Saving Enough Face

It is said of brilliant visionaries that when they are right - which is the vast majority of the time - they are way out in front of where everybody else eventually ends up, which is what makes them superlative leaders and statesmen.  The classic historical example is Winston Churchill, who fully recognized the existential threat of Adolph Hitler and Nazi Germany from the mid-1930s and was the "voice in the wilderness" during the long, barren appeasement years, only being vindicated when Britain and the Western world were on the doorstep of oblivion.

But...on the rare occasions when brilliant visionaries are wrong, they are hideously wrong and hideboundedly stubborn about admitting in.  Churchill's example was his steadfastly muleheaded refusal to let India go, resulting in its partition into Hindu and Islamic (Pakistan) states.

I don't think anybody would put Newt Gingrich quite in Winston Churchill's league, but he has been at his best in the GOP not as a leader (witness his turbulent, star-crossed Speakership) but as party ideologist and philosopher.  His American Solutions organization is a lifeline of ideas to a party all too often not just bereft of, but actively resistant to them.

But....when Newt is wrong, Newt tends to be VERY wrong (witness his baffling partnerships with Al Sharpton and Crazy Nancy Pelosi), and obstinate about admitting it.  So it has been with his jumping out in front to back the DIABLO candidate in NY-23, Dede "The Blob" Scazzafava and staying there past the point where not only are hordes of 'Pubbies not lining up behind him, but even the few Blob stragglers there were are finally heeding the handwriting on the wall:

The House Republican leadership is prepared to welcome Doug Hoffman into its ranks, National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas) said Thursday, a sign that the GOP establishment is recalibrating its approach toward the contentious New York special election and the Conservative Party nominee whose candidacy has divided the party.

“He would be very welcome, with open arms,” Sessions told POLITICO in an interview off the House floor…

On Thursday afternoon, Sessions appeared to tacitly acknowledge that Hoffman may represent the GOP’s best chance to keep the Republican-held seat from being picked up by a Democrat.

“I think it’s pretty clear that a person who would vote for John Boehner, support tax cuts, support growing our economy, and defeat Nancy Pelosi’s tax and spend agenda will be really welcome in our conference, and I think having a person who can win that district off that message would be really good for the Republican Party,” Sessions said.

As opposed to the person who might vote for John Boehner, opposes tax cuts, was a, er, huge fan of Hogzilla, and embraces abortion on demand, gay marriage, card check, and most of the rest of Nancy Pelosi's tax & spend agenda that Sessions was flacking for just days or even hours before - and for which Mr. Newt's ego still is.

Lest there be any doubt on this point, the NRCC made it (implicitly) official:

The NRCC tells me directly that they are only spending money on anti-Owens ads. The anti-Hoffman YouTube? Gone. The anti-Hoffman press releases? Gone. The anti-Hoffman everything else? Gone.

The pro-Dede Scozzafava stuff? Gone too.

The RNC ground crews? They are pulling out to New Jersey.

True, this isn't a full about-face towards Hoffman.  More like a recognition of reality and their (equally implicit) estimation that the Conservative (and should have been Republican) Party candidate is going to win.  While the NRCC doubtless doesn't want to encourage a "deluge of independent challenges next year" (which I tend to agree with Limbaugh is overblown paranoia), they'd also look pretty foolish if they rode The Blob all the way to the ground and then had to turn around and seat the guy that should have been nominated in her place.  Heck, they look pretty foolish already for not having dropped Dede a week ago.  It's almost like they have no....vision.

Exit question: Will Mr. Newt ever regain his?