Newt Gingrich has officially given up trying to make courts allow him onto the Virginia primary ballot. You'll recall that the Gingrich campaign—as well as those of John Huntsman, Rick Perry, and Rick Santorum—didn't file enough signatures by the deadline in order to appear on the ballot next month. Since then, Gingrich has been fighting the ruling in court, but his campaign confirmed Monday that they've given up. "In the filings, Gingrich gave no explanation for throwing the in the towel on the legal battle for a spot on the March 6 ballot. However, recent rulings in the dispute have not gone his way," notes Politico's Josh Gerstein.

Perhaps, given the way Gingrich's campaign is shaping up, a legal battle just felt distracting. Of course, when Gingrich first missed the ballot deadline, he compared the setback to the one America faced after Pearl Harbor, but we're not sure what his giving up does for that particular metaphor.

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at erandall at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.