Josh Marshall Hearts Newt Gingrich

There are a lot of right-wing performance artists now, but Newt invented the genre. Sort of like the let's-look-back at the first rappers.

And that's Gingrich, not a politician or even a mere huckster, but something much more than that, a right-wing performance artist who for a critical decade or so overlapped with the real world of electoral politics and ascended to the highest echelons of power. The almost appealing slasher barging in on the carefree picnic day of our political life.