The newt, or salamander, is noted for several fascinating
features. Many newts have a capacity known as autotomy, allowing it
to distract predators by dropping a limb which wriggles and calls
attention to itself while the main part of the organism escapes
notice by holding perfectly still. Even the ones that cannot
voluntarily shed body parts are able to regenerate them when they
have been lost through attack or attrition.
The newt uses its colorful vision to locate targets for
its own foraging. Few creatures are endowed with this degree of
trichromatic vision. Although the newt can spend periods of time
underground, resting its eyes, when it reappears on the horizon it
takes in the scene quickly. When the newt is ready to pounce, it
strikes with its tongue. The only weakness the newt has is in
hearing, because it lacks an outer ear.
The newt has long been a symbol for rebirth, due to its
abovementioned ability to fashion new organs to replace lost ones.
Mythologically, the newt has been described as a creature that is
created from the flames. This probably comes from the fact that
when rotting logs catch on fire, the newt is often seen scrambling
out from its hiding place. In any case, this notion of emerging
intact from the inferno has increased its panache as one that can
survive — perhaps even thrive upon — adversity.
ALL OF THIS BRINGS us to the present pass in the
Republican presidential primary race. Out of the flames of several
downfalls and setbacks in his earlier political incarnations, Newt
Gingrich has taken a
commanding lead in the polls. He has been highly effective in
the debate format that has served as the main educational forum for
potential voters to learn about the candidates.
After the boisterous Bachmann boomlet bottomed and the
populous Perry parade plotzed and the clamorous Cain crest crashed,
the evergreen Romney has still failed to ignite the passion of the
Republican primary voter. Instead of the thrice-burned
thrill-seekers wearing a Mitt to avoid the flames, they have turned
instead to the newly reconstituted Newt. In my own state of
Florida, Gingrich leads Romney by as much as 48-25
according to the Miami Herald.
Suddenly, a huge fratricidal sortie is
launched against Newt by former Senator Jim Talent and other
Republicans who hasten to announce that he should not be deemed as
a capable and trusted conservative leader. How could a brother be
so perfidious? They explain off the record that they have no choice
but to leap into the fray to save the voters from their own folly,
since Newt is unelectable as President.
To tell the truth, Newt was indeed unelectable for the
last decade or more, but that is no longer the case. There was only
one possible scenario for him to make this big a comeback and that
very tableau has in fact materialized.
The best parallel would be the career of Ariel Sharon. I
lived in Israel from 1989 through mid-1994, and there was not a
single citizen in the country who thought that Sharon could ever be
a candidate for Prime Minister. He was seen as too much of an
ideologue; when that was combined with various personal scandals,
accusations of accessory to genocide, and being the most
universally hated figure within the European Left, he had four
strikes against him at the very least. He had a power base in the
Likud Party, so he could always wangle himself a ministry when they
were in power, usually the most irrelevant and unobtrusive one
available.
But the assassination of Rabin against the backdrop of
Arafat blowing up the Oslo Accords meant that Israelis were going
to put aside all the personalities, the peccadilloes, the
peculiarities, the pet peeves and the politics, in favor of one
focused expression of confidence in principle and policy and
perceptiveness and powerfulness. The debate over whether Sharon
lived up to those qualities has been suspended out of respect for
his coma, now ending its sixth year, but win he did and lead he
did.
The United States of America is now at the same sort of
crossroads. People are walking around with a tangible sense that
this country is about to crack, that we may never see prosperity
again and that our security will shortly be compromised by our
ever-increasing indebtedness. The sitting President strides
blithely forward into the abyss, beckoning us to follow him
down.
The other day we were treated to the spectacle of him
standing in his mother’s home state of Kansas and inveighing
against small government and individualism as a failed experiment
in history… even as Europe, bastion of big government and
socialism, crumbles before our eyes. If he fiddles as America
burns, can Newt emerge victorious from the flames? Yes, Newt
can!
Full Disclosure: Newt Gingrich’s daughter, Kathy
Lubbers, represents me as a literary agent in trying to sell my
novel, Private Ernest Taylor.
