Good point. Dobson's visceral reaction to Thompson came from somewhere. It was not created ex nihilo.
Yeah, my flimsy basis for this suspician is: (1) Gingrich was toying with running; (2) Gingrich was vocally jealous of a draft-Thompson campaign (and clearly thought he should be the subject of the draft);(3) Gingrich was using Dobson as a sort-of father-confessor figure at the time; and (4) I don’t like Gingrich, as he is an ego-maniac.
I just susepct Gingrich was using Dobson to make the path clear for himself, but that may be more of a product of my personal dislike/distrust of Newt than anything.