Newt 'Having a Ball' Bashing Bailout

Newt Gingrich is back, and once again, he’s giving grief to a president named Bush. Gingrich rose to prominence, you’ll recall, by raking the elder Bush over the coals over an oil tax proposal. Now, after a few years in the wilderness, he’s loudly calling for a conservative insurrection against Bush II’s bailout plan, and, in his own words, “having a ball” doing it.

It’s a moment made for Gingrich, who “brings a clarity of mind and simplicity of action that is a tonic to a Republican Party that seems uncertain of its core principles,” writes Eleanor Clift in Newsweek. By taking a staunchly populist stance against the bill, Gingrich thinks he—and, oh yeah, McCain—can remake the party and “persuade voters to forget the last 8 years.” (More Newt Gingrich stories.)