The Hill News

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich still plays a role in advising the current House Republican Conference, Minority Whip Eric Cantor said Tuesday.

Gingrich (R-Ga.) has been very active in Republican fundraising and politicking efforts during the midterm campaign season and Cantor (R-Va.) acknowledged that he has been a key asset for the House GOP.

{mosads}"Newt Gingrich -- I was not lucky enough to serve with him when he was in the House -- but he is still very much a counselor, adviser to us," he said on the "Imus in the Morning" show on Fox Business. "He was the architect of the last Republican takeover of the House. He is always around to allow us the benefit of the lessons he learned in all of that. He's an idea factory."

House Republican leaders rarely speak openly about their former leader despite his large public presence and heavy involvement in the elections.

Gingrich, who is a potential 2012 presidential candidate, has! remained an influential figure in the Republican Party as political observers are predicting that the GOP could win back the House in a similar fashion to Gingrich's 1994 "Republican Revolution."

House Republicans on Thursday plan to release a governing agenda document that many have compared to the 1994 "Contract with America" that Gingrich co-wrote. That document helped propel the GOP into the majority, which they held for 12 years.

Gingrich has also come to the defense of House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) during his spats with the White House. The Georgia Republican echoed Boehner's call on Obama to fire Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council Director L! arry Summers as well as his position on extending all the Bush tax cuts after Democrats attempted to paint him as out-of-step. 

Host Don Imus jokingly asked Cantor if Gingrich was a "Fat Elvis" whose "time has past."

"I think that's an absolutely incorrect description of Newt," Cantor replied.