Newt Gingrich will really, really not attack his Republican primary opponents. Except when he does.
The former House speaker won applause from voters throughout the summer and fall for aiming his fire at President Barack Obama rather than other GOP presidential candidates. In a letter to supporters Tuesday, Gingrich said it was ?critical? for Republicans to have a nominee who has not been roughed up in a primary, writing: ?I have refrained from launching attacks on my Republican opponents, though I have reserved the right to respond when my record has been distorted.?
Continue ReadingYet ever since he re-emerged as a serious contender in the 2012 race, Gingrich has aimed a string of barbs at Mitt Romney, some of them markedly sarcastic and personal. Only some of them have come in response to Romney?s attacks.
A Dec. 1 Polk County GOP dinner in Iowa offered a typical example. Gingrich renewed his vow to stay positive in the race, telling reporters: ?I?m not interested in distinguishing myself from Mitt Romney.?
?I?m happy to be who I am,? he said, before adding the cutting dig: ?I think that distinguishes me from Mitt Romney.?
Veteran Gingrich watchers see a familiar dynamic from his bomb-hurling days as a House backbencher; Gingrich casts himself as a historian interested in Platonic dialogue with his adversaries, a statesman who is above mere political tactics ? then seizes tactical opportunities to tear into his most credible opponent with glee.
Former New York Rep. Susan Molinari, a Romney supporter who served alongside Gingrich in the House, said Gingrich?s rhetorical games were entirely familiar from a politician long known as a savage partisan competitor.
?This is Newt thinking he?s smarter than everybody else, which is always when life catches up with Newt,? Molinari said of Gingrich?s two-track messaging. ?I honestly think he thinks if he says, ?I?m not gonna take any hits on Romney,? and goes ahead and does it, the majority of people will believe he is not hitting Romney ? I guess maybe he?s betting that the discrepancy between what he says and what he does won?t catch him until after Jan. 3 or 10.?
For some voters, Gingrich?s ?do as I say, not as I do? approach may be particularly dizzying, as he was noted mostly, if at all, during the early primary debates for being a voice of reason and substance, decrying media inanity and partisan antics.
But as his poll numbers began to rise, so did Gingrich?s zest for hand-to-hand political combat. As early as late November, Gingrich drew an acid, if largely implicit, contrast with Romney, saying that he is ?a lot more conservative than Mitt Romney? and vowing: ?I wouldn?t lie to the American people.?
?I wouldn?t switch my position for political reasons. It?s perfectly reasonable to change positions if you see new things you didn?t see,? Gingrich said. ?If you go around and adopt radically different positions based on need for any one election, people will ask, ?What will you tell me next time???
Gingrich was entirely happy to mix it up with Romney on the debate stage in Iowa Saturday, saying that his opponent had a career in the private sector only ?because you lost to Teddy Kennedy in 1994.?
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