It was one of those opposition research kind of nights on The Daily Show, and the host delivered a simple message about Newt Gingrich to GOP voters: "Don't do this." Jon Stewart, who already mock-called the race for Mitt Romney weeks ago, spent eight-plus minutes assembling a case against the former Speaker of the House better than any well-funded, Romney-backed Super PAC could.

He playing clips of Gingrich's ego comparing himself to various historical figures and dredged up a bizarre 2008 clip where, as Conor Friedersdorf recently noted, he lamented the Bush administration's ability to stop terrorist attacks. And that was all before Stewart staged an intervention where he called upon a "who's who" (Joe Scarborough, Lindsey Graham, Rand Paul, Pete King, even Glenn Beck) in the conservative movement to say various "he's really a bad sort of guy" remarks about Newt. Everyone else on the Fox News debate stage Thursday night in Iowa will be enjoying this:

Part II:

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Erik Hayden