Newt Gingrich, courtesy of Creative Commons

The self-professed ideas man of the Republican presidential field, and who fashions himself as the greatest conservative mind since Hobbes, may have thrown out one thought-splosion too many Tuesday night.

When the debate, which focused on national security, came to immigration policy, Newt revealed a soft underbelly on illegal immigration. 

“Let’s be humane about enforcing the law,” Newt said as he implied a path toward citizenship for illegal immigrants who have earned undergraduate degrees or greater.

In a sense it was a form of the much-maligned DREAM act that Republicans loved to excoriate at the Democrats’ expense. Amnesty of this kind doesn’t float past the GOP—just ask Rick Perry—but there on the stage in D.C was nutty Newt carrying that flag at the apex of his comeback.

And what a comeback it’s been for a man whose entire campaign staff walked out on him a few months ago. After so much insider turmoil, seeing him at the top of the Republican polls this past week is the equivalent of France’s mutinous 2010 World Cup team suddenly pulling off a run to the quarterfinals.

But being the thorny also ran and now the pure frontrunner is a whole different ball of wax . Where once he greased through the debates by putting on clammy, Mr. Know It All airs and making hay by attacking poor, defenseless debate moderators, now he was a weighty presence.

Michele Bachmann and Mitt Romney (who seems to have forgotten that his first name isn’t Mitt. Well, others haven’t…WILLARD!) jumped immediately at the former House speaker’s display of compassion. Bachmann appeared aghast at the decision to, as she interpreted it, suddenly legalize 11 million people. 

That wasn’t what Newt was saying, but as Bachmann’s campaigns have shown recently, hers is the one most willing to go on the attack.

It will be interesting to see how closely Newt sticks to this policy in the coming days especially as the fellow candidates start pounding at the leader for it.

On other international topics the rest of the field showed only slight deviations from core Republican principles.

Herman Cain, who last week finally managed to move past his sexual harassment scandals by drawing the mother of all blanks on the subject of Libya, played it safe. His fixation on the mountains of Iran notwithstanding, Cain remained vague and non-committal about most any decision. The tactic for a man who is defiantly not an expert on world affairs seems to be describe the problem rather than propose solutions. He did step astray of the pack when he announced support for a hypothetical Israeli strike of Iran’s nuclear facilities, which went a bit further than the others committed to.

He also called debate moderator Wolf Blitzer, “Blitz.”

Willard Romney and Jon Huntsman tangled briefly on the issue of troop withdrawals from Afghanistan. Huntsman, who touts his expertise on foreign affairs, argued for a drawdown in forces from the current 100,000. Romney shot back that it was foolish to bring the troops home tomorrow.

“Did you even listen to what I said?” Huntsman scowled, as the two began squabbling. Turned out, after the scrum was cleared, that both men agreed that troops would eventually be withdrawn and they’d listen to the commanders for cues as to when and how. Hardly Romney unleashed.

Rick Perry has been “oops” free for 14 days and counting, and even with foreign policy not his strong suit he was able to pass his lowered bar. Perry's answers on Iran, Pakistan, and Syria tended to emphasize his willingness to “get serious” about them. “It’s time we got serious about Syria,” he said at one point. (“Why so Syrious!” I scribbled in my notes.)

National security, which under George W. Bush was a wheelhouse for Republicans, just isn’t the same in light of Obama’s relative successes there. The assassination of Osama bin Laden, a NATO victory in Libya, and Obama’s continuation of most Bush-era security policies don’t allow for too much GOP red meat, leaving the stakes rather low.

Willard Romney again was polished and effectual. Huntsman was calm and knowledgeable and could see a post-debate bump from anyone still looking for the anti-Romney.

The question is then about Newt and whether his newfound niceness will jive his newfound friends. 

He reentered relevance with a prickly demeanor, but will the GOP be happy with a neutered Newt?

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