Hey, Newt, What Establishment?

The Republican Establishment lives at a fixed address in Washington, D.C. It attends the Alfalfa Club dinner each year, lunches at the Cosmos Club, and above all holds fiercely to the notion that it should have the power to decide. Sometime in December, the Establishment deemed Newt Gingrich a threat to its chosen candidate, Mitt Romney, and so it has risen up to strike Newt down.

This is the narrative Gingrich is pushing to account for his faltering campaign, and to make sense of his Florida wipeout. It’s a more flattering explanation than the alternative, which is that many Republicans—including a sizable number who worked with him in Congress—don’t seem to think he would make a good President. It’s an easy story to pen, which is why so many reporters and television talkers have latched onto it. Like most theories that hint at conspiracy, it seems to prove itself: Why else would party elders, including George H.W. Bush, Bob Dole, and John McCain, come forward to undermine him?