Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, in an appearance last Sunday morning on NBC’s Meet the Press with David Gregory, called his own political party’s plan for Medicare Reform”right-wing social engineering”.

Denouncing House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan’s plan to reform and restructure Medicare, Gingrich said:

I don’t think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering. I don’t think imposing radical change from the right or the left is a very good way for a free society to operate.

In the same interview, the seemingly-oblivious, newly-announced presidential candidate voiced his support in requiring that all Americans be forced to buy health insurance, basically siding with fellow GOP Elitist Mitt Romney and throwing a money wrench in the Republican Party’s plan to attack Obamacare and the promise to repeal and replace the Unconstitutional law that the Republicans made before the 2010 Midterm Elections.

Doubling down on his cluelessness, Gingrich later told the Wall Street Journal Sunday that he knew that many Republicans are uncomfortable with requiring insurance coverage, but challenged them to offer an alternative solution:

Most Republican voters agree with the principle that people have some responsibility to pay for their costs.

The former speaker went on to say that he wants to see the mandate implemented at the state level, leaving it up to them to experiment with alternative approaches.

According to Gingrich, the individual mandate should apply to all Americans.

Monday, the GOP Elite were scrambling about, like clowns endlessly streaming out of a tiny car in the center ring of Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus, in a feverish attempt at damage control.

Former Education Secretary Bill Bennett, on his syndicated radio program Monday Morning, was torqued off.  Calling Gingrich’s Social Engineering comment, “an unforgivable mistake, in my judgment”, Bennett went on to pronounce judgement on Gingrich that the former Speaker “has taken himself out of serious consideration for the [2012] race.”

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) swung back at Gingrich while appearing on Laura Ingraham’s syndicated radio show with guest host Raymond Arroyo:

With allies like that, who needs the left?

Hardly is that social engineering and radical. What’s radical is kicking the can down the road.

Ryan is considering running for the Senate in Wisconsin. During the interview, he refused to say that Gingrich’s criticism should disqualify him for the GOP presidential nomination:

I’m not going to get into any of that.

Damage control.

Gingrich, a former college professor, was first elected to the House in 1978. In the 1994 midterm elections, he was a figurehead in a Republican campaign that resulted in the party’s first majority in the House in 40 years.

In January 1995, he became the first Republican House speaker since Representative Joe Martin of Massachusetts served in the post from 1953 to 1955.

Then, in 1997, Gingrich received a reprimand by the House and had to pay $300,000 in order to settle claims that he had used tax-exempt organizations for political purposes and had given misleading statements during an investigation.

He announced his resignation from Congress in November 1998 after the House Republicans saw their majority shrink in the second consecutive election.

While Speaker, he was at the forefront of the House’s impeachment hearings of Bill Clinton over the president’s relationship with White House intern, Monica Lewinsky, which resulted in Clinton being acquitted.

News later came out, that while promoting Clinton’s impeachment over marital unfaithfulness, Gingrich was in the middle of having an extramarital affair with a congressional staff member.

The woman in question, Callista Bisek, became his third wife in 2000.

Since then, the two have been inseparable, writing books, working with the Reagan Library, and making television appearances together, seemingly joined at the hip, except for this one memorable moment involving the present (at the time) Speaker of the House, the fraud known as Global Warming, and a couch:

On May 11th, 2011, Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the House during the Reagan Revolution, announced that he was seeking the Republican nomination for Presidency:

I’m Newt Gingrich, and I’m announcing my candidacy for President of the United States because I believe we can return America to hope and opportunity, to full employment, to real security, to an American energy program, to a balanced budget.

…I worked with President Ronald Reagan in a very difficult period. We got jobs created again, Americans proud of America, and the Soviet Union disappeared. He then talks about his tenure as House speaker, pointing to his efforts on welfare, controlling spending, cutting taxes, reducing unemployment and balancing the budget.

…We’ve done it before, we can do it again.

There are some people who don’t mind if America becomes a wreck as long as they dominate the wreckage, but you and I know better.

Today, less than a week after it began, you can stick a fork in Newt Gingrich’s 2012 Presidential Campaign.  It’s done.