Panel: Gingrich’s last stand?

>>> as newt gingrich begins to downsize his staff, his biggest legacy will be the day he called for kids to be janitors at a school. a georgetown alum recounts his days as a student yjanitor.

>> i was at a private high school and to me it was embarrassing. i'm always working super hard. did i not feel empowered by serving my classmates.

>> i would also ask you the question, did you find it useful to get the money? is there a reason why you were doing it?

>> joining me now, and he said there was a reason why he was doing it. but joining me is michael crowley . former journalist jill zuckman and fred yang. welcome, all. michael crowley , let me start with you. newt gingrich having that thrown back in his face. by the way, it was supposed to be a speech on social security . it took him 30 minutes to get to that topic.

>> sounds like newt.

>> yeah.

>> well, newt was doing a decent job i think of slowly rehabilitating his reputation. he left congress under pretty dark circumstances. i think he had a nice little career going for him talking on fox news, an activist republican following going. he is now possibly the most -- if you look at the actually polling on it, the longer he stays in the more we're going to see episodes like this. he's not really turning that around by staying in the race.

>> it's going to be a punch line . it's like a punch line for everybody.

>> i feel like he's just fading away. in a way he's taking himself out but not officially taking himself out. i mean, he's not really campaigning. it's over. he knows it's over but he just doesn't want to say it.

>> i want to get to the supreme court and political preparation going on about what happens if the whole thing gets overturned and i'm going to come back, fred. yesterday the white house came up with new mandate language. i was sort of mocking it this morning and reminded by the friends over at the health insurance plans, they said, hey, we had this phraseology back in 2009 .

>> i think better late than never. this is the start of health care , which ever way the court decides as part of the 2012 dialogue.

>> the day it happens -- there is this debate and it's sort of an interesting, raging debate is a wrong way to describe it but it's a heated debate. how much will an overturn impact the president?

>> i think medium level in the short term. i think in the long term -- i don't think it will change the fundamental structure of this election.

>> that's what they are counting on. they say, if we were running against somebody else, it might be a tougher day but we're running against mitt romney .

>> sure. but the republican party in general doesn't have a clear pog on health care . they want to cut costs over the long term but that's quite perilous because you're talking about digging into health care . the gop has been very good in saying what they are against. they don't have a clear pog sition on what they want to replace it with. you could have an energized left and a right that is trying to figure out, what are we going to say? because nobody likes the status quo.

>> the other thing that concerns me, sort of as an american citizen and somebody that actually likes this town would like to see it work is a polarized 5-4 decision would now mean the third branch of government is now viewed as politically polarized.

>> well, the supreme court has been split like that for a while.

>> it has. they sort of backed away but this would be entering into the campaign.

>> well, it wouldn't entering into the campaign.

>> it wouldn't provide clarity or leadership on this issue. if they do throw it out, it would open up questions about medicaid and medicare and throw everything into chaos. i think you will galvanize people in a way they haven't been in a long time because they were turned off by the sausage making.

>> an unintended consequence you think might come about?

>> not only with the republicans have a coherent position on health care , it will be harder to run against obama care if it is struck down. they could run on the specter, this is what they will do to you.

>> i have had republicans nervous, that they will miss having it.

>> they will have to talk about bush tax cuts .