WOW!! That’s all I can say after watching this video clip of Newt Gingrich on CBS’ The Early Show, copied from the Talking Points Memo web site. After calling Mitt Romney a liar, he agreed with Bob Schieffer’s characterization of Romney as being a “bald-faced liar” (who would, nonetheless, be a better President than Barack Obama).
I am not suggesting that Gingich’s assessment is incorrect — indeed, I think Romney’s penchant for distorting the truth will be a major element in the ongoing campaign — but this statement is from the man who in many of the GOP debates chastised moderators for trying to get the Republican candidates to fight among themselves. He has also foresworn (at least for now) negative advertising, but to his credit is saying these things directly and not through what are essentially anonymous “super-PACs.” If Romney becomes the nominee, this will not be the last time you will see segments of the following quote from Newt:
“This is a man whose staff created the PAC, his millionaire friends fund the PAC, he pretends he has nothing to do with the PAC – it’s baloney. He’s not telling the American people the truth.
It’s just like this pretense that he’s a conservative. Here’s a Massachusetts moderate who has tax-paid abortions in ‘Romneycare,’ puts Planned Parenthood in ‘Romneycare,’ raises hundreds of millions of dollars of taxes on businesses, appoints liberal judges to appease Democrats, and wants the rest of us to believe somehow he’s magically a conservative.
I just think he ought to be honest with the American people and try to win as the real Mitt Romney, not try to invent a poll-driven, consultant-guided version that goes around with talking points, and I think he ought to be candid. I don’t think he’s being candid and that will be a major issue. From here on out from the rest of this campaign, the country has to decide: Do you really want a Massachusetts moderate who won’t level with you to run against Barack Obama who, frankly, will just tear him apart? He will not survive against the Obama machine.”
The quoted portion is from the CBS News web site. One thing seems certain — the Saturday night debate on ABC just became a lot more interesting.
Tom Noonan 