Gingrich's entire senior staff resigns

Newt Ginrich's entire senior presidential campaign staff has resigned en masse. Developing...

Update: The AJC reports,

AP: Newt Gingrich’s staff resigns en masse
2:51 pm June 9, 2011, by jgalloway

The Associated Press has just moved an alert reporting that GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich’s staff has resigned en masse.

Ginrgrich press spokesman Rick Tyler told AP that he’s resigned along with campaign manager Rob Johnson, senior strategists and aides in key early primary states. More to come.

No doubt Gingrich’s decision to go on a seven-day Mediterranean cruise was a factor. Larry Sabato of Crystal Ball fame posted the following this morning:

At the end of May, Gingrich took a previously scheduled two-week vacation while other candidates campaigned. All told, one can not only question the execution of Gingrich’s campaign, but also the commitment of the candidate to it.

Remember when failed Democratic Senate candidate Martha Coakley took a vacation between her primary victory and the special election against now-Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA)? Inviting comparisons to Coakley, who shockingly lost Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat, is obviously not any campaign’s objective.

My personal opinion is that Gingrich threw his hat into the presidential ring not because of a burning desire to run, but because he just doesn't know what to do with himself. But whatever it is, he is driven to garner attention. Well, he's got plenty now.

Update: More from Politico, "The Newt Gingrich campaign implosion:"

The mass resignation was, one source said, “a team decision.”

“We just had a different direction in which we wanted to take the campaign,” said a second source.

Gingrich was intent on using technology and standing out at debates to get traction while his advisers believed he needed to run a campaign that incorporated both traditional, grassroots techniques as well as new ideas.

One official said the last straw came when Gingrich went forward with taking a long-planned cruise with his wife last week in the Greek isles.

Well, presumably the candidate is in charge of the campaign and how it will be conducted. If his staff don't agree with how the candidate wants to do that, then the staff either sucks it up and takes orders they think are ill-advised or they bail.

But how does the vacation figure in? I am guessing that the staff believed that it indicated an un-total commitment to the campaign that Gingrich's low-level campaign directions seemed to indicate.