The Week

• Newt Gingrich has a flair for the dramatic, except when the stage directions read “Exit stage right.”

• Many Republicans have bought the Democratic/media line that the administration’s attack on conscience rights is popular and Republicans would be fools to fight back. Polling keeps contradicting this theory. In recent days, both the New York Times and the Washington Post have run stories about how Republicans are alienating women — and then run polls showing that women may be turning against Obama (the Post) and think religious institutions should be allowed to opt out of covering birth control (the Times). It turns out that it is perfectly possible to believe simultaneously that Rush Limbaugh should not have called Sandra Fluke a “slut” and that there is no good reason to coerce employers into providing coverage they oppose for moral or religious reasons. We believe both things; so, it seems, do most Americans.