My friend Dave Weigel over at Slate has a terrific post on the latest excuse coming from Newt Gingrich’s camp: it’s all his wife’s fault. 



If I want to hire one of the 16-plus people quitting the Newt campaign, the anonymity’s annoying — I really want to know which guys, when faced with a problem, portray the candidate as the whipped plaything of a shrew. Come on, this spin isn’t even new. It’s what we were supposed to believe about the somnolent collapse of Fred Thompson’s campaign. Jeri Thompson was brilliant, until her husband sleepwalked through his campaign, at which point Jeri became the problem. It’s an amazing coincidence. 


I don’t buy the idea that Gingrich was struggling with donors because his wife wanted him to take it easy in the past two weeks. Why not? Because as Jon Ward reported, Gingrich started losing donors and bundlers right after his disastrous Meet the Press interview. Yes, my understanding from talking to Gingrichland is that no one was happy about the cruise. Why blame the decision on Callista Gingrich, spin that implies that your candidate is a lovesick, irrational beta male? Why keep it a secret until Ben Smith finds it in a message board? Was that Callista’s fault, too? 


Come on, failed strategists. This story was fresh when Eve was at the tree of knowledge, but it’s getting kind of stale. 


Well said!