Re: Here's some background. There's a ton more.

Man! Not only is Newt Gringrich no Jack Kennedy, he's not even a Richard
Perle. As regular readers well know, I've been a pretty tough critic of Mr.
Perle, especially his long-running effort to serve as the Pentagon's proxy
in its war with Colin Powell. But one can denounce underhanded scheming and
still be able to respect it when it's ably done.

As you'll remember, last week the former Speaker of the House used an AEI
panel discussion to launch a broadside against the State Department, Colin
Powell and even a few elementary points of basic logic. But his attack was
so overblown and cartoonish that even those inclined to support his basic position
immediately cut him loose, leaving the former Speaker terribly exposed when
nearly every Republican in town spent the rest of last week saying he was
at best out of line and quite possibly even slightly off his rocker.

It was the week of the great Newt Gingrich smackdown. Jack Kemp called his old
friend's argument ludicrous and compared him to "a bull who carries his own china
shop around with him." Bill Buckley, famed lover of Foggy Bottom, said Newt had
"overdone it." And pretty much every other Republican in town, pretty
clearly at White House direction, trashed him. Newt was like that one doofus you
have in every trying to get into the act after the moment has passed.

-- Josh Marshall

I BELIEVE JOHN IS ONE ASTUTE OBSERVER OF POLITICAL INTRIGUE... BE
CAREFUL. GINGRICH AND BUSH ARE "BOTH" GOING AFTER POWELL. POWELL
HAS POPULAR SUPPORT AND BUSH CAN'T STAND IT. GINGRICH HAS AGREED
TO BE THE SACRIFICIAL LAMB IN ORDER TO GAIN HIGH STATURE WHEN SHRUB
INAUGURATES THE FOURTH REICH. GINGRICH IS FAR FROM STUPID... AND FAR
FROM SUICIDAL!