As the Cain campaign has been consumed by stories of sexual harassment, Newt Gingrich is beating Mitt Romney in Iowa, according to one new poll, and has surged into double digits nationally according to another. And his rise in the polls couldn't have come at a better time for the former House speaker: he's got a new book out. Gingrich went on the Today show Monday to promote his novelization of a bloody Civil War battle -- "The Potomac was concealed beneath coiling fog and mists rising up from the river, shrouding the capital city on the opposite shore" -- just as his plan to win the Republican presidential nomination through more speeches and less baby-kissing appears to be paying off. NBC News' First Read says that one the one hand, Gingrich needs to make it look less like he's in the race just to sell books, but on the other hand, Herman Cain's book tour hasn't hurt him one bit.

"Any progress is good progress," Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond told Elicia Dover, noting Gingrich's doubling his support from 6 percent to 12 percent in ABC News' poll. "What we're looking to do is continually march toward the caucus and put forth ideas and solutions." Slate's Dave Weigel notes that while he remains a Newtmentum skeptic, one sign that he's catching on is that other candidates are starting to steal his ideas.

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