December 8, 2003 - Andy Card has his hands full this morning trying to spin away the opinions of the newest America-hating, Saddam-loving critic of the Bush policy in Iraq . Has Newt Gingrich been reincarnated as a (shudder) liberal? Not really, after all he is out on the stump trying to sell the idea that Bush's Medicare bill really favors older American's when it makes it illegal for them to buy insurance to cover the cost of their medicine. But, unlike the conservatives marching in lockstep into the swamp, Newt has his eyes open, takes the trouble to see, and does not like what he is seeing.

Newt told a national audience yesterday that America is falling off a cliff in Iraq ; that it has not learned the lessons of Vietnam and is repeating the follies of that conflict. Is Gingrich, a member of the Defense Policy Board and a Senior Fellow of the American Enterprise Institute, a deserter in the war against Democrats? No, but he has enlisted in the growing army of those whose eyes are opening wider with each bodybag that lands at Dover . He has even coined a new meaning for the acronym "CPA" - "Can't produce anything".

"Well, Newt Gingrich is not all-knowing, and I'm sure he has opinions, and he's always expressed them. But I can tell you from the perspective of the generals who are on the ground and Ambassador Bremer, who is running the Provisional Authority over there things are going better than they could have been expected to go at this time, and we're making great progress.", was Card's weak rejoinder. It won't be long before clips of Newt's comments show up along with the Mission Accomplished footage in Democrat campaign ads.

Newt may be a political Neanderthal, his record in the house demonstrates that he is, but his does recognize the difference between bring democracy to an oppressed people and imposing a colonial occupation upon a nation. For all of Mr. Gingrich's failings, and those are not inconsiderable, a lack of the courage to speak his mind clearly has never been among them. Sometimes political courage is catching. Newt's remarks on Meet The Press and his interview in Newsweek are likely to open the mouths of Republicans whose doubts about the Bush Administration's conduct of the Iraqi occupation have previously been self-censored.

If it happens it will be good for America - and if it is effective in convincing the President to alter his course, then it will be good for Iraq and the world.