Neutering Newt

I never seriously thought that Newt Gingrich would actually run for president. I mean, why on earth would he put himself and his family through that? He has so many skeletons rattling around in his closet that it is really hard to even hear him speak above their sound. But I underestimated his hubris and his capacity for self-delusion.

So, yes, he's running, but there is not a snowball's chance in hell that he will get the Republican nomination, because now he has gone and done the unthinkable: He has criticized the House Republicans' plan to kill Medicare, calling it "right-wing social engineering," and by implication he has criticized the new Republican god, Paul Ryan, and you just can't do that and be considered "serious" in his party.

The party wasted no time in responding to his remarks on one of the Sunday television news talk shows. Republicans everywhere have been rushing to microphones to register their outrage at Newt. The leader of the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh, has said that there is no explanation for what Newt has said. Even if Newt apologized - which he probably will - and bowed to kiss the rings of Limbaugh and Ryan to reaffirm his "faith," I seriously doubt that it would be enough. Newt has effectively been neutered by his own kind.

Not that he ever had any chance of being president anyway.

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