To the surprise of exactly nobody who has the faintest inkling of what a nut Newt Gingrich is, the GOP frontrunner today made a solemn outrageous pander promise to the people of Florida:

Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich is promising to colonize the moon.

Speaking in Florida, hit hard by the loss of a large number of space-affiliated jobs, Mr. Gingrich said Wednesday that if elected, “By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be American.”

Comedians of America, you know what to do.

But seriously, isn’t this just so … Newtish? The idea that this broke-a*s country of ours ought to be spending money to build a colony on the moon is so far from reality, especially anything remotely connected to conservatism, that it ought to wake some pro-Newt Republican voters up. Newt might want to go to the moon, but he’s apparently already living on another planet.