Newt news: Rush, a blogger endorsement, Pelosi, and Nixon

There is quite a bit of Newt Gingrich news this morning. Yesterday, Rush Limbaugh praised the former House Speaker.

Who was the last person to actually cut government? Who was the last person who actually led a movement that balanced the federal budget? Who was the person that did that? (humming Jeopardy! theme) You're not gonna take a guess? (interruption) That's right, it was Mr. Newt. He was the last guy who gave us a balanced budget. Now, there are a lot of other Republicans involved -- Kasich was key and a lot of others -- but Gingrich was speaker. The last time this budget was balanced, the last time there was true welfare reform, the last time government was cut, Gingrich did it. Who is number one enemy of everybody today?

That of course would be Newt.

John Hawkins of Right Wing News, a solid conservative, endorsed Gingrich on Monday.

In Tea Party news, according to Gallup, 82 percent of voters view Gingrich as "acceptable" to them, while just 58 percent have the same view of Mitt Romney.

And finally, another former House Speaker, ultra-liberal Democrat Nancy Pelosi, alluded that she has an ethical bomb that will release about Gingrich "when the time's right." Gingrich called Pelosi's threat "an early Christmas" gift, because release of secret documents from House ethics investigations is a violation of the lower chamber's rules.

This situation reminds me of Richard M. Nixon's "secret plan" to win the Vietnam War that he touted while running for president in 1968. Skeptics derided "Tricky Dicky" at the time in two ways. Some said if Nixon was a patriot, he should immediately give that plan to President Lyndon B. Johnson; or that Nixon was bluffing---there was no victory road map. The last one of course turned about to be true.

So is Pelosi bluffing as Nixon was? Perhaps, since one of her staffers said that Pelosi was referring to records on Gingrich that are already available online. Of the 84 1990s ethics charges against Gingrich, all but one was dropped. If Pelosi really has "the goods" on Gingrich, she should be the patriot Nixon couldn't be and release her "secret plan" on him now.

Technorati tags: politics newt gingrich government republicans pelosi tea party history richard nixon