Newt will buy into whatever seems best for Newt.
Unfortunately, I agree. I say 'unfortunately' because although I have tremendous respect for Newt's intellect and some of the things that he's done, he also has done and said some things that just make me want to walk away from him. As an example, a few years ago he came to Washington State, where I live, and spoke at a Republican event. Of course I had to go and see him, and he was going along fine, speaking about the current themes of the day when, in order to make a point about Social Security he asked what appeared to be a random child in the audience to come up onto the stage. He asks the kid how old he is and then uses that kid and his age as a prop for his speech about Social Security and how little the kid will have when he grows up. The way it was done was, to my eyes, terribly phony in that it was taking a subject pertaining to facts, numbers and economics and turning it into an emotional one, just as the Dems do with any of their "for the children' speeches. The kid was just standing there up on the stage with Newt occasionally gesturing at him, and it all looked so wrong. The episode suggested to me that although he has a brilliant mind, he is also an opportunistic person and will reach for low-class emotionalism and sensatiionalism when the mood strikes him, if he thinks that it will help to make an impression.