Election 2012

Newt's Night in the Sun

Newt Gingrich, by many accounts both Republican and Democratic, is a gigantic asshole with an even larger ego.

I can't help but to think that he's going to turn into an exponentially larger asshole now that he's won something. It's going to be like Hank Kingsley, Jeffrey Tambor's asshole sidekick character on HBO's The Larry Sanders Show, after getting to substitute-host the talk show when no one else is available to fill in for Garry Shandling's ailing Larry character.

Hank manages to pull off a passable show due to a sympathetic audience rooting for the underdog, and, so, afterwards, Hank's already delusional asshole personality becomes amplified times a gazillion.

Republican voters picked Newt Gingrich last night because no one else was really speaking their language. In other words, Gingrich threw in some racial dog whistles which appealed to their southern white resentment -- and Mitt Romney didn't. Anyone could have played that card. They just wanted Not Romney. But Gingrich, as delusional and ego-maniacal as Hank, is going to think it was all because of him, people love him, and he can win in the general. None of that is true.

But get ready for an especially brutal onslaught of Gingrich saying dickish things for a while.