Perry to endorse; ABC guns for Newt with 'news' dating a decade in past

Never let it be said Republicans are boring.

News is coming in so rapidly it’s hard to keep up.

For starters, former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s campaign is having the same problem I’m having.

Developments on Thursday morning show:

• Texas Governor Rick Perry is dropping out of the race. Numerous media outlets, including Fox News, say Perry will endorse Newt Gingrich.
• Newt 2012 announced that 100 Tea Party leaders from 25 states have formed the coalition ‘Tea Partiers with Newt.’ The group, said Tamara Colbert, co-founder of TeaPAC, will “work together to give the Gingrich campaign a boost leading up to the SC Primary.” Until now, there haven’t been official endorsements from sizable Tea Party coalitions.
• The Newt Gingrich Tea Party Coalition, said the campaign, “believes that Gingirch has a pro-growth strategy…directly aligned with objectives of the Tea Party such as balancing the federal budget, repealing ObamaCare and eliminating dependence on foreign oil.

Meanwhile ABC News will air an interview with Gingrich’s ex-wife Marianne on Thursday night on the program ‘Nightline.’ Snippets of the interview suggest a repeat of claims the woman has made in interviews with print publications. Whether ABC will ask Marianne how she feels about the part she played in the destruction of Gingrich’s marriage remains unknown.

Gingrich and Marianne divorced more than a decade ago. Gingrich’s daughters issued a very graceful statement, refraining from negative comments about the woman whose actions certainly must have been an unpleasant memory for them:

"ABC News or other campaigns may want to talk about the past, just days before an important primary election. But Newt is going to talk to the people of South Carolina about the future- about job creation, lower taxes, and about who can defeat Barack Obama by providing the sharpest contrast to his damaging, extreme liberalism. We are confident this is the conversation the people of South Carolina are interested in having."

Most major traditional media are considered leftist by conservatives. It’s one thing to interview an ex-wife from a long ago past. It’s another to air it on the eve of a key primary--a fairly obvious move to exert influence on the outcome.

(Commentary by Kay B. Day/Jan. 19, 2012)