Newt Gingrich: The de facto leader?

REPUBLICANS ARE now said to be regarding Newt Gingrich as the "de facto" head of the party. In return, Gingrich, who has been giving a lot of speeches for his supper these days, has publicly stated that if the party has a "vision" he will be a candidate for president in 2012. How reassuring it must be for a leaderless party to be de facto-ing a marathon GOP insider who spends more time talking about the vision thing than your friendly optometrist.

However, if you can trust the vision of those pundits who insist on calling Gingrich from his de facto bullpen, he has climbed above Rush Limbaugh in the GOP ranks for the party's affection. (Actually they might prefer Dick Cheney, but vision or no vision, he no longer qualifies to be a de facto.) To demonstrate his own peculiar witless desperation to maintain parity on the Republicans' short list of purported de factos, Rushbo saw an opportunity to again reinforce his own bigotry by attacking Sonia Sotomayor's accident.

"Now the question is," the Great White Whale spouted, "would a white male judge have fractured his ankle in the same circumstances?"

Better think of something, quick, Newt. He's not going away quietly.