Newt Unleashed

Don't make him angry. You wouldn't like him when he's angry.

Dismissing the GOP presidential field as a "pathetic bunch" of "pygmies," Newt Gingrich hinted Monday he might step in to beat Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

(snip) Gingrich mocked Republican presidential candidates for subjecting themselves to a May debate hosted by Chris Matthews of MSNBC's "Hardball."

"You're watching an utterly irrelevant, shallow television celebrity dominate everybody who claimed they want to lead the most powerful nation in the world," he said.

Gingrich ridiculed "the idea of 10 or 11 people standing passively at microphones," and said he refused to "shrink to the level of 40-second answers, standing like a trained seal, waiting for someone to throw me a fish."

Newt's problem is that he's probably too smart for the job. As for trained seals, maybe they ought to run for Congress. That's where the real circus is.