Charles P. Pierce on Willard/ Flip-Flop/ Mendacious Mitt Romney and the latest not-Romney, Newt "Poot" Gingrich:
"Like Donkey Kong, apparently, it is on. Willard Romney, putative frontrunner and the toughest man who ever sent someone out to fire people rather than do it himself, apparently has determined to do two things: 1) compete seriously in the Iowa caucuses, thereby disturbing even further those nice Iowa Republicans who gather every four years to determine who among them will see Jesus in the three-bean salad; and b) butch himself up as a politician. This is in response to the sudden national surge by Newt Gingrich. Thereby will our man Willard take on the two most chronic and widely held perceptions of himself: a) that he is a smug, tailor's dummy who goes to bed every night wondering why someone can't just appoint him to be president; and b) that, as a politician, he is lily-ed of liver and crystal of jaw. Look out down there on the croquet lawn, beeyotches! Willard's ready to throw down. He'll fk your shit up, just as soon as the market closes, that is.
"Newt, meanwhile, is playing nice. As for Willard, he's got enough money to fool enough people with this latest incarnation. He may fool just enough of them. But, it seems to me, anyway, that he fundamentally misapprehends why the Republican base has gravitated so swiftly to the Senior Love Daddy of the House junior staff. It is not because Newt's the fool who hasn't yet fallen out of the boat. It's not because of his position on the issues. The Republican base does not respond to reasoned debate on public policy. The Republican base is an unreconstructed Id. It responds to emotion. It has pleasure centers that demand to be serviced, regularly. (Down, Herman.) And there is nobody better at nuzzling the party's political G-spots than Newt Gingrich — whether he does it one comely aide at a time or altogether at once."
