With all the madness and childish incomprehensibility that has defined the Republican presidential nomination race thus far, it should have been accepted as inevitable that Newt Gingrich would one day attain front-runner status.

Today, we have entered into this disturbing reality:

The Republican presidential race is being shaken up again, with Mitt Romney retaking the lead, Newt Gingrich surging into second place, and Herman Cain dropping to third place, according to a new McClatchy-Marist poll released Friday.

[...]

The breakdown of the poll:

— Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, 23 percent;

—Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, 19 percent;

—Cain, the former restaurant executive, 17 percent;

—Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, 10 percent

In previous posts, I have alluded to the fact that 1115.org does not consider Gingrich to be a real candidate. The justification for this, mainly, was that his raised profile as a “candidate” gave him free media exposure to promote his 20+ books. With coordinated book signings and screenings of his new documentary along the “campaign trail,” it was evident that he was in the race for personal financial enrichment. Another reason we could not take him seriously was because of the lack of maturity he had when it came to his finances – whether it was racking up $500,000 in debt at Tiffany & Co. or running up a campaign finance debt of $1.1 million.

For a man who dishonored our country by leading the charge to impeach President Bill Clinton for adultery while he himself was similarly having an extra-marital affair, the nations highest office would seem untouchable. Gingrich’s hypocrisy score, one could say, is even higher than Mitt Romney’s.

Republican politicians have consistently argued that the number one priority of their party is to defeat Barack Obama. The question now is whether they will try to do that with the shame of nominating an egocentric and self-serving prick.