him do it himself.

In fact, Newt's accomplishing his own destruction just by his dogged determination to stay in the race all the way to convention, and he's threatening to take his party down with him.

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Another GOP debate as come and gone, and there's a clear consensus on who won and who lost this round. After two fabulously bombastic debate performances, Newt Gingrich was defeated by the one man he can never seem to beat: himself.

Ultimately, Newt's problem is just being Newt. It always has been, because the real Newt bears a strong resemblance the one portrayed in his opponents attack ads.

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Looking for a new drinking game for the remainder of the Republican debates? (According to the schedule, there's at least five more to go.) I've got one that, even with the remaining candidates, is guaranteed to put you under the table well before the end of the debate: Take a shot every time these guys attack each other and get each other right.

Just please give your car keys to someone who's not playing this drinking game. According to the rules, you'll be taking a shot every time the candidates attack each other, because every time they attack each other they get each other exactly right.

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After Newt Gingrich was rewarded with a surge in the polls, for playing the race card during the South Carolina GOP debate, Mitt Romney launched another all out attack on Newt - this time focusing on Newt's record as speaker, with an assist from some Republican former members of Congress. But Romney hasn't forgotten his other rivals. He's unleashed the mother of all robo-call campaigns, and one of the main targets is Rick Santorum. Now that Romney's narrow victory in Iowa has vanished — transformed into virtual tie, thanks to a 34-point Santorum lead combined with missing precincts and other irregularities — we can probably expect more attacks on Santorum.

The thing is, Romney's attacks on Santorum are spot on. It's not about Santorum's extremism, though there's more than enough material there. The label that may undermine Santorum with Republican primary voters isn't "extremist." It's "Washington Insider."

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It if seemed as though Newt Gingrich — veteran of pitched partisan battles, and no-holds-barred ideological cage matches — had been off his game of late, he came roaring back during the GOP debate in South Carolina. After flip-flopping on his attacks on Mitt Romney's record as a vulture capitalist, Newt went a long way towards making both Republicans elites and the conservative base forget that he made them spend a week struggling with a problem for which they not only have no solutions, but they haven't even decided is a problem. He may even have convinced some that he's got what it takes to face off against President Obama in November. He confirmed, yet again, the worst of many Americans' suspicions about conservatives and about the GOP.

And all he had to do was play the proverbial race card. With that, Newt knew he just might have a winning hand.

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It looks like the old joke about the weather — "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes and it'll change" — is also true about Newt Gingrich. If you don't like this Newt Gingrich, wait five minutes and he'll change. When it comes to his attack on Mitt Romney's vulture capitalist past, Newt has changed more often than the weather these last few days.

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It looks like attacking Mitt Romney's Bain resume has become the bane of Newt Gingrich's campaign. In his latest flip-flop, Newt wants a do-over on his 28-minute Romney attack ad.

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The Romney campaign's "Bain problem," which is also now the Republican party's problem, doesn't look like it's going away anytime soon. Sure, Republicans are figuring out that this is not a winning issue for them. Thus they've circled their wagons around Romney, and even tried to get Newt to turn it down a couple of notches. Even the funder who gave Newt the money to green-light "When Mitt Romney Came To Down" is having second thoughts.

But never mind all that. The story has now gotten big enough to draw Sarah Palin out of an extended break from her bus tour, to advise Romney to open up the books on his tenure at Bain.

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There's one Newt Gingrich flip-flop I left out of my previous post about his latest flip-flop, concerning his on-again-off-again-on-again attack on Mitt Romney as a vulture capitalist. It's a big one, and — in typical Newt fashion — he says it really somebody else's fault.

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