Ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich insisted on taking a two-week cruise through the Greek Isles: He returned home to a Greek chorus.

The entire senior staff of Gingrich’s presidential campaign, his paid staff in Iowa, and top organizers in New Hampshire and South Carolina, quit on Thursday. The resignations included campaign manager Ron Johnson, longtime (10 year) Gingrich spokesman Rick Tyler and campaign strategists Dave Carney and Katon Dawson .

“When the campaign and the candidate disagree on the path, they’ve got to part ways,” Tyler told the Washington Post.

Gingrich vowed in a statement to carry on his bid for the Republican presidential nomination. “I am committed to running the substantive, solutions-oriented campaign I set out to run earlier this spring,” he said. “The campaign begins anew Sunday in Los Angeles.

The resignations by Johnson and senior strategist Carney are likely to increase speculation that Texas Gov. Rick “Good Hair” Perry will enter the Republican race. Both are longtime Perry associates. Perry had vowed not to run, but said two weeks ago he will look at a run for president.

Gingrich stumbled out of the gate last month: He described as “right-wing social engineering” House Republicans’ plan to replace Medicare with a voucher system. He had to apologize to the plan’s author, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

Gingrich soon found himself embroiled in another tiff. Disclosure forms filed by his third wife Callista, when she was a House employee, showed that he enjoyed a line of credit of up to $500,000 with Tiffany’s, the country’s best-known jeweler.

As the campaign stumbled, Gingrich and Callista flew off May 27 to what Dick Cheney used to call “an undisclosed destination.” It turned out to be the Eastern Mediterranean. The Gingrich destination was “outed” by a fellow passenger’s e-mail from Istanbul.