No Shortage of Material for Gingrich Vetters

By Jackie Koszczuk // November 14, 2011 | 2:33 p.m.
Updated: November 14, 2011 | 3:28 p.m.

Republican presidential candidate and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks to supprters at a kick-off party for the opening of the Newt2012 office in Manchester, N.H. Friday, Nov. 11, 2011. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson) (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

Now along comes Newt Gingrich, the latest Republican to rise to the top of the polls after convincing a sufficient number of voters that he is not and never has been Mitt Romney. The vetting begins immediately of course, with every aspect of Gingrich's personal, professional and political background getting a serious look from journalists, bloggers and opposition researchers. And let's face it, it will be an embarrassment of riches.

Let's set aside for now Gingrich's personal life, specifically his three marriages, the last of which was the product of an extramarital affair while he was still married to wife No. 2. Too easy.

Of greater interest will be Gingrich's professional life since he left the Washington insider-y job of House speaker in 1998. Since then, Gingrich, never a small thinker, has presided over a wide network of quasi-political, business and academic projects that has raked in millions of dollars, a portion of it from businesses in need of a friend who can open Capitol Hill doors.