accompany calista to the opera at the kennedy senator. a few days later, the final straw. the greek isles. ignoring the pleas of his top aides, gingrich put his campaign on hold to go with calista on a cruise. 16 staffers resigned. >> of course, they make decisions together about their schedule. it's their life. >> reporter: gingrich's campaign spokesman defends the strategy. >> the fact is, this is newt's campaign, he's going to run it the way he thinks is best for america. >> reporter: but many republicans wonder if gingrich can ever recover. >> started as one of the worst campaign starts in the history of campaigns and my guess is he'll be done fairly soon. >> that was michael isikoff, our national investigative correspondent on all the things about gingrich, inc that may have led to what appears to be the fall of this presidential campaign. by the way, wait until you see newt gingrich's poll numbers in tonight's new nbc "wall street journ