U.S. Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich addresses supporters after polls closed in Georgia in the "Super Tuesday" Republican presidential primary in Atlanta, Georgia, March 6, 2012JOHN AMIS/Reuters
In the current scheme of American culture, you probably can't stoop any lower than comparing a politician to Kim Kardashian.
But that's exactly what ex-House speaker and Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich did earlier this week by likening former secretary of state (and possible Democratic presidential hopeful) Hillary Clinton to the reality star.
On Tuesday night's edition of CNN's Crossfire, Gingrich and his fellow talking heads addressed the recent news story about former U.S. president Bill Clinton speaking out in defence of his wife's claim that the Clinton clan was "dead broke" when they moved out of the White House in 2008.
Hillary made the comment during a TV interview with Diane Sawyer two weeks ago. Earlier this week, her husband leapt to her defense at a Clinton Global Initiative event in Denver, telling attendees, "It is factually true that we were several million dollars in debt."
But on Tuesday's Crossfire, Newt brushed off the former president's defence of his wife.
"You have to understand the problem Bill has," said Gingrich in his trademark folksy manner to the Crossfire panel. "Bill is to politics what Fred Astaire is to dancing. He is just automatically amazing and he wants to have Ginger Rogers out there dancing."
And then Newt got right to his point:
"Instead [with Hillary Clinton] it's a little bit like watching Kim Kardashian get kicked off the stage by Prince because she couldn't dance."
Gingrich was of course referring to the infamous 2011 incident in which Kardashian was invited on-stage by Prince during a Madison Square Garden concert, but then booted off the stage when she began dancing.
While the 71-year-old Gingrich does earn some points for pop-culture referencing, he still had harsh words for Hillary when it came to assessing her chances of becoming the U.S. president.
"I think there's a big problem, because I don't think, as a candidate, that she dances very well."
Really, Newt? Because based on this clip of her dancing at a dinner hosted by South African foreign minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane in 2012, she definitely knows how to bust a move.