As long as Politico keeps trumpeting Gingrich's anti-Obama tirades as breaking news, we'll keep asking the simple question: who cares what Newt Gingrich thinks? We're hoping at some point Politico tries to answer the question.

In the meantime, here's the latest installment, where Politico, stuck in its Gin Blossoms `90's mode, pretends Gingrich is still Speaker of the House:

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich tore into President Barack Obama Monday for his friendly greeting of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, saying Obama is bolstering the “enemies of America.”

As we mentioned before, not only was Gingrich essentially driven from Congress more than ten years ago, but we can't think of a single Bush initiative from this decade that had Gingrich's fingerprints on it. Now, Newt can't be bothered with running for office, nor does he seem to represent any larger institution.

He's just a partisan talking head, which is fine. So why has the D.C. press corps, and Politico in particular, carved out a special niche for what's-Newt-thinking-today coverage?