Newt Gingrich the latest hopeful in GOP's desperate search for ABR.

(From Guardian Unlimited)

The Republican right has worked its way through Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Herman Cain in its search for a credible alternative to frontrunner Mitt Romney. Such is the level of desperation that the latest fresh face to emerge is 68-year-old Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker whose campaign was declared dead in the summer but has been resurrected for a second look.

Romney remains the likeliest to win the party nomination and to face Barack Obama for the White House next November. But he is viewed with suspicion by conservatives who regard him as too moderate, and his poll ratings among Republicans are stuck stubbornly around 25%, unable so far to achieve the breakout that would establish him as the clear frontrunner.

The hunt for Anyone But Romney (ABR) has seen the party work its way through candidates beginning with Bachmann, who won Iowa's Ames straw poll in August but then almost immediately fell out of contention. The same month, Perry, who on paper appeared to have all the necessary …