Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) has been spending some time on Capitol Hill.

But he did not stick to his old stomping ground in the House, as one might expect. Instead, as Jessica Holzer reports in The Hill on Tuesday, he recently joined Republican senators, and appeared to make a favorable impression.

Perhaps the most telling comment came from Sen. John Thune (S.D.), who said, “He’s trying to identify a path to victory in the fall. It would be wise for us to listen.”

There was some skepticism — for example, from Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), who recalled being under Gingrich’s command in the House when the GOP lost seats. But Graham, as lieutenant to Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the party’s presidential champion, could be expected to deprecate the leadership qualities of his boss’s competitors.

Gingrich’s foray to Capitol Hill is interesting for at least two reasons. First, it reminds the party of his presence, his long-term ambition and his continued interest in electoral success. He was touted as a possible presidential candidate himself a year ago, and nixed a run only after allowing speculation to build, and then only with a thin excuse about charitable tax status.

So it can be assumed that Gingrich is, and wishes to remain, a force within his party.

The second reason his visit to Republican congressional ranks catches the eye has less to do with the distant prospect of his return to party leadership, centering instead on the GOP’s dismal prospects this November.

The party in Congress looks likely to take a drubbing, and its probable suffering can be attributed, more than anything else, to the stale and fusty air that hangs about it and its ideas.

An increasing number of thoughtful conservatives are imploring the party to stop relying on slogans and nostrums that are a generation old. Banging on about taxes is less effective now, as author David Frum notes in his recent book, Comeback, than it was in the 1970s and 1980s when the top marginal rate was twice as high.

Gingrich brings to Republicans something they badly need — a reminder that parties win when they have vigor and fresh ideas. For all his flaws, he supplied Republicans with visionary, or at least ideas-based, leadership.

It was intriguing to watch the House GOP head into the 2006 election under the campaign leadership of (the now retiring) Rep. Tom Reynolds (N.Y.), who was unable to offer any unifying idea of Republicanism to persuade voters to keep the party in control of Congress. As we wrote in this space back then, if he didn’t know why to vote Republican, voters certainly weren’t likely to either. The GOP seems no closer now to offering voters a reason to like them.

Now it faces, if anything, the possibility of an even bigger electoral setback. The Democrats are so confident of victory that Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), the Democratic Caucus chairman, was comfortable turning up to a GOP lunch and breezily telling the glum lawmakers assembled there that their party’s brand stank.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) describes Gingrich as “the Mount Vesuvius of ideas.” The GOP needs an eruption.