New Halfbright AND Contempt Citation

Prof Dr Q A Wagstaff, OBE, FRS, and the nominating committee, which prefer to remain anonymous due to threats from unsuccessful candidates, announces an unprecedented Halfbright Fellowship AND Contempt Citation to the same deserving individual. The Halfbright is for Lifetime Achievement in the category of National Blowhard and Supreme Narcissist. The award goes to former congressperson, failed House Speaker, and self-styled Republican Intellectual Newt Gingrich.
Gingrich showed his mettle by being one of the few House Speakers to be thrown out by his own caucus. But personal qualities come to bear as well. Gingrich has been by all reports a Serial Adulterer, but after his "conversion" to Catholicism now fancies himself a Spokesperson for 'Family Values.' He managed the extremely challenging task of being elected several times to a lily-white suburban Atlanta district where moderates are viewed slightly less favorably than the Antichrist.
He personally engineered the government shutdown of early 2006 which summarily pissed off thousands of DC tourists, many of them Republicans, and soured the entire country on the nitwits in the Republican Party. Given that he is apparently a serious candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, and has about as much chance as Ned of getting nominated and even less of being elected, it seems the party has not progressed much since then.
But, be that as it may. Gingrich is a superior candidate for a Halfbright, and the Committee feel he is one of its strongest Fellows to date.
The Contempt Citation is for the documented "flip flops" Gingrich has uttered on the Libyan military intervention, first in favor of it, and then when Obama obliged him, came out against it. All of these positions were documented on film and he had the temerity to deny he had ever done so, showing him to be one of the most accomplished Narcissists in politics today.
The Committee congratulates Dr Gingrich (yes, he actually has a PhD in something from someplace called Georgia State, Ned believes) for a distinguished career and for his well-deserved Contempt Citation.
UPDATE: Ned remind his friends that Gingrich has also been named to the coveted post of National Blowhard, succeeding William Bennett, and had a starring role in the Great Saga of the Dwarf Lords, chronicled by Ned previously.