Look In The Mirror, Newt

House Speaker Newt Gingrich is one of the smartest, most effective men in American politics. His record shows it.

That makes it all the more newsworthy when, as all of us sometimes do, he says or does something ...well, let's don't say "dumb", let's just say "not very smart."

You may want to consider what he has been saying in the wake of his party's poor showing in the just-completed national election.

Speaker Gingrich has been blaming - surprise - the media. Now, the press, as your reporter prefers to call it, the press, print and electronic, makes mistakes. Neither this reporter nor CBS News excepted, of course. And there is much about which we can be justifiably blamed.

This, friends, has to be classified, by any stretch of the imagination and any trying-to-be-fair analysis as a stretch, at least. And in many ways, just straight out bull feathers.

When a political party loses, there is usually plenty of blame to go around. In this case, is it possible, just possible, that perhaps the Speaker himself may be, just a little, to blame?

I know. This will be seen in some quarters as "media prejudice." Sometimes that overworked phrase fits. A lot of people may have some doubts whether this is one of those times, and not all such people are Democrats.

©1998 CBS Worldwide Corp. All rights reserved