Gingrich win shows collapse of GOP establishment

Being the establishment candidate, as Mitt Romney learned Saturday, was far easier when the establishment really mattered.

Newt Gingrich’s popularity comes largely from his broadsides against the “Washington elites” in his own party and the news media, but his success in South Carolina — where the GOP establishment historically builds a firewall against insurgents — demonstrates how thoroughly the elites and the establishment have frittered away the influence they once had.