Gingrich: Stop being like... me.

Kevin Drum is incredulous:

Newt Gingrich has seen the 1984/Hillary YouTube ad and he doesn't like it:

Oh it's clever....It's the Entertainment Tonight version of governing a great country. And its very dangerous, because we have no habits anymore of serious dialog, we have no habits of serious citizenship. Everything is reduced to gossip, attack, whose consultant is cleverer, and it's really very destructive.

Hold on a second while I pick my jaw off the ground. There. Got it.

Is he serious? Newt "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control" Gingrich is now complaining about partisan attacks? Newt "Contract With America" Gingrich is complaining about consultant-driven politics? Newt "Let's Impeach Bill Clinton Over a Blowjob" Gingrich is complaining about the inability of our political system to solve real problems?

Newt Gingrich practically invented the modern attack-dog style of American politics. He is its patron saint and its most talented practitioner. But now that Democrats have won back control of Congress and seem likely to win back the presidency as well, he's seen the light. The Gingrichification of politics has to stop.

Wow. Just wow. But I will say this: Newt Gingrich might well be the only person on the planet with the chutzpah to pull this off. In its own way, it's impressive. But then, so was Joe McCarthy. In his own way.