“Punk” is my word, of course, not his, but c’mon — you know he’s itching to say it. Before this campaign is over, I want to hear it. His contempt for Romney is palpable and he’s already taken to referring to him as a “rich guy” and to the campaign as a contest of “people power versus money power.” He’s right on the brink.

He’s quite right, incidentally, about Team Mitt wanting to destroy him. A Romney staffer used that word last weekend in describing the campaign’s goals in Florida to BuzzFeed. (Newt seems to have that piece confused with this one from the Times, which laid out how Romney’s strategy to hit Gingrich relentlessly in Florida came together after South Carolina.) Funny thing, though. Newt’s making it sound like his “no concession calls” policy is something new, a reaction to the negativity in Florida. According to Romney, though, Gingrich has never once called him to concede after any of his primary victories. Go figure that Newt would be grumpy after Romney’s Super PAC totally destroyed him in Iowa with a barrage of negative ads.

Two clips for you here, one about the concession calls and the other of Gingrich in fine form laying into Romney on the stump today. Note the many memorable little rhetorical flourishes — “Obama-lite,” “little food stamp,” even “ObamneyCare” as a nod at newly-minted Mitt fan Tim Pawlenty. I hope he sticks with this line of attack for the rest of the campaign, partly because it’s effective, partly because it doesn’t leave the Democrats with much to use against Romney later, and partly because Newt’s populist pandering sounds increasingly weird lately. According to CNN, he took a shot today at media “elites” in New York who, er, “ride the subway.” Note to Newt: The only member of the elite who rides the subway regularly in NYC is Mike Bloomberg, and the only reason he does it is — ta da — because it’s a populist pander. Click the second image to watch.