The Gingrich Tragedy - NYTimes.com

Now that Mr. Gingrich has surged in the polls and is now the front runner, the gloves are coming off as the Republican 'establishment' aims to take him down a peg or two. Noonan in the Wall Street Journal today and here by David Brooks.


Fascinating to observe this pre-primary battle for the Republican nomination. Lots of hand-wringing and gnashing of teeth as we watch Democracy at work! It is truly entrancing to watch grass roots Republicans/conservatives take on the 'establishment' Republicans/conservatives who clearly believe that Speaker Gingrich is unfit to serve as President.

"But they have very different temperaments. Romney, Levin observes, has an executive temperament — organization, discipline, calm and restraint. Gingrich has a revolutionary temperament — intensity, energy, disorganization and a tendency to see everything as a cataclysmic clash requiring a radical response.
I’d make a slightly similar point more rudely. In the two main Republican contenders, we have one man, Romney, who seems to have walked straight out of the 1950s, and another, Gingrich, who seems to have walked straight out of the 1960s. He has every negative character trait that conservatives associate with ’60s excess: narcissism, self-righteousness, self-indulgence and intemperance. He just has those traits in Republican form."