Ailing Adelson's Woes Spelling Trouble For Newt?

The delightful Allison Hoffman, fiance to my close friend and former Vegas gaming scribe Adam Goldman, has a fascinating piece on TabletMag.Com today about Sheldon Adelson and how the SEC investigation into his Macau dealings could further damage the already moribund Newt Gingrich For President campaign. It's interesting stuff; Hoffman reports that Adelson has funneled $7 million into Gingrich's PAC but may not be willing to pony up much more until he's out of the woods legally and the stock has popped up a bit higher. That could be too late for the desperate and flailing Gingrich effort.

But two specific things caught my eye. First, Hoffman was in L.A. on Sunday because Gingrich was speaking at the Republican Jewish Coalition fundraiser dinner at which Adelson was expected to appear to receive the Ronald Reagan (of course) Award. But he didn't show up:

His wife, Miriam, told the audience that he was fighting a bad flu—“He is really suffering, leaking from every corner of the eyes, his nose. Not his ears!”

First of all, eww. Secondly, ut oh. Adelson, 77, is not a well man, hasn't been for years. In my 2008 interview with him he first disclosed his leg circulatory disorder, and every time he's in public his eyes look as leaky as she described. Not to be morbid, but if I were a shareholder of Las Vegas Sands, I'd really want to know what the succession plan is. Maybe THIS is why Steve Wynn's being so nice to him.

On the other hand, Hoffman also pointed to something fascinating that shows Adelson can still, at least for now, be in the rarest of form. Last month, the man known by Jon Ralston as Gondolier Numero Uno, rang up the editor of New York's influential Jewish Week newspaper to blow his stack over some critical piece on Newt and the Jews. After he let off that steam, he provided a 30-minute interview that showed him as a careful observer of the GOP presidential sweepstakes. He likes Gingrich and Romney, thinks Tim Pawlenty could crack into the top tier but isn't there yet. And, of course, Barack Obama will destroy Israel and giggle while doing so.

But this is the part I loved:

Adelson said that contrary to some claims, Gingrich was not a hypocrite for leading the effort to impeach President Clinton at a time when, it was later learned, the congressman was having an affair with a House of Representatives staffer 23 years his junior – she is now his third wife.

“He wasn’t going after Clinton for having an affair but because he lied,” Adelson said, adding that Gingrich wasn’t president at the time.

Yeah. That's it.