This is rich

Newt Gingrich appears to be worth at least $7 million. Mitt Romney is worth around $150 million. My question is this: If both men are millionaires many times over, does the poorer one get to call the richer one “elitist”?

That’s the mood here in north Florida, apparently. CNN has this story about how Gingrich, with his patched overalls and his paltry $7 million, is now being seen as the candidate who understands the plight of the working man.

The working man. To Gingrich, “working” means getting paid $300,000 a year to make a few phone calls on behalf of corrupt mortgage institutions. I mention this lest some Republicans out there begin to conjure images of the silver-haired Gingrich in a hard hat, toting his lunch bucket to the job site so he can keep up the payments on the Ford.

Folks, any candidate for president is by definition an elitist. That’s how it works. Gingrich’s hands are as soft and pink as a baby’s behind, just as Romney’s are, and the only thing either of them care to understand about working people is that they’re going to need quite a few of those votes to win the Florida primary. So pandering to ignorant, “working class” social sensibilities is the order of the day.

Judge them any way you want, but a millionaire’s a millionaire. You don’t get that way by working the swing shift. Or by being all starry-eyed about social issues.