Conservative pundits turn down Newt

By: Alexander Burns
Politico.com
December 9, 2011 10:42 AM EST

The conservative opinion elite has reached a consensus on Newt Gingrich: He’s not the one they’ve been waiting for.

In the days since Gingrich leaped to the forefront of the Republican presidential race, the nation’s most prominent right-leaning commentators — many of whom have spent the last year pining for alternatives to Mitt Romney — have rendered a swift and caustic judgment on their party’s latest out-of-right-field challenger.

In columns dripping with disdain, they’ve argued that Gingrich isn’t just undesirable as an opponent for Romney — he’s probably not fit for the presidency altogether.

“He has every negative character trait that conservatives associate with ’60s excess: narcissism, self-righteousness, self-indulgence and intemperance. He just has those traits in Republican form,” New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote Friday. “It doesn’t matter if a person shares your overall philosophy. If that person doesn’t have the right temperament and character, stay away.”

(More here.)