Newt Gingrich as a possible presidential candidate.

In a good column on Newt Gingrich, Bill Shipp writes:

Newt Gingrich has been looking for a new place in the sun ever since he exited Congress in semi-disgrace in 1998.

The former House speaker and congressman from Georgia may have found his latest calling. He could become the Great Healer of Washington's Moral Sickness - the anti-DeLay, anti-Abramoff Republican who could once again haul the GOP out of a ditch.

Gingrich could handle his new position best if he held public office. Some pundits mention Gingrich as a possible presidential candidate. That is absurd.

On the other hand, the presidential idea seems not quite so nutty since the Newtster publicly and vehemently staked out a national position against wholesale (or was it retail?) corruption in Congress. Gingrich was the first Republican big fish to dare to declare that accused crook Tom DeLay of Texas ought to quit as House majority leader.

I think Gingrich likes to think about himself becoming a presidential contender in 2008, and this is at least part of what he has been up to as of late. And it is not out of the question that this could happen.