NEWT SOUNDING MORE AND MORE LIKE A BITTER OLD MAN…

Ya know, I used to think that we had only one grouchy old man currently vying to be Barry's Republican opponent, and that was Ron Paul. But recently I've come to the realization that we now may very well have two. With Newt Gingrich now beginning to come across as being nothing more than a bitter, vindictive, whiney old man as well as being a sore loser, I think his priority has now become more about taking down Mitt Romney and much less about actually being a serious GOP candidate. After his going so far as to actually blame Fox News for the failure of his campaign and claiming that it has been biased in favor of Mitt Romney, the network has now struck back at the struggling Republican presidential candidate. The network, where Gingrich had a contract before hitting the campaign trail, dismissed the accusations and claimed his criticism of the network was motivated by nothing more than Gingrich's desire for a job at rival CNN. Gingrich's rather outspoken criticism of Fox came during a meeting in Delaware on Wednesday with Tea Party activists.

Gingrich has often been described as being rather volatile and of possessing a rather short fuse as well as an inability to control his mouth. And examples of both were recently on full display. According to the RealClearPolitics website, which was given access to the above mentioned meeting, Gingrich said: "I think Fox has been for Romney all the way through. In our experience, Callista and I both believe CNN is less biased than Fox this year." Come on, I can't believe that's what he really thinks. Might Newt have now gone round the bend? Because he went onto say, "We are more likely to get neutral coverage out of CNN than we are of Fox, and we're more likely to get distortion out of Fox. That's just a fact." By his acting like a spoiled Democrat, Newt's not really doing himself any favors here. And it certainly didn’t take very long for Fox to hit back. In a statement provided to the Guardian, it said: "This is nothing other than Newt auditioning for a windfall of a gig at CNN – that's the kind of man he is. Not to mention that he's still bitter about the fact that we terminated his contributor contract."

Gingrich, I think it fair to say, has now very clearly demonstrated his desire to be nothing more than a spoiler by his stubbornly choosing to remain in the Republican race after the exit of Rick Santorum. He has won only two states so far and continues to trail, and rather badly, Mitt Romney. He is also struggling financially, having accumulated huge debts during the campaign and suffered the indignity of seeing a $500 check to the Utah Republican Party bounce. Gingrich is campaigning this week in Delaware, one of several states where he hopes he can benefit from Santorum's departure. And in sounding more like a spoiled little brat than a presidential candidate, he was heard to say that he was working on the assumption that Rupert Murdoch had thrown his support behind Romney. "I assume it's because Murdoch at some point said, 'I want Romney', and so 'fair and balanced' became 'Romney'. And there's no question that Fox had a lot to do with stopping my campaign because such a high percentage of our base watches Fox."

Fox, led by Roger Ailes, has been the main media forum for the Republican candidates. Fox insists it has been fair and balanced and having watched it, I would tend to agree. In the initial stages of the primary and caucus season, it even seemed to be a little more hostile toward Romney than the other candidates. But by March, Santorum could be heard whining and complaining, on Fox, about some perceived bias. Santorum said Romney enjoyed a huge advantage in terms of money, organization and media coverage. "He's had Fox News shilling for him every day," Santorum whimpered. Do we really need another crybaby as president? I would seem that we have one of those now and the last thing that we need is another one, even it is one from the Republican Party. A crybaby is a crybaby. So it's a good thing that Santorum pulled out and Gingrich would be doing everyone a big favor if he would just bow out gracefully and go to work over at CNN where he most likely will be playing to a more suitable audience, albeit a much smaller one.

Gingrich is scheduled to attend the White House correspondents' dinner at the end of the month, but as a guest of CNN, not Fox. He makes the claim that he was largely indifferent to the views of journalists: "They know I don't care about their opinions. I don't go to their cocktail parties. I don't go to their Christmas parties. The only press events I go to are interesting dinners when the wife insists on it, so we're going to go to the White House correspondents' dinner because she wants to. And we're actually going to go to CNN's table, not Fox." He expressed disappointment that former colleagues Fox, with whom he had a contract until he officially joined the Republican race, had apparently written him off last summer. Gingrich enjoyed massive media coverage when he won the South Carolina primary in January, but interest dipped after he failed to win Florida the same month. Since then, coverage has gradually evaporated, with no print journalists any longer attached full-time to coverage of his campaign.

It was during the meeting in Delaware, again, according to the RealClearPolitics report, that he expanded his criticism of the media beyond Fox, to include columnist George Will, whom he accused of personal jealousy. "In the case of Will, I was on [George] Stephanopoulos on Sunday morning with him, and it was kind of a 'You're not allowed to run for office – I mean, if you could run for office, why am I not running for office?' " Gingrich said. "And it's almost like they were personally offended. You know, 'This can't be real', and 'How can this guy go do that?' "I got that reaction from Will a few years back about writing a book, because I'm supposed to be a politician. He's supposed to be the writer. Well, I've now written 24 books, and 13 of them are New York Times bestsellers. I mean, there's a morning when George ought to just get over it." As well as criticizing the media, Gingrich attacked the Republican party, describing it as "inarticulate". He added: "The Republican party is a managerial party that doesn't like to fight, doesn't like to read books."

So I can't help but ask myself, does Newt really think that such infantile behavior is conducive to his being able to convince anybody to vote for him for president? I mean for crying out loud. I heard enough whining from Barry and his team over the course of the last three years to last me a lifetime. So why on Earth would I want to hear it from a guy who is supposed to be on my side? And why should I have to. Politics is a rough and tumble game and if Newt is going to have such a thin skin, especially after having been involved in politics for as long as he has been, maybe it's just time for him to move on to something else. Like maybe writing more books. Even though he has said repeatedly, that he would support whom ever the eventual GOP candidate is, because the goal here is for us to defeat Barry, I do worry about him actually carrying through with that. Instead, I see him attempting to mount some sort of a retaliatory strike in an attempt to sabotage a Romney candidacy that would result in our being saddled with Barry for four more years, sacrificing the country for no other reason that sour grapes.