After two weeks on the campaign trail, Newt Gingrich has had enough — for now. 

Following a bumpy debut as an official candidate which included fumbling an answer about his support for House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s Medicare plan and a report that he carried as much as $500,000 in “revolving charge account” at luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co, the former House speaker has set off for a vacation with his wife Callista. 

Gingrich’s last public event was a May 27 Rotary Club lunch in South Carolina, and he won’t return to the spotlight until a June 8 screening of his documentary about Pope John Paul II in New Hampshire. 

“They had long scheduled time off early in the campaign,” said Gingrich spokesman Rick Tyler. “They spent a long time, really with no break, preparing for the campaign. This week was an opportunity to get away together, and they decided it was important to stick to that schedule. We’ll be back next week.” 

Tyler declined to specify where the Gingriches are spending their time off. 

“I wouldn’t want to say,” Tyler said. “It would defeat the purpose of a vacation.” 

Among the events Gingrich will be missing is this weekend’s Faith & Freedom Conference in Washington, a cattle call event that has attracted nearly every other GOP presidential contender to preach to the evangelical base. He’ll also be missing time on the stump, as Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Rudy Giuliani, Jon Huntsman and even Buddy Roemer hit New Hampshire voters. Tim Pawlenty, meanwhile, just completed a three-day swing through Iowa. 

Asked whether the vacation puts Gingrich at a disadvantage, Tyler responded, “It’s a very long road ahead.” 

But it wasn’t a last-minute getaway. When Faith & Freedom Coalition founder Ralph Reed first invited Gingrich to speak at the D.C. conference months ago, the trip had already been planned. 

“It shouldn’t be interpreted in any way that we do not intend to aggressively compete for the vote of those attending,” said Tyler, who will be delivering Gingrich’s video message to the evangelical and social conservative gathering Friday afternoon. 

Before starting his vacation, Gingrich did a 17-stop tour of Iowa, two-day swing through New Hampshire and a visit to South Carolina. But he hasn’t been completely absent since — he’s published a flurry of tweets, including 11 so far on Friday alone about the dismal jobs report numbers — “Today’s bad job numbers once again show that big govt stimulus does not create jobs.”