What the Newt Gingrich staff implosion means for the 2012 Republican race

 

The real import of Thursday's aide walkout from Newt Gingrich's flailing presidential campaign has little to do with the former House speaker himself.

It's like a football expansion draft, the players from Gingrich's now-crippled political franchise will get picked up and signed on to other GOP campaigns, this being the eve of prime-time for these savvy hired guns who live for the unpredictable adrenalin rush and constant predictable grind of campaign days.

Immediately, Sonny Perdue, the former Georgia governor and national co-chair for Gingrich 2012, signed on to Tim Pawlenty's political team.

But what's more important is that two of these now-departed Gingrich campaign aides were actually on loan from another governor, Texas Republican Rick Perry. Chief among them Rob Johnson, Gingrich’s campaign manager, and Dave Carney.

The tall conservative Eagle Scout, now Texas' longest-serving governor ever, has stated several times that he's not running for his party's 2012 nomination, which is smart. He's been dealing with the state legislature all spring. And why ask to be targeted by opponents sooner than necessary?

But he's waffled enough to keep the hopeful murmurs smoldering like a Texas wildfire during the night, especially among fiscal conservatives dissatisfied with the fiscal and smaller government bona fides of the current crop of Republican wannabes.

With his fiscal (and reportedly personal) stinginess, no-new taxes and pro-business climate, Perry's state has created more new American jobs in the last four years alone than all the other 49 states combined.

Think that might resonate instantly with many Americans who've told pollsters from Day One of the Obama Change Era that the economy/jobs were, are and will be Issue One for them?

And Perry's recent book title is a perfect campaign theme for anti-Obama forces assembling on the right: "Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America from Washington."

Perry is also chairman of the Republican Governors Assn., putting him in almost daily touch with the country's heavy financial hitters. With his campaign gang back home in the heat of the Texas summer, Perry can now begin seriously assessing his 2012 prospects, for a possible move later this summer if the lack of passion for the current Republicans field continues.

As for Gingrich, he passed for a no-holds-barred D.C. politician 15 years ago. With his long classroom experience, he was one of the best no-notes public speakers around. And his widely-distributed Go-Pac lecture tapes tying world history into contemporary American issues could be mesmerizing.

He seemed to overflow with new ideas, often pulling folded notes or articles from his coat pocket to show listeners. His speaker resignation after the disappointing 1998 midterms combined with serial romances created overweight personal baggage and took him off the playing field for too many years, despite frequent TV appearances.

Additionally, the pace and meanness of federal politics has increased. So, even without his opening campaign missteps this time, Gingrich's bid seemed marginal at best and from another time. Many of his most logical supporters were not just not supporting him, but harshly criticizing him.

A dead giveaway to this doomed campaign came in his one-sentence Thursday vow to continue:

"I am committed to running the substantive, solutions-oriented campaign I set out to run earlier this spring. The campaign begins anew Sunday in Los Angeles."

Actually, not Los Angeles. Beverly Hills. The influential Republican Jewish Coalition is meeting there. There's only one reason any pol starts anew, stops or ends in Beverly Hills. And it's not to greet commuters exiting the subway.

It's money, dollars being the most important kind of votes at this stage in any presidential campaign.

RELATED:

The secret lesson within Gingrich's botched campaign launch

Romney now leads President Obama among registered U.S. voters

You know how Sarah Palin said Paul Revere warned the British? Well, he did

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Jack Plunkett / Associated Press (Perry).

Comments

[George]

If anyone thinks that Newt Gingrich was the great white hope for the Republicans, they were sadly mistaken.. He's one of those neo-con's that like to wage war for profit, not to mention he has a checkered past too from when he was speaker of the house.. I wouldn't vote for him... I would vote for the tree in my yard first..

[Great Hair]

While he does have great hair, Perry has been the worst governor in Texas history. Every school district in the state is hugely in debt. We have laid off thousands of teachers this year alone. If he were the CEO and Texas a corporation, he would have been fired long ago.

[SLC]

I think the sports term would be a dispersal draft, not an expansion draft. They're opposites.

[ron]

Newt who??

[Disgusted]

Well, you know what? WHO CARES? Newt and Mitt, Barack, and on and on the list of unintelligible names...Not a one of them stirs any confidence in our ability to produce a single leader with any real stature...Our political system is as corrupt as our economy is failed.
These are clowns, from Nancy Pelosi to Schumer, from Baener to Weiner, Palin to Paul...

Special interest smeared with mediocre peanutbutter and repackaged every 7 days to us. WHO CARES.

[M. Bouffant]

"combined with serial romances created overweight personal baggage"

Perhaps if you had the intestinal fortitude to call his "serial romances" by the correct term (adulteries) people would better understand what "personal baggage" he encumbered himself with.

[Eric S]

So now we watch the Republic National Committee open their Pandora's box and brace ourselves, with a feeling of dread, to see who else comes flying out.

[eyeful]

You have to ask yourself, "who in their right mind would want the job?"

Being POTUS in recent decades simply means setting yourself up to be hounded, slandered and despised by the political opposition, the tabloid media (which is to say, 90% of all media today) and a socially fractured, ever-angry "me first" society.

Long gone are the days of statesmanship and true visionary leadership; not because there aren't a few men and women out there who fit the mold, but because the political meat grinder, rabid corporatism, a floundering economy and the escalating war between progressive and regressive ideologies make the
job undesirable for anyone but an egomaniac or a political tool.

Welcome to The Untied State of America.

[Pun]

I dare journalist and commercial media do a substantive, investigative report on Rick Perry, aside from all the press releases. Oil has been Texas' great resource period. Perry has been riding on that rig and now with a depressed economy, he has called a "prayer rally," to solve Texas' huge deficit. You can't lose with religion, right?

[sevanclaig]

Newt's not my ideal candidate (although I'd enjoy finally seeing a BHO in an actual debate Newt would absolutely shred that adolescent amateur)

I think all of these guys quit because they knew they should be fired. These campaign "managers" are probably the ones with the "strategy" of getting out there right off the bat and get some democratic support by attacking those house republicans....
Oops, was that a backfire?
No, it wasn't. Backfires happen for many different reasons, but blatant, strategical stupidity is not necessarily one of them.

[alan shore]

Hard to feel sad for Newt. He perpetuated a lot of deceit and harm.

[Howard]

Rick Perry didn't "create" jobs in Texas; he stole them from other states by enticing companies with lower corporate taxes, thereby placing greater burdens on all Texans to support dwindling public services. I wonder how well he'd go over in other states whose jobs were taken away by his cronies.

[TKelley11]

Let the Crashing and Burning begin.

Maybe newt could get sara to sign on to his campaign since he has some positions open.

[sleepd]

Delicious. May he continue to fall off the face of the earth.

[Anotherwhiner]

They didn't "create" those jobs--they stole them from other states.

[M. Bouffant]

"No comments." Really?

And the perfectly civil one I left this morning? Andrew Malcolm is a cowardly punk.