ONCE he was King of the Hill, hailed as the de facto lender of the Republican Party and the most dynamic force in US politics, writes Jonathan Freedland. But tonight Mr Newt Gingrich will address the Republican National Convention in San Diego for just seven minutes, in a time slot usually reserved for low level party functionaries.
The House Speaker, who a year ago was discussed as a possible presidential hopeful, has been exiled by convention planners anxious to distance Sen Bob Dole from Mr Gingrich, who continues to have the lowest poll ratings since Richard Nixon.
Despite his official title as general chairman of the convention, Mr Gingrich will rarely appear at the podium. More telegenic deputies will take the chair instead. One cartoon published yesterday showed a janitor emptying dustbins with the caption, "Newt Gingrich's role in San Diego".
"This was not his decision," said Ms Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington, the Cambridge educated Republican hostess and close associate of the Speaker. "There was a feeling that he was so damaged that he should not have a prominent role," she said.
Mr Gingrich's negative ratings have been stubbornly high since last autumn when he led House Republicans in the disastrous partial shutdown of the US government. His unpopularity in&reased when he complained about being seated at the back of Air Force One on the way to the funeral of the slain Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin. US tabloids dubbed the Speaker a "crybaby" and the name stuck.
Aides insisted yesterday that the Speaker - who used to boast he was more powerful than President Clinton - had not been sidelined. In a plucky attempt at spin, Mr Gingrich's British born press secretary, Mr Tony Blankley, said the Speaker had actually volunteered for a slot outside TV's primetime hours, in a bid to lure the US networks to extend their San Diego coverage.
The eclipsing of Mr Gingrich is only the most obvious example of how San Diego has divided the Republican Party's top ranks into winners and losers. Also out is the former Tennessee governor, Mr Lamar Alexander, who enjoyed fleeting fame when he took third place in the Iowa presidential contest in February.
Mr Alexander has disappeared from the national radar screen since then, and has been spotted around San Diego without aides or staff, apparently looking for people to talk to and hands to shake. He flew to San Diego on an ordinary commercial flight, along with the reporters who used to cover him.