Here's a quip, obviously pre-prepared, that Newt Gingrich delivered (in a fairly competent deadpan) on Jon Stewart's show last night:
No one has suggested -- no one, even the most bitter partisan, has suggested -- that enhanced interrogation should be used on Nancy Pelosi.
Because no one, including Stewart, knew where Gingrich was going when he started that sentence, the line had the element of surprise and got a big laugh. (It was rather breathtaking how he got a punchline, a vicious attack, and phony moral posturing into 22 words.)
And yeah, what he said was true.
Oh, except for...
And...
And...
And...
And, inevitably:
Even though Gingrich's line was meant to get a laugh, and to please any right-wingers who were watching (nearly all of whom would be delighted if liberals were tortured), I actually believe he couldn't resist putting that moral-high-ground part into the joke. It's a weird look into Gingrich's mind: I believe he actually thinks Republicans are more civil than Democrats for (among other things) not suggesting precisely what he was suggesting. I believe he actually holds those two contradictory thoughts in his head at once, and sees no conflict. And, of course, what he said was wrong.
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