April 25, 2012 09:06 PM UTC

Buh-Bye, Newt Gingrich

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

CNN reports anticlimactically:

While details are still being worked out, Gingrich is likely to hold his final campaign event Tuesday in Washington, DC where he will make the announcement surrounded by his family and supporters.

It is not surprising that Gingrich is suspending his campaign for the White House as he has all but acknowledged it is winding down and Romney is the presumptive GOP nominee.

“When he says he is transitioning, what he means is that he is trying to determine as a citizen how he will pro-actively help Mitt Romney become president and the Republican Party win back the Senate and help (House Speaker) John Boehner keep his majority in the House,” said one of the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

We would argue that Newt Gingrich already accomplished his biggest task “pro-actively helping Mitt Romney become president” by serving as Rick Santorum’s spoiler during the entire time Santorum was a threat to Romney. So many states in this primary season where Gingrich and Santorum split the vote against Romney, not to mention the rebellious anti-Romney contingent of the Colorado Republican delegation to the party convention in August–a rebellion that didn’t include Gingrich–serve as evidence that such a scheme was very much necessary.

On the other hand, it was closer to “the bitter end” than Santorum managed, even if the last few weeks were more vanity campaign than real effort. Gingrich is a sucker for vanity.