Newt Gingrich Is Not Allowed In the Republican Party Anymore

• Uh oh, you guys, a Republican presidential candidate Said a Thing Yesterday, and considering there was no higher profile candidate to trump (PUN?!) his thing, Newt Gingrich is your official Monday morning Guy Who Said a Thing Yesterday. On Meet the Press (which confirms that this happened Sunday, because if it's Sunday), criticized the Republican Party in Congress for coming up with actual policy for once (Paul Ryan's Budget of Wonder), calling the Medicare cuts "right-wing social engineering." Uh, okay! We guess he is officially kicked out of the Republican Party, for criticizing it. That is usually what happens when people criticize their own party right? Or are we just trapped blogging about politics even though 99% OF POLITICS IS ABOUT NOTHING AT ALL HAPPENING? [ WSJ ]

• Gabrielle Giffords' husband Mark Kelly and his friends scooted off in their spaceship this morning. Hopefully he will find just the cutest little satellite out there he can bring home for her, and hopefully he won't be visited by the ghosts of the early Apollo astronauts out there, who are understandably PRETTY ANGRY at the U.S. for making their spaceship out of paper, which is, surprisingly, flammable. Anyway, hooray these current guys are out in space and safe, and Giffords got to see it. [ NYT ]

• Partisan news outlets such as Talking Points Memo would like you to know that a high school person sent a letter to famous person Michele Bachmann. This is something teens do when they aren't shooting drugs into each other's sex organs! But all the partisan readers out there are supposed to laugh at this, or something? We don't get it. [ TPM ]