Newt Mulls a Run
The would-be general of World War III is mulling a run for the GOP presidential nod:
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will begin next week to seek financial commitments from donors for a presidential-nomination bid, the Georgia Republican told The Washington Times yesterday.
If he can get pledges for $30 million over the next three weeks, he will join the Republican presidential-nomination race—a prospect he had been downplaying until yesterday.
But the prospect of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York winning the Democratic nomination and the presidency is moving more voters to seek him out, he told The Times.
"As people have grown more worried about the Clinton machine and the prospect of a second Clinton presidency, more and more people have been approaching me about running," Mr. Gingrich said.
Given how things turned out the last time Newt challenged a Clinton, Republicans interested in winning the White House might think twice. As Dave Weigel noted in his profile of Sen. Tom Coburn, the Oklahoma senator has said: "After the shutdown…[Gingrich] was like a whipped dog who still barked, yet cowered, in Clinton's presence….It was a turning point. Afterwards you saw the growth of government accelerate. You saw the abandonment of the principles that we came in on in 1994. And you saw us become them."
Elsewhere, Newt shares a moment with Knut the polar bear. Newt's laff-fest Monday newsletter, delivered right to your inbox, here.
