Dean Approves of Gingrich 2012 Bid

In the last month, there's been some skepticism about whether former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich will run for president in 2012 (a Des Moines Register poll gives him a third place favorability rating behind Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin). But if he needed some across-the-aisle encouragement, he got it on Sunday.

On Fox News, among other wonderful revelations, former Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean said the GOP "desperately" needed Gingrich's leadership strengths.

I don't agree with very much that Newt Gingrich wants to do, but the biggest difference is Newt has a ton of ideas to move the country forward -- he did when he was speaker. There are no ideas in the Republican Party right now in the Congress. They're the party of no. They desperately need some intellectual leadership. Whatever you think of Newt Gingrich, he can supply intellectual leadership, so I hope he does run.

It looks as if Dean was more interested in slamming the GOP than complimenting Gingrich. (For his part, Gingrich quipped after the endorsement, "This is my opponents' clip in the primaries.") Either way, it can't hurt the former Speaker of the House's book sales.