In Iowa last month, possible Republican candidate Newt Gingrich derided big city attacks on ethanol subsidies.

It s not 1979. Do political reporters ever take Newt Gingrich to task for, say, being overweight, unfit, and a poor dresser?

Since roughly 1994, when Newt Gingrich engineered the Republican takeover of the US House of Representatives, Republicans have taken to calling themselves revolutionaries not a word often found on the lips of conservatives.

Bill Clinton said much the same thing before he was elected, and then spent his first term in a knockdown fight with Newt Gingrich s Republican majority in Congress, and his second term fighting off impeachment.

Some of you are old enough to remember he was the chairman of the House of Representatives and he resigned in disgrace when this young Republican named Newt Gingrich found out about a shady book deal he had done.