EVERY DAY IS GINGRICH DAY…. Chris Hayes had a tweet on Wednesday morning that really resonated with me: “Every morning I wake up, anxious to see what Newt Gingrich has to say about the issues of the day.”
Chris was, of course, being sarcastic. The problem, though, is that major news outlets seem to genuinely believe Americans really do wake up, anxious to see what the disgraced former House Speaker has to say about current events.
This morning, for example, the Washington Post offers readers an 800-word op-ed from Gingrich about public attitudes on the size of government. Wouldn’t you know it, Gingrich thinks there’s a mass movement of people out there who think exactly the same way he does.
In the great tradition of political movements rising against arrogant, corrupt elites, there will soon be a party of people rooting out the party of government. This party may be Republican; it may be Democratic; in some states it may be a third party. The politicians have been warned.
Anxious to hear more? You’re in luck — Newt Gingrich will be the featured guest on “Meet the Press” this weekend.
He was lying on Fox News yesterday. He was lying on “Good Morning America” on Wednesday. More of the same on “The Daily Show” on Tuesday. Looking over CNN’s political blog, which tends to keep up pretty well with the big political stories of a given day, Gingrich’s various attacks have generated “news” every other day for a week.
As Atrios asked the other day: “[Y]ou know, disgraced former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has precisely zero power but his every pronouncement is treated as Incredibly Important News. Any journalists want to explain why?”
I try to pay at least some attention to what Gingrich is popping off on, in part because many GOP leaders are inclined to follow his lead, no matter how little sense he makes.
But the constant media coverage has been embarrassing for a while, and it seems to be getting worse.
Eric Boehlert’s take the other day — before the WaPo op-ed and “Meet the Press” announcement — was spot-on: [“A]s often happens when I read breaking, this-is-what-Newt-said dispatches, I couldn’t help thinking, ‘Who cares what Newt Gingrich thinks?’ And I don’t mean that in the partisan sense. I mean it in the journalistic sense: How do Gingrich’s daily pronouncements about the fundamental dishonesty of Democrats (Newt’s favorite phrase) translate into news? Why does the press, 10 years after Gingrich was forced out of office, still treat his every partisan utterance as a newsworthy occurrence? In other words, why does the press still treat him like he’s speaker of the House? It’s unprecedented.”
I’m still waiting to see the media frenzy surrounding the latest pronouncements from Jim Wright and Tom Foley. I have a hunch I’m going to be waiting for a long time.
