We gathered in a small dining room in the very same hotel where Newt Gingrich claimed control of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994 -- just a few former and current staff, friends and supporters of Gingrich's American Solutions initiative, set to kick off on Thursday. There was a sense that something big was about to happen -- but what?

Hours after what turned out to be a very nonpolitical gathering of intimates, I was still wondering what truly lies ahead for Gingrich.

All of the official talk had been about that which has the potential to be a shockingly large national interactive series of workshops exploring "new approaches" to problems ranging from healthcare to security, yet the conversation was sprinkled with references to the reaction to Gingrich in states such as Iowa, Michigan and the like.

Careful not to mix presidential politics with the Solutions agenda, Gingrich praised the initiative's organizers and spoke once again of the start of "something truly historic" and "a true movement."

Indeed, by all accounts it appears that the former Speaker once again shocked his detractors with a rollout of his movement that included nationally syndicated talk show hosts Neal Boortz, Sean Hannity and Bill Bennett. That said, the true and unspoken buzz among Gingrich's closest friends and co-workers centered on what might follow the conclusion of the American Solutions workshop this weekend.

In a rather bizarre move, Gingrich announced earlier this week that his longtime attorney and friend, Randy Evans, would begin seeking pledges toward a potential Gingrich candidacy for the GOP nomination. Readers of this column will recall that I predicted some six months ago that the Hamlet of the Republican Party -- to run or not to run -- would indeed enter the presidential sweepstakes.

But the former Speaker was as strangely coy about what the "$30 million search" means as he has been about any number of political ventures -- some hugely successful, others less so. Continued...