Maureen Dowd on Newt Gingrich

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"By the time he was 16, Newt Gingrich was sure of two things.

"He would marry his high school geometry teacher. And he would save Western civilization.

"Gingrich has moved on to younger wives. But he’s still obsessed with numbers and rescuing the planet.

"In 1994, he described himself to me as “a conservative futurist,” which seems like an oxymoron. The man George Will once called a “cherub with a chip on his shoulder” finds the future simultaneously apocalyptic and massively fun.

"You can picture President Gingrich on his first day in the Oval Office, emanating an impish doomsday aura of “Let’s see what happens if we press this button!”

"In his own feverish, gee-whiz imagination, Newt is both the arsonist and the fireman."