Newt is a very bright man, who did great things with the Contract with America. He was not especially effective as Majority Leader and let his personal weaknesses (we all have them) undermine his effectiveness and political career. He can render valuable service with reasoned analysis, but his time has come and gone as an elected official, and ranting like this will only distance him from the people he should be trying to influence. He seems to have had one bad judgment call after another for quite a while now.
To put it very, very mildly. Newt was a disaster as Speaker. His mistakes brought Bill Clinton back from the political dead.
“Newt is a very bright man ...”
However bright he is, he is not nearly as bright as he thinks he is.