Kevin Drum succinctly describes the arc of Newt Gingrich’s career. Very oddly, I can remember the first time I read his name, because I didn’t understand that it was a name. It was during the summer holidays in 1986 and I had just bought a copy of Check your Egos at the Door, a Doonesbury book made up mainly of strips from 1984 and ‘85. I didn’t understand a lot of the references. (Give me a break: I was 13 years old.) In one sequence, Rick laments Reagan’s landslide victory over Mondale, comes home drunk and has this exchange with his wife Joanie.

R: What if it wasn’t just a triumph of personality Joanie? What if it’s a real revolution? What if one day my kid wakes up in a country run by Newt Gingrich?

J: By a what?

R: Newt Gingrich.

J: Sounds like a creature from “Dune.”

Now that I come to think of it, I remember the funniest thing about the book was a story involving a surgeon’s efforts to transplant the heart of a liberal into the body of a conservative. The results weren’t pretty. Much of my time these days is spent writing a book about the social organization of organ donation. Perhaps Duke’s unorthodox perspective on donor sourcing was what got me started down that road.