Anybody Who Calls Newt Gingrich 'Fat Elvis' is Imus's Kind of Guy

Before John Batchelor amends his bio, as per Imus’s instruction, to include the time his show airs on WABC Radio (weeknights from 9pm to midnight), he explained to Imus why Newt Gingrich is the Fat Elvis of the Republican Party.

In a recent article for The Daily Beast, Batchelor disclosed the displeasure many Republicans in Congress feel with Gingrich, who, according to Batchelor’s sources, “hangs around and elbows his way into Republican meetings in Washington.”

The younger members, Batchelor said, resent that when they were in the minority a year ago, “and everybody was laughing at them,” Gingrich would “yell at them, lecture them, castigate them, and mock them.”

Now that it looks like the Republicans will retake the house in November, Gingrich is singing a different tune. “He’s coming in to tell them how much he loves them, and that they should follow his lead,” Batchelor said. “So they roll their eyes, and leave.”

Though many Republicans might feel Gingrich’s time has passed, his former foot soldier Rep. John Boehner is poised to become Speaker of the House in November. “And that means Boehner…hmm…tolerates his presence,” Batchelor said.

Most of the advice Gingrich bestows upon his fellow Republicans amounts to no more than “trite recommendations,” Batchelor said. “They think he is in charge of no one, and want to know why he’s in the room.”

On the flip side, Karl Rove, a former advisor to President George W. Bush, is considered a philosopher and historian of the Party. “[Republicans] play close attention to him,” Batchelor said. “Because Rove loves numbers, loves polls, loves history, and they watch that, especially when he’s on Fox.”

In Batchelor’s view, the Tea Party is a great deal of focused energy that quickly moves on. “Like a storm cell in the summer time,” he said. “It’ll show up, it’ll rain where you are, and over there, it’s sunny.”

Despite the Tea Party’s tendency to align itself with the Republican Party, Batchelor disagrees. “In some instances they’ve made it impossible for Republicans to pick up a seat,” he said, using Tea Party Senatorial victories in Delaware, Utah, and Alaska as examples.

“All of those were safe Republican seats, and now they’re at risk, and that’s the Tea Party,” Batchelor said. “That’s not somebody who’s working for you.”

Republican Sen. Scott Brown’s surprise win in Massachusetts this past January was indicative of a Tea Party that was far less energized than the one that exists now, Batchelor explained. “I’m told he routinely gets sort of threats from the Tea Party because he’s voted in a way that it’s found unacceptable,” he said.

Imus was informed today that the recession, a favorite topic of Batchelor’s, was not only over, but had ended in June of 2009. Yet unemployment still hovers around ten percent, a statistic that Batchelor said will likely rise again when people start to look for work again.

“We’ve got a gloomy situation here for people who don’t have jobs,” he said. “There’s a saying: if you have a job, it’s a recession. If you don’t have a job, it’s a depression.”

Perhaps Batchelor can do his part and create a job by hiring someone to rewrite his bio.

-Julie Kanfer