Do a search and you’ll find plenty of Coulter attacks on Newt.
In 2008, the establishment was behind McCain and against Romney. What on earth has Romney done for the last four years to get the establishment to line up behind him in 2012, other than to campaign for the past four years?
Romney would be a ‘don’t rock the boat’ sort of liberal Republican who will be powerless to make any meaningful changes. The GOP establishment will be able to call the shots as they wish. Under a Newt Presidency, all of this will be out the window. The establishment has gone “all in” for Romney, for better or worse.
The establishment GOPers are weak-kneed. Once Newt amasses more victories, he’ll consolidate his power base and the loudmouths will shut their mouths. These establishment types are not ideologues, but are finger-in-the-wind politicians.
As to why Romney is the darling of the GOP establishment - you could justifiably say "Finger in the wind"? Or you could say "pragmatic". They are backing Romney for the very simple reason that they think he has a better chance against Obama than anyone else. I personally think they are wrong, or at the very least that adopting someone like Romney is too high a price for victory, but I'm sure that is their reasoning. You are quite right about Gingrich though. If he wins the nomination, or even looks like he will, then they will all line up behind him as their "great hope". They would line up behind Rick Sartorum or even Ron Paul in the same way. Heck they would line up behind a hypothetical offspring of "Sauron the Great" and "Cruella de ville" called Damian with "666" written on his forehead, if they thought he could win.