I generally like Dan Balz but this piece is pretty ridiculous. Gingrich ran one of the most shameless campaigns in American history. Even most of the troglodytes in his own party are ashamed of him. Balz acts like he was surprisingly restrained and disciplined. And then he asks the most boring question imaginable: What’s next for the disgraced former Speaker?
In the end, Gingrich the historian managed to make history, though not the kind he might have dreamed about. He became the first Republican in the modern era to win the South Carolina primary and lose the nomination. It has been that kind of year for the former House speaker.
What now? He has managed to keep himself in the forefront of his party for decades. He does not lack for energy or desire to think through what his party needs to win in November and beyond and what conservatism needs to prosper.
Will there be another chapter in the Gingrich political story? There is no way to answer that at this moment other than to say: There always has been.
He’ll go back to selling stupid books to morons and trying to get five-figure checks for bloviating at chicken dinners. Let’s talk about something less easy to predict.
what’s next? more grifting
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Brought to this theater by the Adelson family!
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Fortunately the residents of the zoos are alread on to him, now if the pundits can just catch up
Balz comes very, very close to deploying my least favorite cliche in all the vast annals of bad punditry writing: “It remains to be seen.”
It’s a phrase that is a complete cop-out, which is why you see it, or iterations of it, so often in Village writing. Most of them got where they got precisely because of their agility in avoiding uncomfortable conclusions.
“He has managed to keep himself in the forefront of his party for decades.”
No he didn’t. He was “in the forefront” from 1994 through 1998. Then, in the middle of the panty-sniffing coup he engineered, he slunk away and didn’t turn up again until some time last year.
Is Balz reporting from a different dimension?
yes, the Beltway.
Still trying to figure out how he is relevant… anytime in the last 15 years.
I don’t begrudge him the ability to sell a video ar get a speaking fee, but he was NEVER going to get the nomination and he was NEVER going to win the general.
Just because you think you are the smartest man in the room, and you tell people you are the smartest man in the room, doesn’t make you the smartest man or even win you an election. He lacks several elements of leadership needed to win a national campaign, notably sticktoitness,strategic vision and stamina and the people know it.
What he does of have is a sound bite machine that keeps the 24 cable news machine happy.
Asshat who I think is now much closer to done than relevant.
Does anyone really think he’s the smartest in the room?
His degree is a joke, his non-fiction books are written by others, his fiction sucks big assed donkey dicks AND is derivative.
But I must admit, he DOES look like a southern senator … something he’s never been.