Say what you will about Newt Gingrich, but you cannot deny that he is a shrewd political strategist. What's more, he knows his Republican constituents. So when he comes out and says that the President's privatization is bad politics -- as The Boston Globe reports today -- it's quite meaningful.

"I think we are in a very dangerous period on Social Security," former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said in an interview this week, adding his voice to the growing chorus of prominent critics in the GOP. He said the president's advisers think "they could sell benefit cuts and tax increases. . . . It could be catastrophic for the Republican Party if we end up as the party of tax increases and benefits cuts."

Gingrich is apparently running for President right now, so it's not surprising that he's trying to raise his profile.

I believe that his judgment on Social Security is right. If Bush raises taxes at all -- which is a must to get anything done -- he and the party will suffer the fate of his father a decade ago. What's more, if they become the party of Social Security cuts, they will lose any gains they made with the baby boomer generation that doesn't want to have to completely foot the bill for their parents. Bush has really cornered himself here and it's fun to watch him squirm.