If a politician talks long enough about themselves, they will eventually utter a truth. And the more highly he thinks of himself, the deeper the truth will be. Hence the significance of Newt Gingrich's sweeping defense against charges of lobbying: he was too busy earning hundreds of thousands of dollars making speeches and writing best-sellers to get into the picayune business of lobbying.

This argument that skates around the meaningful definition of lobbying but reveals just how important Newt thinks his ideas are, his profound conviction that his presence on the national stage alone accounts for his influence – not his years of collecting favors and connections.

So, okay, now the gays! On Tuesday gay Iowan Scott Arnold asked Gingrich: "If he's elected, how does he plan to engage gay Americans. How are we to support him? And he told me to support Obama."

Newt's response made headlines that were weirdly non-newsy: Republican candidate refuses to seek support of citizens unlikely to vote for him anyway! But his rejoinder was actually kind of a non-sequitor: Arnold wasn't looking for electoral guidance, he was asking about Newt's capacity for leadership in the context of a country that right now doesn't really agree about anything except how awful the economy is.

Rick Perry could come up with answers that were more appropriate: "I'm going to make sure that all Americans have the freedom to make their own choices about health care and housing," "I'm sure that Americans of all types will rally around a leader who is dedicated to making our country first in the world economy again," or even, "Judge me by the choices I make in office, not by one specific special interest you may have." I mean, all of those answers are kind of bullshit, but they don't suggest such tower arrogance. Oh, and bigotry.

In other truthiness news, on Tuesday Newt also told reporters that other candidates (cough-Romney-cough), "hire consultants who get drunk, sit around and write stupid ads." Which is probably a generous analysis but not off the mark.