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Newt needs a lesson about Saul Alinsky LYNN SWEET blogs.suntimes.com/sweet Last Modified: Jan 23, 2012 02:10AM WASHINGTON — GOP White House hopeful Newt Gingrich constantly — the latest time on Sunday — invokes the name of the late Saul Alinsky — a Chicago native — when he wants to assert that President Barack Obama is a “radical.” Gingrich, a historian, demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the work of Alinsky, a legendary community organizer in Chicago’s Woodlawn and Back of the Yard neighborhoods and beyond. With his anti-elitist, anti-establishment populist rhetoric—on display Saturday night in his South Carolina victory speech in...

In the most recent 2012FloridaPrimary.com poll, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich got the big bump he needed from his victory in South Carlina and moved from his 19% to first place with 29%. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney picked up 2% of the undecided and came in second with 25%. Former Senator Rick Santorum ticked up a point finishing in third with 15%. Ron Paul, who intends to bypass the Florida Primary still polled at 7%. With the “Undecided” still at 23%, the fact remains anyone can still win in the winner-take-all Florida Primary.

As a Christian, I will neither defend nor excuse Newt’s past adultery. That said, after watching his ex-wife Marianne go off on him on ABC, as a man, I now get why he supposedly wanted an “open marriage.” Holy crikey. That chick is scary! Hell hath no fury like a furry woman. That’s one angry, gangrenous ex-Gingrich chica right there, folks. Let’s see … what do we have here? Lonely and bitter? Table for one? Now, before I get my inbox stuffed with hate mail labeling me insensitive, calling Newt a cad, and painting Marianne as a damsel in distress,...

If you were Barack Obama, or one of his advisers, you couldn’t ask for a greater gift than Newt Gingrich’s runaway victory in South Carolina. The Republicans will now be forced to spend the winter absorbing a cutthroat war between Gingrich and Mitt Romney, both forces pouring millions of dollars into high-profile media campaigns to tear down the other, rather than campaigning to defeat Obama next November. Obama must love this. He barely has to campaign. Both Gingrich and Romney have demonstrated their willingness to be as nasty as it requires to tear down their rival. Now they’ll be going...

Two of the key arguments of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's presidential candidacy—that he knows best how to handle the economy and stands the best chance of beating President Barack Obama—were dismissed by conservative South Carolina voters in the Republican primary Saturday, according to exit poll data from the state. That finding shows why former House Speaker Newt Gingrich won a solid victory, and also suggests the Romney camp may seek new ways to drive home its core message in the contests that lie ahead. In all three nominating contests so far, at least a plurality of voters have said...

"Newt Gingrich was very, very, very welcoming to all of us who were women. I mean he really just pushed us out front," said North Carolina Rep. Sue Myrick. "He was the one who said immediately, 'We're going to put women in the chair. We're going to put women on committees.' He said, 'You would be a good appropriator.' He did do that," added Rep. Kay Granger of Texas. They and other House members recently talked about Gingrich's promotion of women Republican members at a seminar hosted by the moderate Republican Ripon Society. The September session was focused on broadening...

By the time the voting started yesterday in the South Carolina Republican primary, the collective judgment of the political class was that Newt Gingrich was all but certain to beat Mitt Romney badly — the only question was how badly. Plenty of prognosticators, including Impolitic, predicted that Gingrich would win by a double-digit margin, as he did (the final spread was 13 points, on a 40 to 27 percent split). But virtually no one would have dared venture a forecast of a blowout as abject and total as the one that indeed took place. Take a gander at the exit...

I was just listening to Beck on air this morning. He is sarcastically thanking South Carolina for giving us a candidate who has "no way in hell of winning against Obama." The Hemorrhoid is about to burst. Look for more Republicans to have nervous breakdowns today.

The endorsement of Newt Gingrich by Rick Perry, as well as the virtual endorsement of Gingrich by Sarah Palin, forms the battle lines for the Republican nomination. Look quickly for Santorum and Bachmann to line up behind Gingrich as well, just like Huntsman has endorsed Romney. In a three-man race with Gingrich representing historic conservatism, Paul embracing constitutional libertarianism, and Romney representing the pragmatic political wing of the party, Gingrich should wrap up the nomination relatively quickly. The left, of course, will try to destroy Gingrich, just as it has been trying to destroy him since he forced Speaker Jim...

In response to lobbying accusations from his opponents Newt Gingrich told me it would be "very helpful" if his former company, Center for Health Transformation, released the consulting contract he had with mortgage giant Freddie Mac before the Florida primary on January 31. "I think it would be very helpful and our attorneys are talking with the company. You know I left the company so, it's their decision and Nancy Desmond, the president of the company, has to make the decision. But I'd be very comfortable releasing them," he said.