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" Newt should stay in the race, doing exactly what he&amp;#039;s doing, for as long as he wants to do it. At a Baptist church in Winter Park, Florida, N. Leroy Gingrich, Definer of Civilization&amp;#039;s Rules and Leader (Perhaps) of the Civilizing Forces, gave a speech this past Saturday so spectacularly vile, so toweringly ignorant, and so utterly detached from any recognizable reality that it ought to disqualify him as a public figure worthy of serious consideration from now until John Edwards&amp;#039;s great-grandchildren are banging their campaign videographers. Gingrich stated his opposition to all forms of embryonic stem-cell research, calling for a re-instatement of a ban that was lifted by the Obama administration. He also expressed some doubts about certain practices involved in in vitro fertilization. So far, so wingnut. It doesn&amp;#039;t matter that this runs somewhat contrary to the Mr. Wizard persona Gingrich occasionally likes to affect, especially on the subject of &amp;quot;brain science.&amp;quot; So far, so Newt. It doesn&amp;#039;t even really matter that this is clearly a reversal of a position that Gingrich held as recently as 2006. So far, so campaign. But what sent the speech spiraling into an intellectual no-fly zone was the motive ascribed by Gingrich to the scientists who developed, and who currently practice, stem-cell research. In working with stem-cells, Gingrich said, these scientists were enabling &amp;quot;the use of science to desensitize society over the killing of babies.&amp;quot; Breathtaking. You could argue that stem-cell research represents hubristic overreach on the part of the scientists. You could argue that those scientists are fundamentally amoral and that they are only in it for the pot of gold that waits for whoever finds a way to use stem cells to cure some horrendous disease. You could argue that you have come to oppose such research after long and prayerful consideration once you were no longer governor of a state that depends so vitally on bio-tech dollars and have only to give long and prayerful consideration to the question, &amp;quot;How will this play among the rubes in Florida?&amp;quot; (That would be Willard Romney&amp;#039;s position.) You could argue that you are opposed to it simply because every fertilized embryo is sacred. Period. (Hi, Rick Santorum!) You could argue any one of those. I would not agree with you, but I would not feel compelled to call the Nervous Hospital and have you picked up, either. But consider, for a moment, what Gingrich said. He accused these scientists not of hubris or cupidity, and he did not accuse them of idly casting aside the philosophical considerations of their work. He is saying that these scientists, and their work, are deliberately engaged in a campaign to make the &amp;quot;killing of babies&amp;quot; easier in American society, that their grand design is not fame and fortune, nor ridding the world of terrible illness, but, rather, that they are in service to a dark agenda to turn America into some kind of futuristic child-killing dystopia. I&amp;#039;m sorry, but this is just nuts. I mean, I&amp;#039;ve heard the argument that climate scientists have invented the &amp;quot;hoax&amp;quot; of global climate change in order to get rich, but that&amp;#039;s a nursery rhyme compared to what Gingrich is dealing out here. Tell me again that Ron Paul is the crackpot in this race. Over the past couple of days, Gingrich has been haring chaotically all over Florida, his attacks on Willard Romney becoming more and more virulent. (Not that there&amp;#039;s anything wrong with that.) Just yesterday, he ripped Romney for once vetoing funds that would have been used to provide kosher meals to Jewish nursing-home residents in Massachusetts (Really, Willard? What a putz.) and for not allowing Catholic hospitals the &amp;quot;conscience&amp;quot; parachute to deny rape victims emergency contraception. These actions, said Gingrich, evinced &amp;quot;a lack of concern for religious liberty.&amp;quot; (Translation: mormonmormonmormonmormon....) The spokesman for the Gingrich super-PAC called Romney &amp;quot;a disgraceful and despicable candidate,&amp;quot; which at least proves that the spokesman has learned well from the master. This is the loud, clattering end of the Gingrich style in American politics \u2014 a technique of attack politics in which you can say almost anything about almost anyone today, and it doesn&amp;#039;t matter if you said something different yesterday, and it doesn&amp;#039;t matter if you are stone guilty of exactly the same thing of which you are accusing the other person, and it doesn&amp;#039;t matter if what you&amp;#039;re saying is even remotely tethered to the truth. All that matters is that you are saying it. Today. With all the contemptuous brio you can muster. This is what Newt Gingrich taught a generation of Republican politicians. This is what was behind the memo that Gingrich&amp;#039;s old GOPAC put together entitled, &amp;quot;Language: A Key Mechanism of Control.&amp;quot;  These are powerful words that can create a clear and easily understood contrast. Apply these to the opponent, their record, proposals and their party. decay... failure (fail)... collapse(ing)... deeper... crisis... urgent(cy)... destructive... destroy... sick... pathetic... lie... liberal... they/them... unionized bureaucracy... &amp;quot;compassion&amp;quot; is not enough... betray... consequences... limit(s)... shallow... traitors... sensationalists...endanger... coercion... hypocrisy... radical... threaten... devour... waste... corruption... incompetent... permissive attitudes... destructive... impose... self-serving... greed... ideological... insecure... anti-(issue): flag, family, child, jobs... pessimistic... excuses... intolerant...stagnation... welfare... corrupt... selfish... insensitive... status quo... mandate(s)... taxes... spend(ing)... shame... disgrace... punish (poor...)... bizarre... cynicism... cheat... steal... abuse of power... machine... bosses... obsolete... criminal rights... red tape... patronage... What you have there is a kind of MadLibs of rhetorical vituperation. Mix and match. Collect &amp;#039;em all. Throw enough of them at your opponent and some of them have to stick. This is the ur-document of Newt Gingrich&amp;#039;s entire political career. Now, with his presidential campaign in crisis, it shouldn&amp;#039;t be any surprise that he&amp;#039;s gone back to the place from which he gained not only personal success, but wild acclaim as the savior of a Republican party that now finds him a nuisance who should go away. And why should he? So the party can coalesce behind a frontrunner who half the party wishes would die in a fire? So reporters will no longer be inconvenienced by campaigns and actual voters? So the rest of us can be subjected to eight months of coverage that attempts to rehabilitate Willard Romney into some kind of simulacrum of a national leader?  Newt Gingrich should stay in the race, doing exactly what he&amp;#039;s doing, for as long as he wants to do it. If he wants to show up in Tampa come August to hurl invective at the walls of the convention center, he should do precisely that. And I am not saying this entirely because I know such a development will be wonderful theater and will drive Willard Romney batty. I am saying it because, for over 20 years, I have watched the Republican party embrace Gingrichism. I have watched it profit politically for having done so. I have watched it become coarser, more ignorant, and more vicious perhaps than any national political party has been since the days when actual fistfights broke out around the hard-cider barrel in the town square. I have watched it adopt retrograde policies that have damaged the country. All of these are products of the politics created and practiced by Newt Gingrich. If we are now at the gotterdammerung of that age, then, goddammmit, let Newt Gingrich be its agent. It&amp;#039;s only just. 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<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a12571/newt-gingrich-attacks-romney-6649081/>