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A Semi-defense Of Newt

In an otherwise sensible critique of Newt Gingrich, Joe Klein writes:

One imagines that if John McCain were President and Paul Krugman had said, out of the box, that he wanted McCain to fail, Gingrich would be leading the charge, calling Krugman "unpatriotic" and even, perhaps, traitorous. 

Actually, Gingrich was pretty critical of Limbaugh--and other conservatives--who said they were wishing for Obama's failure:

"You've got to want the president to succeed," said the former House Speaker. "You're irrational if you don't want the president to succeed. Because if he doesn't succeed the country doesn't succeed... I don't think anyone should want the president of the United States to fail. I want some of his policies to be stopped. But I don't want the president of the United States to fail. I want him to learn new policies."

What it says that Newt now represents the responsible wing of the GOP, I'll leave for others to determine.

--Jason Zengerle