Gingrich: the new(t) GOP frontrunner

Just when you thought the GOP couldn't get any more desperate in picking their nominee for the 2012 presidential election, think again. About two weeks ago, following the GOP presidential debate on foreign policy, lo and behold a new savior appeared, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. All I could say was, "You've got to be kidding me."

Before I discuss Gringrich, let me summarize the GOP race during the fall semester 2011. First, Republican primary voters saw the key to the White House in Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachman. That is until they found out that she only makes decisions prior after to consulting her husband.

Then the republicans rallied around the Lone Star governor from Texas, Rick Perry. That was fun until voters found out that Yosemite Sam was an illegal immigrant lover who's bad at remembering things in threes. Odd numbers are just too darn tough.

Next came the former Godfather's Pizza CEO, Herman Cain. He doesn't have any prior experience in Washington to let big government liberals corrupt his fiscal conservative idealism. Turns out that Mr. Cain had too many toppings on his greasy love life. What's the matter Cain? Delivering to one house wasn't good enough for you?

Now Republicans are clamoring for Newt Gingrich, a figure whose marriage record runs parallel with the indecisiveness of the GOP nomination itself. After three marriages, Gingrich makes Bill Clinton look like Mr. Rodger's Neighborhood. This guy left his first wife, Jackie Battley, while she was in the hospital with uterine cancer after 18 years of marriage. This is the so-called moral conservative response to alleged communist Barak Obama? Gingrich had so many ethical issues that his colleagues forced him to resign as Speaker of the House in 1998, even as President Clinton's sex scandal began to loom over Washington.

Newt Gingrich is best known for his 1994 Contract with America, which led to a Republican resurgence of the House of Representatives. Gingrich's contract, thrown out more than a decade ago, called for less government, tax cuts and a balanced budget. In Sept., Gingrich announced a 21^st century version of his Contract with America, which includes welfare reform, term limits, a balanced budget amendment and a repeal to the healthcare overhaul. Keep in mind that the healthcare reform, while imperfect, does allow people like you and me to stay on our parent's healthcare plans until the age of 26.

After Congress, what has Gingrich been up to? Giving economic advice of course. In 2006, Gingrich received a $300,000 payment from former mortgage giant Freddie Mac for so called "consulting services." During the Republican debate in Mich., when CNBC's John Harwood brought up the subject, Gingrich said, "My advice as a historian, when they walked in and said to me, 'We are now making loans to people who have no credit history and have no record of paying back anything, but that's what the government wants us to do' — I said to them at the time, 'This is a bubble, this is insane, this is impossible."

If Freddie Mac needed an economic whiz kid so bad, then why did Gingrich's "consulting job" mysteriously end right as the Department of Treasury took over Freddie Mac at the advent of the housing crisis in Sept. 2008? According to NPR, two sources from Freddie Mac "said Gingrich was hired to help Freddie Mac build alliances on Capitol Hill, and to burnish Freddie's reputation." Gingrich wasn't being hired for economic advice as a historian, but for political advice as a lobbyist. Why else would his contract with Freddie Mac begin right as the Bush administration was hinting at implementing federal regulation over the mortgage giant in 2006?

Once Republicans get a better look at the "Gingrich who stole Christmas," he'll be in the political junk yard with the rest of the one week frontrunners. Who's next, Rick Santorum? Or will Republicans finally suck it up and nominate Romney? You know what they say, children never want to eat what's good for them.