24 Hours of Gingrich's Insults for Romney
Newt Gingrich is absolutely furious that Mitt Romney was able to benefit from the negative campaigning tactics Gingrich pioneered in the 1990s without getting his hands dirty thanks to the Supreme Court decision that Gingrich supported! He promised Monday to attack Romney every single day after the Iowa caucuses, and since the votes were tallied, he's kept that promise. Gingrich won't even call Romney to congratulate him on his victory in Iowa, Politico's Ginger Gibson reports, though Romney talked to everyone else Tuesday night. When a reporter asked Gingrich why he'd congratulated Rick Santorum but snubbed Romney, Gingrich replied, "Because I know you would be a man of great professionalism, I know that's a rhetorical question. And a good one."
RELATED: Obama Slips in Battleground States; Gingrich Slips in Iowa
That's the most restraint Gingrich has shown so far. He likely knew the morning of the vote that he was going to lose. But he only got meaner as the hours wore on.
RELATED: The Gingrich-Santorum Anti-Romney Alliance
Tuesday morning: Liar.
RELATED: First GOP Debate with Recognizable Candidates Will Be on June 13
On CBS's Early Show, Norah O'Donnell noted that Gingrich has said, "Somebody who'll lie to you to get to be president will lie to you when they are president," and asked, "Are you calling Mitt Romney a liar?"
Gingrich: Yes. [shrug] O'Donnell: You're calling Mitt Romney a liar? Gingrich: Well, you seem shocked by it!
RELATED: After All This, Romney's Going to Win?
Tuesday night: Moderate Wall Streeter bringing shame upon the troops.
RELATED: Santorum Wins Tie with Romney in Iowa
Gingrich gave a rather fiery concession speech after coming in fourth in Iowa. He didn't mention Romney by name, but it was clear whom he was talking about. He asked whether voters would want a Reaganite like himself, or:
"Do we want a Massachusetts moderate who, in fact, will be pretty good at managing the decay, but has given no evidence in his years in Massachusetts of any ability to change the culture or change the political structure or change the government?"
And though he was supposedly talking about some of his campaign volunteers, it's clear who was on his mind in this section of the speech:
"They weren`t millionaires. They weren`t from Wall Street. They didn`t have a Super PAC. But they had courage. They had work. They were smart."
Then he mentioned all the soldiers, past and present, who had fought for the nation, and implied that Romney's campaign sullied their honor:
"And every one of us ought to remember -- it`s part of what made these negative ads so shameful. Every one of us should remember, this process survives because young men and women risk their lives to allow us to do this. We should act worthy of them."
Early Wednesday morning: Timid.
In an ad in the New Hampshire Union Leader, spotted by NBC News' Jo Ling Kent, Gingrich called Romney a "Timid Massachusetts Moderate."
8:30a.m. Wednesday: Reject.
Politico's Tim Mak noticed Gingrich told CNBC's Squawk Box:
“Gov. Romney spent five years and millions and millions of dollars and got exactly 25 percent in Iowa. It’s remarkable. Three of 4 Republicans said no. I’m always amazed at these arguments that he is more electable when, in fact, he can’t break out. He has a ceiling and conservative Republicans just walk off and say they won’t vote for him.”
9:00a.m. Wednesday: Media fantasy, victimizer, out of the mainstream.
And Mak spotted Gingrich on MSNBC's Daily Rundown:
“How can you take seriously somebody who, with that amount of time and that kind of money, flattens out at 25 percent?... He’s simply someone the media likes to talk about..."
"I’m the victim of one particular person, Mitt Romney."
"I think [Santorum and I are] both going to be defining Romney out of the mainstream of the Republican Party."
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
9:30a.m. Wednesday: Will sell you out.
Gingrich told Laura Ingraham that he wouldn't mind teaming up with Rick Santorum, Hot Air's Ed Morrissey notes.
"I mean Rick and I have a 20-year friendship, we are both rebels, we both came into this business as reformers, we both dislike deeply the degree to which the establishment sells out the American people."
10:30-ish a.m. Wednesday: Reject, media fantasy, Reagan repudiater, Paul Tsongas fan, state-funded abortion implementer, cultural misfit, Democrat placater.
After a townhall in Concord, New Hampshire, in which he didn't talk about his opponents, Gingrich let it all come out with reporters. Asked why he didn't place in the top tier, Gingrich responded, "Other than the fact that Governor Romney ran a relentlessly negative campaign of falsehoods, which earned one of his ads four Pinocchios from the Washington Post?" USA Today's Martha T. Moore and The Washington Post's Joel Achenbach report he was just getting started.
"The fact is, three out of four Republicans rejected him."
"Governor Romney is a moderate Massachusetts Republican to the left of the vast majority of Republicans. I find it amazing that the media continues to say he's the most electable Republican when he can't even break out in his own party."
“Governor Romney was first an independent, then repudiated Reagan-Bush, then voted for Paul Tsongas, the most liberal candidate in the ‘92 campaign, then ran to the left of Teddy Kennedy in 1994."
"He doesn't fit culturally, he doesn't fit ideologically."
“[Romney] appointed liberal judges in order to placate Democrats.”
