Actually, she isn't. She may not be as conservative as most on this site, but she has done some significant conservative reporting (click here).
As for Newt, he's an interesting combination of political fire-breather, policy wonk, and nerd goofball. Sometimes all three personae are evident at once. He's at his best exchanging well-aimed shots with pompous liberals (like his encounter with Scott Pelley at last weekend's debate) and at his worst regurgitating idiotic management-Newspeak ("lean six-sigma"). He tends to react before he thinks everything through. Christopher Hitchens (of all people) pegged him best when he said that he thought that Newt has about 200 ideas per week, of which about 100 may be good ones.
His current ascendency in the polls is a reflection of the relative weakness of his competitors, not of his own personal political strength. He will fade back into the pack, as many others have before him.
I wouldn't be so sure. If I could make a guess, the single most important quality that people are looking for in a candidate is leadership, and that is something Gingrich is displaying above all the others. That's why he's rising and others are falling. Newt can handle himself in pretty much any situation. He's intelligent, knowledgeable, and can think quickly on his feet, and people are responding to this because he's deliberately making it known.
I wouldn't make the mistake in dismissing him so quickly.
Santorum FTW!