Newt It To Me One More Time

The true story of this last week was not that Mr. Gingrich admitted to having an affair with his current wife while he was still married to his second – it’s old, old news, much like hishaving affairs while married to his first wife.

The true story is his having copped to the offense in an interview with James Dobson of Focus on the Family. It’s just like him to go to one of the largest arbiters of conservative moral power in America to confess his sins, knowing that the moral lapses that caused his departure from electoral power would come back to haunt him if he ran in 2008.

In other words, it’s a pre-emptive strike.

The normally astute Wall Street Journal says “He’s Back,” but they miss the underlying truth is that he’s never been gone – just absent from immediate political view.

Like any good supervillain, Gingrich knows the value of a subtle exit and a period of seeming inactivity, followed by a slow, steady climb back up to the light – speech by speech, book by book, thinktank by thinktank. He’s political pneumonia: you might shake off a bout with it and think yourself cured, only to have it flare up again a few years later when your guard’s back down, again.

I'll have more to say soon.