Notes on the Winding Down of A Long Con

There is no shark-jumping moment for the career of one Newton Leroy Gingrich, former Speaker of the House and would-be presidential nominee, because Speaker Gingrich has long operated with the Great White clearly in view between his water-skis. A White House bid after 20 years of green-room exile may strike some as a romantic fantasy or vanity project, but I prefer to think of it as the "fuck-you" exploit that caps an extraordinary grifting career. Maybe not in the sense of a man solely in it for the money--although money surely has come into it, but for status and attention as well. I think my interpretation gives the man some dignity as a player in the world of players. Every day he's hustling. You can understand a man like that.

Maybe not like him.

But I think the end is near, the money's drying up and the time has come to settle in, write a new book, or maybe even spend more time with his families. Witness the following bid for attention:

(Whoa! Halt everything! I recommend taking a medium-sized drink of the beverage of your choice, so that you might spit it out at the appropriate interval. Pro-tip: Away from your keyboard.)

Newt Gingrich is incensed about a joke by actor Robert DeNiro at a fundraiser attended by Michelle Obama for the president’s re-election, in which the Academy Award-winning star used the word “white” to describe the Republican field’s spouses.
"Callista Gingrich. Karen Santorum. Ann Romney. Now do you really think our country is ready for a white first lady?" DeNiro said. "Too soon, right?"
...
"What DeNiro said last night was inexcusable and the president should apologize for him. It was at an Obama fundraiser, it is exactly wrong, it divides the country," [Gingrich] said. "If people on the left want to talk about talk show hosts, then everybody in the country should hold the president accountable when someone at his event says something that is utterly and terribly unacceptable as what Robert DeNiro said." 

No word yet on whether Gingrich thinks Obama should apologize for Little Fockers.

Toujours l'audace, M. Gingrich.  Who I believe in recent memory called Obama a "food-stamp president" and bemoaned his "Kenyan, anti-colonialist" ways.

A White House spokesperson called the remarks "inappropriate", thereby sucking the oxygen out of Gingrich's attempt at rhetorical arson. Some days it hardly pays to put on one's best poutrage face. Sniff. But that was a just a tidbit.  He was scarcely as invested in that, as he is in the $2.50 gas idea.

Gimmicks. Alas. Alack. A duh.