For the eleven millionth time, there was a GOP debate last night. If all the punditry is to be believed, the biggest news happened in the first 5 minutes, when Gingrich released a supposedly epic assault on CNN’s John King for bringing up Gingrich’s ex-wife and open marriage request. Sullivan:
Newt’s response to the open marriage is turned into a tour de force against the media. He calls John King’s questions “as close to despicable as I can imagine.” The crowd loves it. The first response as to whether he wanted to talk about it: “No, but I will.”Perfect. Then he rounds on King and gets another standing ovation. I think he may have won the primary tonight with that response. Romney essentially says: me too. Paul attacks media corporations. Santorum squirms. Advantage: Gingrich. But one might recall that Gingrich was the person behind pursuing issues in Bill Clinton’s private life and marital problems. He showed no pity then.
Yes, one might recall that. Josh Marshall:
I think Newt basically won this debate and maybe the primary with the opening fusilade against John King about the Marianne tell-all interview. Shameless, hubris, chutzpah, whatever. It was pitch perfect for his intended audience. He took control of the debate and drew down all the tension about when the debate would turn to the open marriage stuff.
Personally, I really don’t get why everyone is making such a big deal of this exchange. It’s classic Newt. If you don’t want to answer the question, attack the questioner and “the media” for asking such a stupid / inappropriate / whatever question. He’s done that in damn near every debate.
All those pieties about forgiveness with which Newt’s rivals dodged confronting him on this front are just so much Christianist crap. Newt’s ex-wife can forgive him if she will — and his daughters, as they claim to. The rest of us have nothing to forgive because he did us no harm (excepting his Republican colleagues, whose crusade against Clinton he undermined). But at our peril would we forbear to judge his character and fail to recognize him for the treacherous fraud he is.
And finally Shapiro, on Newt:
Thursday night’s four-top GOP debate made it official: The South Carolina primary has become a referendum on Newt Gingrich. Just 10 days after he was left in a dustbin labeled “Yesterday’s Man” after dismal finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire, Gingrich has confounded the experts yet again. The oft-derided and consistently under-estimated House speaker has now bested Jesus in his sheer number of resurrections—an association that can only help as the South Carolina primary vote looms.
The other big news item of the night was Romney’s tax returns. Cohn:
What is in Mitt Romney’s tax returns? I have no idea, but I’m starting to wonder if it’s even more damning than speculation has suggested. Romney’s answers on the tax questions were rambling and unclear, which is remarkable for a candidate who is so intellectually sharp, who prides himself on careful preparation, and who had to know the question was coming. This issue has rattled him, obviously, and I’m eager to find out why.
I happen to think that what a candidate pays in taxes isn’t that important, unless said candidate is is advocating reducing taxes on the wealthy and cutting spending that benefits the not wealthy to cover the cost. In that case, I happen to think the effect that the proposal would have on the candidates taxes is very important.
Sullivan took issue with Sanotrum’s answer on defense:
Santorum issues a disgusting charge that the commander-in-chief chose to slash defense spending because he doesn’t care about veterans. Have there been cuts in the VA? But the depth with which they hate the president is truly striking. Romney’s stark lies about defense spending in the last debate have become more generalized then.
Also, keep in mind that when anyone talks about the President making massive cuts to the pentagon, they are of course lying, as Kevin Drum pointed out back in December:
Prior to the supercommittee’s failure, the defence budget was slated to increase some 23% between 2012 and 2021. Now, according to Veronique de Rugy, the Pentagon will have to make do with a 16% boost…
Sullivan sums it up:
A Gingrich triumph. His only concern must be how well Santorum did tonight. Paul performed well, but remains peripheral to the struggle for the orthodox “conservative” candidate. I think Romney is in serious trouble now, and the bottom fell out tonight. He died with that glib response – “maybe” – to the question of whether he’d follow his father’s example.
It could well be that this could come down to Romney-Gingrich-Paul. That trio is the end of Republican fusionism.
South Carolina votes on Saturday.
520 Chestnut 
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