Earlier we noted Newt Gingrich's bizarre claim that it's President Obama's fault that people believe false smears about him (because it couldn't possibly be the fault of those like Gingrich, who accused Obama of engaging in “Kenyan, anti-colonial” behavior). Now, it seems even Republicans are getting tired of Gingrich's extremist attacks.

Politico reports that Gingrich's “latest provocations have also brought groans and rolled eyes from Republican quarters, where some prominent figures warn that Gingrich's instinct for bombast is an obstacle to his being taken seriously as a party leader or a promising presidential contender in 2012”:

Longtime observers say the two sides of Gingrich's persona are in tension on a good day and in outright conflict on a bad. The recent comments linking Obama to colonial Africa and Democrats to food stamps sounded not simply anachronistic — the obsessions of an earlier generation — but also freighted with racial innuendo.

“He knows how to appeal to and arouse the conservative coalition,” said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.). “But he also has a tendency to go one stop further than he should.”

As Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) put it of the Gingrich approach: “The good news is it gets people to listen to you, but the bad news is your negatives go up.”

[...]

“He has a good political antenna,” said Graham, who served with Gingrich in the House and was part of a group of Republicans who tried to mount a coup against him. “And he understands that our base finds President Obama's agenda completely out of bounds.”

But Graham, alluding to the Kenya comment, said “sometimes he tries to explain to our base what makes President Obama tick and he goes too far.”

“That's what I worry about in our primary — we're going to trip over ourselves trying to be more outrageous.”

Politico also highlights Gingrich's history of invective, particularly from his days as House speaker. His hypocrisy is also noted; Politico points out that Gingrich said regarding the Monica Lewinsky scandal that “I will never again, as long as I am speaker, make a speech without commenting on this topic,” even though Gingrich “was having an affair with the woman who is now his wife during the time he was excoriating Clinton.”

Politico quotes Gingrich spokesman Rick Tyler enthusiastically defending his boss and even the “Kenyan, anti-colonial” remark, claiming that it could only be offensive “if you have race on your mind when you're thinking about it.”