Newt Gingrich has officially suspended his presidential campaign, and, alas, his hilarious fake online alter-egos will dutifully follow him into the abyss.
The blog "Newt Judges You," which features scores of pictures of Gingrich condescendingly glaring down the world around him, will stop posting new photos, Yahoo News has learned. Each shot included pitch-perfect tag lines that let readers into Gingrich's head during his finest moments of judgement. Meanwhile, the Twitter account @GingrichIdeas announced Wednesday it would send out the final tweets of its life in the aftermath of Gingrich's campaign. (Some of the best included, "Fake my own death and move into the National Zoo Panda House," "Lecture Cuba to freedom" and "Stick a bunch of computer screens all over the walls to make things look more futuristic.")
While the sites will remain online as a monument of satire to Gingrich's presidential ambitions, the stream of brilliance will cease.
"Newt Judges You will respect the decision to suspend the real world campaign, and so it too will suspend activity til such time as it is once again needed on the field of battle, in this galaxy or the next," Ben Domenech, editor of "Newt Judges You" told Yahoo News after the real Gingrich ended to his campaign Wednesday. "He judges everything and everyone he meets, and it was a joy to decipher his internal monologue during such a ridiculous primary cycle, and through so many fun zoo trips. He does love those animals so very much, and he hates stupid people even more."
Domenech, who used the blog to turn Gingrich into a mythlike character, started by posting pictures from the many Gingrich books he owned. When the blog's popularity caught on and he ran out of book photos, Domenech hit the Web, which provided a treasure trove of material from Newt's decades in public life.
No one was safe from Gingrich's wrath: He judged fellow politicians, voters, journalists (including this one—twice), and even zoo animals. One time, when Domenech posted a picture of Gingrich judging a newsman, the mother of the reporter's girlfriend wrote to him worried it was real.
At one point, even the Gingrich campaign aides got into the act. Staffers would send Domenech their favorite Gingrich photos and offer ideas for captions. Near the end of the campaign, they showed Gingrich the site, and as the story goes, he nearly died laughing. The staffers took a picture of Gingrich reading the site, which Domenech promptly posted.
Domenech, who edits "The Transom," a conservative morning newsletter, said he doesn't envision Gingrich going away for long.
"For those in the Republican Party who would rather Gingrich shuffle quietly back into Beltway existence, I expect he'll be back slinging jabs and judging stupidity before you know it," he said. "Gingrich has always been gracious to me personally and a great sport about humor. I wish him and Callista the best."
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