¿Un nuevo Newt?

The Fix:

Newt Gingrich isn’t the most likely candidate for a political transformation. He’s been in and out of elected office for more than three decades, building a reputation as a gifted but often undisciplined politician.

And yet, a look at Gingrich’s campaign over the past few weeks suggests that the former House speaker is working to correct the mistakes he made earlier in the presidential race, mistakes that led to the departure of almost his entire senior staff in June.

“Newt as a political strategist has no competitors,” said Rick Tyler, a former Gingrich confidante who left as part of the mass staff departures. “I think it was his former advisors, myself included, who have learned the lesson that Newt might actually know what he is doing.”

Criticized then for his alleged lack of willingness to travel to early primary states, Gingrich now has a schedule larded with stops in the states that will kick off the presidential vote in January.

This week alone, he is scheduled to two days in Florida, three in South Carolina and another two in Iowa.

Lambasted for wandering badly off message on a weekly — if not daily — basis, Gingrich has been remarkably disciplined of late.

Take his response to reports Tuesday that businessman Herman Cain was reassessing his candidacy. “I have no comment on Mr. Cain,” said Gingrich. “He has to do what he thinks is best.” Restrained — and smart — given that Gingrich is open to criticism due to his own acknowledged extramarital affair in the late 1990s.

“He’s been remarkably different, disciplined, and on-message,” said one senior party strategist who has closely followed Gingrich’s career. “There are a lot of people regretting not helping him sooner, and his bandwagon now runneth over.”

Several people who have known Gingrich for years insist his dedication to the campaign trail and message discipline are nothing new.

“His critics have accused him of a lack of discipline, but you don’t achieve what he accomplished in his speakership without focus and discipline,” said former Pennsylvania Rep. Robert Walker, who is supporting Gingrich.

Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole, who is neutral in the presidential race, said that Gingrich was “rusty” at the start of the campaign due to the fact that he hadn’t been an active candidate in more than a decade. “What we are seeing now is not a new Newt; it is the old Newt re-emerging,” added Cole.

The challenge for Gingrich is whether he can keep up what looks like the turning of a political leaf.

While Walker — and other Gingrich allies — highlight the discipline that led Gingrich to the speakership, they tend to gloss over the fact that he was pushed out of leadership (and Congress) just four years after he took over.

Gingrich has shown a knack for reinventing himself in his past political lives. But he has always returned back to the old Newt — the brilliant but deeply flawed candidate who can’t manage to stay on top.

The 34 days left before the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses will test whether Gingrich has really matured as a candidate or whether this is just the latest boom-and-bust episode in a political life that has been defined by them.