Feel the Newtmentum

I remember when Newt was first elected to the House, soon after I started becoming politically aware. Even then, I said to myself, out loud, no lie: "this guy is going to be trouble."

Prophetic, eh?

If you've heard the Newtster speak then you know that he represents, to use Ezra's immortal phrase, via Krugman, a stupid person's idea of what a smart person sounds like. In short, Newt is a dipshit. He's not an intelligent person, but he plays one on tv. But, in a GOP field in which every candidate is the output of a function of stupid and crazy, Newt may be in the top-three, along with Romney and, perhaps, Paul. (Huntsman doesn't count anymore, right?)

Personally, I'm rooting for...well, anyone and any thing that will help weaken Romney before his eventual, seemingly inevitable, victory. Romney's in a bicycle race, drafting a succession of leaders, waiting for everyone else in the field to sequentially gain the spotlight long enough for the few remnants of sanity in the GOP base to recoil from them in horror. Eventually Mittens will be the last man--or android or whatever he is--standing. Before that happens, I'd like to see a big Mitt-vs.-Newt throwdown from which both men emerge too wounded to win the general election. (And, of course, I'm hoping that a Mittens nomination will generate a strong, third-party wingnut candidate.)

But, for right now, I suppose we'll have to brace ourselves for a couple of weeks of Newt's condescending, contentless and contentious historical arguments and analogies. Tedious, yes...but a small price to pay to watch the GOP clown show further illustrate its deep and highly-concentrated clowniness.