The crowd in the Hilton ballroom couldn't have been more excited if Elvis had turned up. Instead, this being Washington, the star was a fiftysomething politician, and as soon as his trademark helmet of white hair breezed through the door at stage right, 400 freshly elected conservative state legislators leaped to their feet and chanted, "Newt! Newt! Newt!" By the time Newt Gingrich had concluded his now familiar excoriation of the liberal welfare state, he had the faithful rushing the dais as if they were at a rock concert, shouldering each other aside just to be near their hero. An agile...
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