Newt’s Campaign Is Broke And Staying That Way

Please wish our little jewelry-debt piglet a fond and prolonged farewell, Wonketteers. Used to be that a satchel of Austrian Philharmonikers, the kind sold on Fox to unwitting olds, would appear by magick on Newt’s doorstep every morning, like clockwork. Newt would then exchange these coins for goods and services — often campaign-related! — in furtherance of his (more or less) “historical novel” and home-pressed CD-ROM empire. Generally speaking, average, everyday Joe Six-Packs usually cannot afford to throw cash into an open sewer to watch a talking face mintz on stage, playing pretend with Wolf Blitzer. So Newt has had to rely on the indulgence of wealthy eccentrics for his daily sack of moneys. Unfortunately, losing every electoral contest in every conceivable way may have finally worn out the unearned generosity to which Newt has become accustomed.

Bloomberg News manfully inspected all of the candidates’ financial filings:

Gingrich and Winning Our Future, an outside political action committee supporting him, are almost silent on television airwaves, offering free water and coffee at events, and revamping a fundraising strategy based largely on the support of a single wealthy backer, Sheldon Adelson, and the Las Vegas casino owner’s family.

[...]

For now, the Adelsons don’t plan to deliver another big check to float Gingrich’s campaign, according to a person familiar with their deliberations. The family has donated a combined $11 million to Gingrich’s super-PAC in the past two months, according to interviews and Federal Election Commission records.

This means that right now, on the teevee, Gingrich is being outspent about 10-to-1 by Mitt Romney’s rival super-PAC Restore Our Future. Things are looking so down for Newt, in fact, that even a practical non-personage like Tim Pawlenty feels loosed enough to join the pile-on:

Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, who dropped out of the primary on Aug. 14 and now backs Romney, said in a Feb 6 MSNBC interview that he hopes Adelson will “shut off the spigot on Newt Gingrich’s super-PAC.”

Paradoxically enough, that comment should provoke enough bile to keep Newt in the race for another 40 or so states. [Bloomberg]