Alexander Ryking

Newt Gingrich has lost his last embedded print reporters, reporters on the trail confirm.

The last two print reporters covering Gingrich full-time on the trail — from POLITICO and the Atlanta Journal Constitution — pulled out on Friday. The Associated Press pulled its embed after Tuesday’s Illinois primary.

These and other print outlets will continue to cover Gingrich on occasion, but the sustained traveling press has been reduced to the television networks, which will remain.

On the bright side, he’s still faring better than Ron Paul.

Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul’s slim hopes of winning the Republican presidential nomination depend primarily on their ability to triumph at a contested convention in August. The idea is that if front-runner Mitt Romney falls short of the 1,144 delegates he needs to secure the nomination outright before the convention, his rivals will seize the opportunity to win over the Republican faithful during the convention process.

That long-shot strategy depends on Gingrich and Paul actually getting on the convention ballot. And it now appears that may be a problem. The Atlanta-Journal Constitution has noticed a little-known rule - No. 40(b), to be exact - that would seem to keep the two candidates from being able to participate in a floor fight.

The rule was adopted in 2008…

Gingrich has won a plurality in two states so far, South Carolina and Georgia; Paul has not won any states. The Republican National Convention confirms to CBS News that this means a candidate would not qualify for the first ballot at the convention unless they get, as the rule states, a plurality of delegates in five states.

Police and organizers shut down proceedings at one of Missouri’s largest caucuses today, as Ron Paul supporters feuded with local GOP leaders.

“It’s like the Hatfields and the McCoys around here,” St. Charles County’s former GOP chairman told ABC News, after police arrived on-scene with a helicopter and removed Paul backers.

In St. Charles, an exurb of St. Louis and one of the state’s largest GOP counties, Paul supporters sought to elect their own chairman and adopt their own rules when proceedings opened — both of which are part of standard caucus rules and procedure. But as they argued with the caucus chair, Paul supporters held video cameras — against caucus rules, according to a GOP official who was there — and things became contentious…

Saturday’s episode was a near repeat of 2008, when Paul backers succeeded in overwhelming other factions at the St. Charles caucus, according to Kipers. Their elected delegates were subsequently tossed from the congressional-district convention for being verifiable Libertarians (by primary voter rolls) and not Republicans, although Missouri has no voter registration by party.

At the state convention, in a spirit of reconciliation according to Kipers, they were reinstated and the officials who had barred them were themselves barred for having done so.

Ron Paul’s flagging presidential campaign is also bleeding cash, spending more money than it raised in February and finding itself with less cash on hand than during any other point this election cycle, federal filings show.

Paul ended February with about $1.37 million in his campaign account — a pittance for a political campaign competing nationally.

The veteran Texas congressman has yet to win a primary or caucus contest, save for a partial caucus victory in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and he badly trails Republican presidential rivals Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich in delegates amassed.

At this juncture, Paul winning the GOP presidential nomination is a near impossibility.

During February, Paul’s campaign raised $3.27 million while spending about $3.55 million, according to his latest filing.

Presidential hopeful Ron Paul has disavowed white supremacists and their views, but a review of federal campaign filings shows he accepts their money.

Paul’s 2012 campaign has received more than $6,000 from people who have identified themselves as white separatists or supremacists, or who are listed on anti-hate group sites such as the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Two prominent donors are leaders in what may be the most ambitious white nationalist political movement in the U.S., American Third Position. One is William Johnson, the group’s chairman. Another is Virginia Abernethy, a former Vanderbilt professor who is listed as a director of the party.