Newt

The persistence of Newt Gingrich in the Republican nomination battle has been a boon to Democrats. I mean, attacking Mitt Romney from the left! Wonderful! I'm not even sure the Obama administration would have had the balls to do this in the general election battle, but this opens that very door. Even Nate Silver, the world's best electoral analyst and most cynical Democrat, concedes that a capitalist critique from both the left and the right on Mitt Romney can give credibility to the charge and it could inflict long term damage to the Romney brand. Apropos of this observation, I stumbled upon this picture of Newt Gingrich.

Newt spends the holidays with a close relation.

This reminded me of the time I saw Newt Gingrich at the NYC Museum of Natural History near the dinosaur exhibit. This was funny because I would have just assumed that it was canon in Republican orthodoxy that dinosaurs never existed - or if they did, the skeletons should be staged in musuems fighting battles with Adam and Eve or being ridden like horses by Moses and Jesus. However, this wasn't the worst of it. Gingrich was actually waiting in line for the (fee additional) Darwin evolutionary exhibit! Does Gingrich believe in evolution? Apostasy! Perhaps instead he was there to point out the theory's inherent flaws to museum curators? I wanted to take a candid photo of him but it felt a little creepy. Alternatively, I was considering approaching the speaker and a) challenging him on evolution and global warming or b) cordially addressing him as Mr. Speaker and making small talk. You know, just to tell people I met Newt Gingrich. Instead I chose c) ignore him completely. That blowhard didn't need another person reinforcing his continued relevancy!

Also, too, I was probably just too intimidated to do either a) or b).