Looks Like We All Owe Gingrich Aide Rick Tyler an Apology

Back in May, a Gingrich spokesman named Rick Tyler released a statement that has been facetiously referred to as "the greatest statement ever":

The literati sent out their minions to do their bidding. Washington cannot tolerate threats from outsiders who might disrupt their comfortable world. The firefight started when the cowardly sensed weakness. They fired timidly at first, then the sheep not wanting to be dropped from the establishment's cocktail party invite list unloaded their entire clip, firing without taking aim their distortions and falsehoods. Now they are left exposed by their bylines and handles. But surely they had killed him off. This is the way it always worked. A lesser person could not have survived the first few minutes of the onslaught. But out of the billowing smoke and dust of tweets and trivia emerged Gingrich, once again ready to lead those who won't be intimated by the political elite and are ready to take on the challenges America faces.

The statement was roundly criticized for being over-the-top, and it was lampooned by just about everybody. Jon White at Unfinished created this wonderful comic strip adaptation:

And John Lithgow performed a dramatic reading of the Gingrich press release on The Colbert Report (reading starts at 2:20):

That was all very funny at the time. At the time. Well, what did happen in South Carolina? Out of the billowing smoke and dust of tweets and trivia emerged Gingrich, once again ready to lead those who won't be intimidated by the political elite and are ready to take on the challenges America faces!

Now I'm wondering who this political mastermind is. How could he have foreseen such a result? Does he travel through time? Can he get me some winning lottery numbers? And I'm thinking it looks like we all owe him an apology.

Follow me on Twitter.

posted by rdbrewer at 10:58 AM

| Access Comments