So Rick Perry is out (Rick Perry, ferchrissakes?), but Tim "Mr. Invisible" Pawlenty is in

by Ken

And it's hard to know whether to be more appalled by the people who are or the people who aren't seeking the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. As you shake your head at the notion that anyone could ever have seriously thought that cretinous pile of sludge Rick Perry running for president was an idea (forget "good" idea), the capital is rocked with the news that the life form known as T-Paw will announce Monday that it "will formally enter the 2012 Republican presidential race on Monday in Iowa, an aide to his campaign Friday," according to WaPo Fixman Chris Cillizza ( who's also reporting that Princess Sarah Palin has 2012 fire in her belly).

If it comes down to a death struggle between "Mr. Invisible" and Willard Romney, it's hard to know who'll be more crazed -- sane people or right-wingers. After all, no matter how much these giant corporate tools try to hornswoggle the famous Republican base into thinking they're genu-wine nuttier-than-a-pecan-pie wingnuts, is anyone so crazy or stupid not to see that these guys aren't true "believers," but simply the most cynically corrupt whores they've been able to be?

When even someone as demented as well as corrupt as Newt Gingrich finds himself accused -- based on his own words, of course, of being too uncrazy, we've reached a pretty pass. Our pal Al Kamen had some fun at his expense in his Washington Post "In the Loop" column, in an item called "The quotable Mr. Gingrich." "Let Newt be Newt!" he declares, noting: "Conservatives have been throwing more than just glitter at Newt for criticizing Rep. [Paul] Ryan (Wis.), the ideas man of today’s GOP." The rest of the week, of course, Newt spent "humbly apologiz[ing] to Ryan and any other Republican he could find. And he attacked Democrats by saying, 'Any ad which quotes what I said on Sunday is a falsehood,' because he has 'said publicly' he didn’t mean it."

Eventually Al gets more serious.

Maybe his departure from the race is inevitable. Maybe he simply can’t get in step with the new GOP. Liberals always attacked him as a conservative firebrand, but that was overwrought and 20 years ago. (It was long before he made those TV commercials with Nancy Pelosi, when he bought into that climate-change hoax.)

For example, in a lengthy 1989 interview with the magazine of the Ripon Society, a liberal Republican think tank, Gingrich talked about “the classic moderate wing of the party, where, as a former Rockefeller state chairman, I spent most of my life.” Hmm . . .

He credited his then-recent election as GOP whip to a coalition with House moderates such as now-Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine) and said, “I believe in the party of the big tent.” Oh, dear.

He spoke fondly of an active government, of “pragmatism,” and of “the cooperative efforts of Americans -- whether it is building the Transcontinental Railroad, populating the West through the Homestead Act, setting up the Agricultural Agent system” etc.

Ayn Rand might be appalled.

Then there’s this: “The more power there is in a political system, the more the powerful exploit it. New York has ended up a dream world for the poor. It has become a place where Donald Trump manipulates the game.” Funny, they seemed to get along just fine at the White House correspondents dinner.

It gets worse. “What we’ve discovered over the last 20 years,” he said, “is that the world that enriches politicians is the world that enriches a handful of millionaire developers.” Not to mention oil and gas billionaires.

If anyone can stave off the appearance of sanity, it's our Newt, but the craziness may have reached a level where no one really can do it. There must surely be a breeze of caution, if not dread, blowing on T-Paw and Willard. They have an obvious advantage in the kind of cash they have access to. However, you have to wonder if they can make themselves appear cracked enough for the people who determine choose Republican nominees.

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