Back in May 2011 when everyone was jumping on the Newt-hating bandwagon, Gingrich via a spokesman, fired back an elaborate press release derided by many in the blogosphere. At the time, Colbert brought actor John Lithgow onto his show for a dramatic reading of the statement, which dismissed the "literati" who were criticizing Gingrich.
The statement read:
The literati sent out their minions to do their bidding, Washington cannot tolerate threats from outsiders who might disrupt their comfortable world. The firefight started when the cowardly sensed weakness. They fired timidly at first, then the sheep not wanting to be dropped from the establishment’s cocktail party invite list unloaded their entire clip, firing without taking aim their distortions and falsehoods.
Now they are left exposed by their bylines and handles. But surely they had killed him off. This is the way it always worked. A lesser person could not have survived the first few minutes of the onslaught. But out of the billowing smoke and dust of tweets and trivia emerged Gingrich, once again ready to lead those who won’t be intimated by the political elite and are ready to take on the challenges America faces.
"Wrong, you parasites!" said Colbert at time, "Newt Gingrich will rise again like the sourdough that he appears to be made of!"
