The Other GOP Mystery Man

As the first counts are tallied in Iowa this presidential season, albeit in the lonely straw poll Mitt Romney will run away with, let’s take a moment to pause on the mystery man — and no, I don’t mean Big Fred.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) mentioned this week that it is not too late to get into the race and win. He reminds people that Howard Dean was the front-runner three weeks before the Iowa caucuses, and he would like to add: “I think it is proven I’m candidate material.” 

No eye-rolling, please; this is the man who had the nerve — bless him — not only to reject the “war on terror” label but to say, “We’re about to enter the seventh year of this phony war … and we’re losing.” There’s more: He actually Rove-bashed on the record. Yup, remember the New Yorker article from May? Find it — he actually says Karl Rove didn’t understand the second-order effect of base mobilization and that the “right can only have power by being allied with the center.” His take on the 2006 midterms that the GOP lost? “Let me be clear: Twenty-eight percent approval of the president, losing every contested Senate seat except one, every one that involved an incumbent — that’s a collapse.”

Gingrich has recently been saying awful nice things about Fred, and his longtime adviser, Rich Galen, has signed on with Thompson. Perhaps Gingrich has cooled his heels, but he doesn’t want us to think so. He has predicted a Clinton-Obama ticket and has ruled out the nomination of Sen. John McCain (Ariz.). As for his plans, they may not include an actual candidacy, but knowing Gingrich, they are likely to include some kind of surprise.

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