Newt Gingrich

It was midway through Newt Gingrich's speech in Ames Thursday when a cellphone went off. As the soaring chorus of ABBA's "Dancing Queen" reverberated through the Olde Main Brewery everyone looked around for the culprit. This time it was the candidate. After sheepishly shutting off the ringer and slipping the phone back into his pocket, Gingrich muttered something about forgetting to turn off his ringer and continued with his remarks. Later the former House speaker confessed to reporters that he was a huge fan of the movie "Mamma Mia" and a staff member had programmed the ABBA anthem into his phone.

PITTSBURGH - Rick Santorum dropped his presidential bid nearly a month ago, so his meeting here Friday with presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney would have seemed like the perfect opportunity to offer Romney his endorsement. But even before the 90-minute meeting took place, everyone knew that no such nod would be coming anytime soon. Santorum, like pretty much everyone else who has run in the Republican presidential contest, has embraced the party's standard-bearer with a stiff arm. Of course they will work to defeat President Obama, they say. Yet few have been willing to get behind their party's winner with anything approaching enthusiasm.

Newt Gingrich is a huge fan of zoos. The former House speaker dreamed as a child of becoming a zookeeper. He has visited about 100 zoos and wrote the introduction to the guidebook “America's Best Zoos.” Gingrich got his start in politics at an early age, when he tried to open up a zoo in Harrisburg, Pa. “An 11-year-old is fighting City Hall here in an attempt to establish a zoo in the city's Wildwood Park,” reads a 1954 report...

Re "Gingrich says he'll back rival," May 3 What a terrible disappointment that Newt Gingrich will not be president. I had banked on the $2.50-a-gallon gasoline that he promised, the colonization of the moon and federal judges being seized by marshals and stripped of their positions when they rendered decisions that were unpopular with the president and his minions. Maybe if candidate Gingrich had promised $1-a-gallon gasoline, the Republican primary election would have had a different result.

Newt Gingrich will report raising at least $9.3 million since the beginning of October, including more than $4.6 million in the month of November alone, when the former House speaker was surging in the polls, according to preliminary numbers provided by the campaign. The fourth-quarter haul, which covers the period from Oct.1 through the end of the year, gave a much-needed boost to a campaign that, strapped for cash, had to scramble to build the infrastructure to capitalize on an unexpected mid-November surge.

Suddenly, Newt Gingrich is eager to talk about his fundraising. The former House Speaker said Tuesday that his presidential campaign had raised more money in October than the most recent three-month fundraising period, and he was in a position to beef up his operation as the first caucuses and primaries near. "If we continue to improve at this pace, I think we'll be able to run a full-blown campaign and be totally competitive in terms of advertising and other things by the time we get to early January," Gingrich told reporters after filing his paperwork to become an official candidate in New Hampshire's Republican primary.

Newt Gingrich witnessed the Occupy movement up close and personal Wednesday night. Protesters crashed his presidential fundraiser at a restaurant next to the storied Willard InterContinental Hotel in downtown D.C., about a baseball's throw from the White House. According to reports, only a handful of protesters were able to enter the hotel and none of them made it to Gingrich. Instead, they held a rally outside and peered through the restaurant's glass windows as Gingrich met with members of Congress and lobbyists seeking contributions to help him fuel is newfound Newtmentum.

Newt Gingrich raised about $2.1 million for his presidential campaign this quarter and spent nearly $1.8 million, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission . He ended the period with slightly more than $300,000 cash on hand. Among the disbursements: $8,400 to Gingrich Productions, a Washington, D.C.-based company that lists Callista Gingrich, the candidate's wife, as president. Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond said the campaign paid Gingrich Productions for use of the domain name Newt.org.  The Federal Election Commission requires that campaigns apply fair market value to such transactions.

Newt Gingrich's campaign says that a new policy to charge supporters $50 to take a photo with the GOP hopeful is really a way to showcase the grass-roots strength of his shoestring campaign. Reporters traveling with the former House speaker on Monday took note of the new paid photo policy , observing that he had long taken pictures with people attending his events for free. A campaign spokesman said Gingrich will continue to do so when he works the rope lines after he speaks.

Newt Gingrich brings new and ominous meaning to the phrase "women and children first." RUTH CAPER Los Angeles

ARLINGTON, Va. -- Newt Gingrich brought his presidential campaign to an anticlimactic close Wednesday before several dozen family members, aides and supporters at a suburban Washington hotel. Technically, Gingrich “suspended” his candidacy, allowing him to turn his attention to retiring a campaign debt of more than $3 million. The announcement wasn't news, however, since he had said last month that he would do so, after running out of excuses to continue his campaign. His second and last primary victory was almost two months ago, in his former home state of Georgia, and he has finished far back in most of the GOP voter tests.

ARLINGTON, Va. - Newt Gingrich finally ended his Republican presidential candidacy Wednesday, unbowed and with a backhanded endorsement of the party's presumptive nominee. Flanked by members of his family at a suburban Virginia hotel, the former House speaker said he would work to elect Republicans at all levels this fall. "As to the presidency, I'm asked sometimes, 'Is Mitt Romney conservative enough?' And my answer is simple: 'Compared to Barack Obama?' You know, this is not a choice between Mitt Romney and Ronald Reagan.

Newt Gingrich will suspend his campaign next week and plans to help presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney in his fall campaign against President Obama, according to Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond. Romney called Gingrich on Wednesday morning before word had leaked out that the former House speaker was likely ending his bid, and asked him to join his team should Gingrich exit the race, Hammond said. "Newt relayed to him that he did have plans to suspend next week and he was fully committed to helping Gov. Romney mobilize Republicans this fall to stop Obama's second term,” Hammond said.

Aides to Newt Gingrich disclosed Wednesday that the former House speaker was giving up the race for the GOP presidential nod, finally convinced that Mitt Romney's nomination was inevitable. For someone as smart as Gingrich, it's a wonder it took him so long to recognize that. OK, that's not fair. A majority of Republican voters clearly were not comfortable with Romney during the debates and the first half of the primary season. They flirted with a series of alternatives, including Gingrich, who won an important early primary in South Carolina.

The results of tonight's Delaware primary will dictate the future of Newt Gingrich's presidential bid, according to a source with his campaign. The race for the GOP nomination is all but wrapped up, with Mitt Romney becoming the de facto nominee after Rick Santorum dropped out of the race earlier this month. Gingrich, in debt and having won only two states, has acknowledged that Romney is in all likelihood the party's nominee, but had pledged to stay in the race until the GOP convention in Tampa, Fla., to make sure that the conservative wing of the party had a voice.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will still be on GOP ballots and will continue to ask Republicans for campaign donations, but even Gingrich now appears to concede what has been obvious for weeks: He's no longer a viable candidate. On Fox News Sunday, Gingrich talked about his campaign in the past tense, saying, “It turned out to be much harder than I thought it would, but it was [the] right thing for me to do. I have no regrets.” And he conceded that Mitt Romney was “far and away, the most likely Republican nominee.” Nevertheless, Gingrich continues to hope that his ideas will find their way into not just the party platform - after all, who reads that?

A healthcare policy think tank founded by Newt Gingrich has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The Center for Health Transformation, an organization with offices in Washington, D.C., St. Louis and Atlanta, has filed the necessary paperwork in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Atlanta. The think tank was seen as a sign of Gingrich's clout in Washington. It is part of the vast empire of lucrative projects that he abandoned when he became a presidential candidate. The organization, which describes itself as "a high-impact collaboration of private and public sector leaders committed to creating a 21st century intelligent health system that saves lives and saves money for all Americans," had grossed nearly $55 million since 2001, according to its website.

It's been a week of big numbers, mostly with dollar signs attached. A group led by former NBA great Magic Johnson paid $2 billion to buy the Dodgers. Which means a nice check for Frank McCourt, the guy who paid about $430 million for the team in 2004.   It also means Frank's ex-wife , Jamie, who helped him run the team into the ground, will get her $130 million, which should keep her in houses for a couple of years.   The Mega Millions jackpot has reached $500 million for Friday night's drawing.