In a recent segment of the “Daily Show”, Jon Stewart reviews the reasons why the GOP is unable to choose a 2012 presidential candidate, as the media creates and kills front
runners with meteoric speed. “It’s amazing what paying attention to a candidate can do to their candidacy,” Stewart joked.

That may be true for Perry, Cain, Bachmann, Romney, and Paul; but Gingrich was already “dead” when he entered the race.

A veteran policy wonk who has been part of our national political life for more than 30 years, Newt Gingrich became one of the first Republican leaders to announce his intention to secure the 2012 presidential nomination. Ignorant, oblivious or dismissive of the conservative members of  the GOP who might be critical of his marital woes, and other “mistakes” Gingrich admits to making, he proceeded to become – by default – the knowledgeable candidate who self-assuredly berates interviewers.

Back when the “Contract WithAmerica” – a document released by the Republican Party during the 1994 Congressional election campaign, detailing actions the Republicans promised to take if they became the majority party – was seen as a triumph for the American conservative movement headed by then Minority Whip Newt Gingrich; he was riding high.

Marital woes, political positions, and lapses in judgment over the past years, knocked him off his high horse.

His marital woes are many and substantial:  his first marriage to Jackie Baltley ended when he left her for Marianne Ginther, a woman he was having an affair with; his second marriage to Marianne Ginther-Gingrich ended over his affair with young staffer Callista Bisek, which Gingrich notifiedMarianne of, while at her Multiple Sclerosis-ridden hospital bed, and more.

More meaningful however, was the fact that he was committing adultery with wife number three while married to number two at the time that he was leading a moral and legal crusade against Bill Clinton​ for his “sins”.  This remains one of the most glaring examples of public hypocrisy by a major political figure in our nation’s history.

His weird positions are difficult to ignore or explain:  support for a government health care individual mandate that is the millstone around Romney’s neck; support for global warming initiatives; his ethanol love affair; his flip-flops on foreign policy issues such as Libya; and his claiming Obama was the product of a “Kenyan anti-colonial mentality.”

His dubious professional dealings including the “consulting work” – read “lobbying” – done for the Freddie Mac government mortgage giant that helped sink the economy in 2008, will be tough to swallow by a GOP whose victory over Democrats hinges on the sunken economy.

The former speaker may have settled into a third marriage, but his character has not improved. Explaining away his affiliation with Freddy Mac in the most recent debate, Gingrich told lies that revived memories of his most embarrassing moments in Washington:

“I offered them advice on precisely what they didn’t do”;  “I was a historian;” ” I warned
the Freddie Mac officials that their lending practices were causing a bubble that was insane”… He denied he was a lobbyist, but an advisor: “It turned out, unfortunately, that I was right. … And I think it’s a good case for breaking up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and getting much smaller institutions back into the private sector to be competitive and to be responsible for their behavior.”

All politicians lie, but Gingrich engages in self-embellishing rhetoric as a
practice.

As Salon.com’s Joan Walsh put it, “His crude mistreatment of his first two wives makes Herman Cain look chivalrous; his flip-flopping on climate change and health care makes Mitt Romney look consistent; his anti-Muslim extremism (almost) makes Michele Bachmann sound tolerant; and his record as the first and only speaker ever to be punished by the House Ethics Committee makes Rick Perry appear virtuous.”

The fact that Gingrich has never stopped engaging in behavior or expressing weird thoughts that show his unstable and shady character renders him DOA (dead on arrival) as a presidential contender.  That he thinks he can, with this much baggage, win the GOP presidential nomination and survive the attacks of the Democratic Machine is not only comical; it shows Gingrich has Cojones.