By MARTIN SCHRAM, Scripps Howard News Service

Newt Gingrich, conservative Republicanism's last and also perhaps its next purveyor of bold ideas, reached back almost a half century to put into proper context President Obama's sweeping new budget and his own party's mission unaccomplished.

Today we take a tough-truth look at just why it is that many Americans seem to believe that the word "liberal'' is really just a prefix to the word "media.''

America was blindsided yet again. Only, this time some in the mainstream U.S. news media were a bit slow to grasp the perilous impact that U.S. policymakers instantly understood.

A quick learner can soak up a lot in four years in the U.S. Senate, but to master the way games are played and won in the sandboxes beneath the Capitol Dome, President Obama could have learned a lot from Lyndon B. Johnson.

Along with Tom Daschle, Tim Geithner and Nancy Killefer, plus Joe Biden, David Axelrod, Rahm Emanuel and all the president's vexing vetters, I also must share some the blame for the sudden puncture and deflation of Barack Obama's Glorious Expectations Balloon.

Faster than a command to "lock-and-load," President Obama this week swiftly deployed and targeted a powerful but little-used weapon that could be crucial to winning what America once called its war on terror.

As inspiring as our new president's inaugural address was, both to a nation shaken by the shattering of economic institutions and to a world anguished by suffering intentionally inflicted upon humans by other humans, Barack Obama's eloquent words were merely the day's second most meaningful message.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was eager to hit the ground running in 2009. Then, with the cameras rolling, he planted his first step firmly on an upturned rake.
Thwack.

He is wobbling around the track one last time, a weakened marathon man taking his legacy lap.
The few of us who are still watching the runner with the "43" on his back clearly see that he is stumbling and nearly powerless. But we aren't sure what to make of it because, after all, we have grown used to seeing him stumbling when he was strong.

It is in times like these that Abba Eban's oft-quoted admonishment resonates in its Cambridge-rounded eloquence and relevance. Only, today its meaning and message reach wider than he ever intended.