Gingrich: Comparisons and Myths.

I've always kind of liked Newt Gingrich for his brains and brashness. I've also often wondered about his judgement (having an affair while sticking it to Clinton over Lewinsky? Really?). Now that Hermann Cain has hit his first post-bounce drop, I'm prepared to lean toward him a little.

In the AmSpec, Jeffrey Lord compares Gingrich to Churchill. The parallels are interesting, but more interesting is this:

Not to be forgotten is what Fox News commentator Juan Williams, recently sitting next to Gingrich on the set of Special Report with Bret Baier, delicately referred to as the former Speaker's personal "baggage." By which Williams means the Speaker's three marriages, the extra-marital business and all the rest. The famous myth of the first Gingrich divorce is discussed here by Gingrich's daughter Jackie Gingrich Cushman, who was present at the time. Surprise, surprise -- fact, says Ms. Cushman, is different than left-wing fiction. The first Mrs. Gingrich, a private person, is very much still alive, present and accounted for and not deceased as is the tale. The story runs roughly that the dastardly Newt took divorce papers to his dying wife's bedside when she had no idea a divorce was in the offing, shocking her as she lay dying. In fact Mrs. Gingrich, says her daughter, had herself requested the divorce long before Gingrich entered her hospital room. The story, says Cushman, is fiction from start to finish. Gingrich's political mistake was not understanding that such a personal moment would be distorted and used by liberal opponents. Out of such a moment perhaps comes the Newtonian understanding of the need for a political rapid response team whose sole purpose is to flag political untruths on the spot. Be that as it may, this tale shows the endurance of a political Bigfoot tale, the political equivalent of the fictional monster repeatedly spotted but mysteriously never actually captured because, of course, in fact it doesn't exist.

The art of political judgement differs not greatly from the art of the bloodhound. One must learn to tell false scents from true ones. If Gingrich isn't really as personally awful as legend has it, then maybe -- just maybe, he has mellowed, and like Churchill, knows what the hour demands.

Of course, not everyone is prepared to embrace this rise. Robert Stacy McCain seems more hostile to Gingrich than he was to Rick Perry, which is saying something. This I cannot understand. Preferring Hermann Cain to Newt can be defended on conservative personal and policy preferences. Preferring Mitt Romney to Newt smacks rather of taking one's ball and going home.