Newt Cuts His Own Throat By Breaking the Eleventh Commandment

In my last blog post, I predicted that Newt Gingrich would get a big bump in the polls as a result of Mike Huckabee withdrawing from the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. Regrettably, I now have to retract that statement entirely. For the former Speaker of the House committed the equivalent of political suicide by breaking a strict code of honor that Ronald Reagan once referred to as "The Eleventh Commandment:" Thou shalt not attack thy fellow Republicans.

In an interview on "Meet the Press," Gingrich actually went so far as to criticize Paul Ryan's budget plan and refer to his suggestions for Medicare reform as "right-wing social engineering." It was an unbelievable political blunder, and to think that someone so intelligent could commit such a grave error is almost unfathomable to me.

Needless to say, Ryan was not happy about it. In an interview on Laura Ingraham's radio show, Ryan said, "With friends like that, who needs liberals?" He was clearly as dumbfounded and caught off guard as everybody else who was still scratching their heads over Gingrich's attack.

The backlash against Newt has already started. As he arrived in Iowa to hit the campaign trail, a Republican voter went over to greet him and extended his hand. Gingrich smiled and accepted the friendly gesture, but during the handshake he received a tongue lashing from the constituent. Basically, this man told Gingrich that he was a disgrace to the Republican party for attacking Ryan's plan and suggested that he withdraw from the race. Ouch.

Conservative pundits sounded off on Gingrich's comments, though surprisingly there was a range of opinions on the issue. Charles Krauthammer said of Gingrich, "He's done." Krauthammer blasted Gingrich for giving the Democrats fodder to campaign against Ryan's budget and the Republicans' plan for reforming Medicare. He said that he could see the negative advertisements now: "Even Newt Gingrich lambasted this extreme plan as right-wing social engineering."

Brit Hume didn't go quite as far as Krauthammer, but he called the statements "inexplicable" and clearly stated that this controversy was not going to disappear any time soon. The only one who remained firmly in Gingrich's corner was Dick Morris, who actually said that he agreed with Gingrich's comments. Morris dismissed the notion that this would hurt his campaign and believes that the former House Speaker will start picking up steam when the debates begin next month.

When I heard about his comments on Meet the Press, I immediately posted on my Facebook page that Gingrich was done. Thus it is evident that I agree with Krauthammer on his prospects of winning the nomination. I think Newt will take a beating in Iowa as a result of this massive mistake, and that his campaign will be very short-lived. So much for having an intelligent, experienced, and supposedly conservative Catholic in the hunt for the Republican nomination. Why, Newt? Why?

The hot news topic being discussed all day yesterday was how two high-profile Republicans withdrew from pursuing the 2012 presidential nomination. But in reality, it was three. It's just that the third one did so involuntarily. Good-bye, Mr. Speaker, from a diehard conservative who once considered supporting you.