Newt Gingrich is a member of the GOP establishment and a D.C. insider

By Adam Bitely


If I told you that I had been the Speaker of the House of Representatives, author of numerous books on public policy, paid $1.6 million by a government sponsored enterprise Freddie Mac for my “services” and a special contributor to Fox News, would you believe it if I then said I am not a part of the D.C. establishment or a Washington insider?

Probably not.

In the past week, Newt Gingrich has probably had one of the most roller coaster experiences of his entire life. He had a come-from-behind double-digit victory in South Carolina, evaded a potentially campaign-ending interview from his ex-wife, and appears to be consolidating the anyone-but-Mitt crowd behind his campaign. In other words, Newt Gingrich had the best week of the campaign cycle so far and is beginning to turn this primary season in a direction that no one thought was possible.

Newt pulled off this miraculous feat by whining and screaming at CNN’s John King for being biased against Republicans. While Newt is probably right about that, it does nothing to change the fact that Newt is biased against limiting the powers of government. Yet it appears that many voters are ready to forgive Newt for a career of compromising the principles of limited government.

I wrote back in December that I was surprised that many considered Newt Gingrich a reasonable alternative to Mitt Romney. It made sense that voters who sought real change to the Obama administration would want someone that had a different history than Mitt. But when Newt became the poster boy for opposing Obama for a brief few days a month before the Iowa caucuses I was blown away.
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