Newt Gingrich Might Throw His Hat (and Tweet?) into 2012 Republican Nomination Race

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich — who has made noises about running for President before but did not go ahead with it — sounds as if he really intends to throw his hat (and presumably his prolific Twitter feed) into the 2012 Presidential nomination race.

The Politics Daily caught this latest delicious political item — a comment Gingrich made on CSPAN:

Callista and I are going to think about this in February 2011. And we are going to reach out to all of our friends around the country. And we’ll decide, if there’s a requirement as citizens that we run, I suspect we probably will. And if there’s not a requirement, if other people have filled the vacuum, I suspect we won’t.

And, indeed, it’s quite likely that Gingrich, a student and professor of history and joyous practitioner of politics, will conclude that 2012 is now or never for him, unless he wants to wind up the like former New York Democratic Gov. Mario Cuomo, who agonized over running until he agonized himself into not viable and oh-so-passe status.

If Gingrich does run it’ll be fascinating for several reasons:

1. Gingrich is the original late 20th century political bomb thrower, someone who some believe helped shape the current mega-partisan, polarized atmosphere that was underscored by how the old days of members of Congress of both parties putting aside partisanship when the votes were over were obliterated and replaced by today’s more toxic mega-partisan take-no-prisoners Congressional mood. He is the master of the sound byte — although sometimes he is bitten by his own media bytes.

2. Some folks in the GOP aren’t big fans of his. One is GOP rhetoric setter talk show host Rush Limbaugh, an admitted political admirer of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Gingrich and Limbaugh faced off earlier this year.

3.He may have many of those who consider themselves “real” conservatives (talk radio political culture 21st century conservative Republicans) against him from day one. The tea party movement’s big GOP booster is Dick Armey, who worked with Gingrich…and clashed with him and is in fact clashing with him as you read this post. Columnist EJ Dionne, Jr. recently wrote:

Is there room in the Republican Party for genuine moderates? Truth to tell, the GOP can’t decide. More precisely, it’s deeply divided over whether it should allow any divisions in the party at all.

That’s why the brawl in a single congressional district in far upstate New York is drawing the eyes of the nation. Conservatives are determined to use the race to prove that there is no place in the party for heretics, dissidents or independents.

President Obama set up the fight by nominating the district’s former representative, John McHugh, as his Army secretary. Maybe Obama is as fiendishly clever as his more paranoid opponents believe him to be.

When local Republicans picked a moderate, Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, as their candidate for the Nov. 3 contest, many on the right rebelled. They are backing a third-party conservative, Doug Hoffman, and he may well drive Scozzafava into third place. For the moment, at least, polls show that Bill Owens, the Democratic candidate, has jumped into first place on the split.

It demonstrates just how right-wing some Republicans have become that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is on the moderate side of this civil war against his old nemesis Dick Armey, who served under Gingrich as majority leader.

Gingrich, who backs Scozzafava, always understood that he would never have become speaker without help from Republican moderates. Armey prefers ideological purity and, like fellow members of the Tea Party movement, is supporting Hoffman

So if Gingrich truly sounds like he’s running, look for some parts of the GOP (talk show hosts, tea party movement, politicos and activists allied with Armey) to try and discredit him and take him out. Look for Gingrich to respond. Maybe even look for Gingrich to “make nice” and try to mend fences with Armey, the talk show hosts and tea party movement members who clamor for a President Sarah Palin. But it’s clear now that these aren’t the people and the part of the the party that are counting the days to work for Gingrich to get Barack Obama out of the White House.

No matter…. Gingrich’s entry along with his political and personal hubris would most certainly make Democrats smile. And if Gingrich makes more noises about running and he is profiled as a serious possibility then pulls out again, look for him to get little serious media attention if he ever talks about running again.

Jeralyn at Talk Left HERE has italicized Gingrich’s hedge words. But the bottom line is that after saying he’s going to run X amount of times, most news editors and reporters will yawn if he makes more statements about thinking of running and doesn’t do it.

Then perhaps he and Cuomo might share a Twitter feed.