Dear Callista:

For several years, I’ve been a fan and admirer of your husband.  You also, but my letter is to, not about you.

I’ve met and spoken to you both at remarkable past events. I made a point of attending every one I knew of, to educate myself and demonstrate my support for your husband’s superb ideas, including practical applications to rescue, conserve and restore our liberally degraded country. 

During Newt’s top-notch speeches, I always seemed to be cheering louder than anyone in roomsful of enthusiastic fans.

I wish I could say I’m cheering now, the day of 2012′s Florida Primary. Instead, I find myself wondering what part of Corinthians your beloved husband does not understand.

I know Speaker Gingrich converted to Catholicism recently enough to remember the part about sounding brass. Who among us could forget the clanging cymbal? Knowing in part or rejoicing in inquity? Seeing in a mirror dimly?

Sure the Speaker’s waging a major battle, the fight of his life.  As in any such life or death competition, Newt’s no uncertain trumpet…and rightfully so. If he or Mitt Romney were, they’d be atomized by an armed and dangerous enemy pretending to be America’s friend. 

But unlike other great generals, Newt’s rearing an ugly, selfish side now, a front that never wins in the longest run of any campaign. By behaving as a bitter, resentful soldier, so unlike those most Americans admire, your otherwise excellent warrior has inadvertently harmed his party and the country he loves. Newt’s not fighting the good fight anymore, he’s self-destructing and taking us with him.

Forget about what Jesus would do, this is not remotely what  Washington, Lincoln or the other Douglass would do.

Unlike a tiger, a great man…perhaps helped by a wise mate and both daughters…would recognize his strengths and weaknesses at this stage of the war and act accordingly.

Forget about Christian soldiers, a true patriot would say a prayer, suck it up, and bow out gracefully. He’d re-join and re-fortify his team, not tear it to shreds.

Speaker Gingrich has already admitted past mistakes to God. Tomorrow, for the good of his party and America, he should re-admit and make peace with the man who would and will be our next President, Governor Mitt Romney.

Your great husband would make an outstanding Secretary of State, if he wishes, and if Romney practices forgiveness as well as he does other Christian tenets. 

But the former Speaker cannot be elected President of the United States anymore than Moses.

Please do not allow the great Newt Gingrich to become another American tragedy. We have enough of those already, and he has accomplished too much to ruin his name.

As his gracious, long-sought and hoped-for match, please counsel your otherwise brilliant husband to focus more on Ike than Patton, and to have another go at Corinthians. 

For the good of our country as we wage the crucial war to conserve it, please implore Newt to behave now as a courageous patriot and a freshly annointed Catholic: with amazing grace. 

Thank you both for your wonderful work to try to restore America. Here’s hoping she never fades away.

With admiration and more than hope,

A Practical Tea Party Patriot