The rap against Newt when he was speaker was he was brilliant and a tremendous forward thinker - kind of a chessplayer as a strategist.
But —
He was absolutely unable to organize his time or his mouth.
The worst possible traits for Chief of Staff, especially for a President Trump who would come in knowing less about our system of government than any president in history.
Newt, for all his faults, which you mentioned, was *the* mastermind behind the Republican takeover of the Congress in 1994. And that was no small thing! Check the Dem majority margins in the House and Senate on the eve of the 1994 election. And check when was the previous time the GOP controlled both houses of Congress.
Newt, along with Dick Armey and a number of other lieutenants, crafted one of the most brilliant, fifty-state-wide campaign coups in history.
And he is now older, more experienced, seasoned. He was fantastic, IMO, during the 2012 primary. Last man standing verus Mittens. No gaffes at all during that entire campaign. He simply got ground down by the Romney/GOP-e machine.