First, it was Rick Perry; then it was Herman Cain; now it's Newt Gingrich leading the pack of wild, wooly, and crazy GOP Presidential hopefuls.  It remains to be seen if he's another "flash in the pan", setting up Mitt Romney as the eventual winner.

Cowboy Perry, with his "Howdy, folks" Southin' accent, got bucked off early when he couldn't figure out that he was supposed to have a brain under his perfectly coiffed hairdo.

 Of course, Texas A & M professors, his alma-mater, figured it out long ago when they flunked him out of veterinary school and he was forced to take "basket weaving" with the jocks just to get up to an "impressive 2.2 average to graduate.

Good-lookin', yes!  Smart, 'fraid not!   Which explains exactly why he got elected three times as governor of Texas!

Then along comes smooth-talkin' Cain, with his crazy 9-9-9 plan, which would NEVER have worked nor even been passed.  A lot of people bought into it though, the result being that he surged to the lead.

Then these "poor, misguided" women began crawling out of the woodwork, daring to claim that Cain did indeed have a brain, but it was at the wrong end of his pants.  Plus, it kept sending his hands in all the "wrong" places. Herm denied it all, of course. 

All people could think about, however, was that stain on a dress that brought down ol' Bill after he vehemently denied everything also.

So, it was back to slinging pizza for Cain and dodging poisonous breadsticks from his wife.

Emerge Newt, who's been quietly standing at the debates, not criticizing, just answering his questions.  He's been there, done that already!

One slight problem--he's also been sanctioned for lying about his tax records, for writing hot checks, and for general bad behavior with several women!!  He didn't just cheat on his first wife while she was being treated for cancer, he also cheated on his second wife with his current spouse.

But, here's the caveat!  He's confessed all his sins.  Southern Christians may hate sin, but they just LOVE a sinner, especially one who confesses, says he's sorry and has learned his lesson.

Heck, he's even converted to Catholicism, which means he has to pop into that confessional booth on a regular basis to keep confessin' and confessin' and confessin'!  Maybe Herm should have thought of that.  Too late now, though.

If that weren't enough, he's a good ol' Georgia boy, he has a PH.d, and he's had experience in politics. Now, the GOP is thinking that A good' ol' boy from Georgia, even a lyin', crooked one, has got to better than an exotic from some island out in the Pacific who is a good family man! He even has some ideas.

And Gingrich does indeed have some big ideas; unfortunately, they're all bad ones.   Whereas Cain wanted 9-9-9, Gingrich wants a "two of everything" model for health care and Social Security, for example.

Heck, we can't afford ONE of anything!  How can we possibly afford two?  Right now, though, he's the Prince of Tides; but the tides have certainly ebbed and flowed for the GOP hopefuls, and they may yet again.