less than a month out from the voting in iowa, turns out there is still time for newt gingrich to, ka-ching. joining us now is jonathan alter, msnbc political analyst, bloomberg view columnist, and author of "the promise: president obama year one." mr. alter, it's good to see you. >> hi, rachel. >> to your knowledge is there present for mr. gingrich's concurrent efforts to run for president and make a buck? isn't this usually kind of a full-time job running for president? >> usually, this is what you do in spring training. so you had, for instance, john mccain in 1999 when he was getting ready to run. he used his book tour to launch. other candidates have done that. barack obama did some of that in 2007. but this has never been done before. it's very peculiar. just a few weeks before the iowa caucuses. it reflects the i guess unquenchable greed of newt gingrich. but it also has a chutzpah and hypocrisy element to it. you remember that gingrich first became important in american politics when he used a book deal that speaker jim wright had to get wright out as speaker of the house. then when