Among all of the surreal events that have occurred so far in the 2012 election, we haven't seen Jon Stewart get quite as worked up as he did on Monday night's "Daily Show" over something Newt Gingrich said at last Thursday's debate in South Carolina.
When CNN moderator John King began the debate by asking Gingrich about his second wife's accusations that he wanted an open marriage, Gingrich responded with an attack on the moderator himself. He said King's decision to ask a Presidential candidate about such matters was, "as close to despicable as anything [he] can imagine."
"I think you've got a pretty good imagination, 'despicability' wise," Stewart responded, in reference to the presidential candidate's well-documented past of leaving sick wives. At this point, Stewart was exasperated over Gingrich's audacious response as well as John King's failure to call him out on it. Stewart explained, quite hysterically, why it made him as frustrated as it did:
"All [King] has to do is point out the hypocrisy of a family values crusader who presided over Congress at the time of the Republicans' 'Clinton penis scavenger hunt' suddenly finding that kind of questioning of a Presidential candidate unseemly! Point out that [Gingrich] insists that gay people would sully the sanctity of marriage -- whilst being a career marriage sully-er!"
Stewart's blood pressure didn't exactly drop for the rest of the segment, appropriately dubbed "How The Newt Gingrich Stole South Carolina," especially after he moved on to talk about Gingrich's claims of being a "Washington Outsider" despite being a former Speaker of the House and Freddie Mac consultant -- not to mention a wealthy D.C. resident.
"When Washington gets its prostate checked, it tickles you!" Stewart joked.
Watch the full segment above.