ABC News reports on Newt Gingrich’s appearance on The Week this morning:
Gingrich said Romney has run a “campaign of vilification” that is based on “factually false” claims and “carpet-bombing with negative ads.” When I asked the former speaker if Romney had the character to be president, Gingrich said “it is a very serious problem.”
“You cannot be president of the United States if you cannot be honest and candid with the American people,” Gingrich told me.
Romney dominated Thursday’s debate and devoted a hefty chunk of the two-hour event to attacking Gingrich’s immigration stance, the work he did for mortgage giant Freddie Mac, and the ethics investigation of Gingrich while he was in the House.
On Sunday, Gingrich said such attacks were “blatantly dishonest” and based on “totally phony history, which [Romney] maniacally continues to repeat.”
“I’m standing next to a guy who is the most blatantly dishonest answers I can remember in any presidential race in — in my lifetime,” Gingrich said. “I don’t know how you debate a person with civility if they’re prepared to say things that are just plain factually false.”
The Romney campaign has fired back with a series of statements. “I thought I had heard it all from Newt Gingrich, but for him to question the character of Mitt Romney is over the line,” said Tim Pawlenty in his statement. “I have spent a lot of time with Mitt Romney, and I can tell you with zero hesitation that he is a man of flawless character.”
“I was very disappointed to hear Speaker Gingrich make comments today that impugned Governor Romney’s character through attacks on his business record, his record of public service, and now on his personal integrity,” said Virginia governor Bob McDonnell in a statement. “I know Mitt and Ann well. They are people of great faith and the highest character and have raised five wonderful children over their 42 years of marriage. Mitt Romney’s moral fitness for office is beyond reproach and is a major reason that I am so pleased to support his campaign.”
“Newt Gingrich is so desperate to prop up his sinking campaign that his message has devolved into a character assassination of Mitt Romney,” said Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz in a statement.
Romney's character is seriously wanting but Newt Gingrich is as ill-poised to make that argument as Romney is to challenge Obamneycare.
https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/notes/mark-levin/character-matters-and-romneys-worries-me/10150499413515946
Never support a man whose sole principle is ambition. This unfortunately applies almost as much to Gingrich as it does to Romney.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYes, this Newt Gingrich is intolerable. How does he dare to point out the lies of a liar, disregarding the fact that other luminaries, having no problem with liars, guarantee that the liar is a man of impeccable character?
The GOP primary is descending to a level that not even the Demokrats achieved yet.
PS Little hint to the indignant advocates of the lying candidate: having had only one wife and being a good father does not mean that one cannot show lack of moral fitness in many other ways.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGingrich has seen the polls. He's always been a sore loser.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThought 1: Gingrich keeps claiming Romney is telling lies, but he doesn't seem to ever back up his increasingly pointed statements with any actual examples (that I have heard). Its like he thinks repeating a single line again and again will make it so, or at least make people believe it.
Thought 2: My rule of thumb is that people tend to see/assume their own traits in others. Lately I've thought Gingrich seems like he will say anything if he thinks its what people wants to hear, then low and behold he starts throwing that accusation at Romney.
Thought 3: Gingrich's accusations are getting more and more extreme each time I hear him. He has this tendency to start out low key and then, as if he can't help himself, he has to make each statement bigger and bolder than the one before, no matter what the subject is. Its a tactic that wears real thin quickly.
Thought 4: I wish Santorum would pick up steam so that our two man race was between two men of sound moral character, allowing the debate to focus on policy, not personality.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is Newt's version of the "I know you are but what am I?" retort.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLet me try to understand this - Romney can run ads discrediting Newt's character but Newt can't respond about the character running misleading ads. Got it!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf what Gingrich said is true, the time to challenge Romney is in the debate, on stage, to his face.
As Romney said in the debate, again challenging Gingrich on his propensity to say one thing
on the trail and to interviews, and then to cower when having to say it to someone's face:
"Wouldn't it be nice if people didn't make accusations somewhere else that they were not prepared to defend here"
If that is not a serious character problem, I don't know what is.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI am repulsed by Newt and Mitt's slap fight. Both seem unworthy of being the Republican nomination to me that this point.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI am not sure how exactly these "blind trusts" operate - but I am sure that any American will know if he has personal accounts in Swiss banks or parked in the Caymans (tax evasion and money laundering heaven). Romney had more than a dozen such accounts, including one Swiss bank account with more than $ 3 million in it + more than $10M in the Caymans. Any normal person should know if he has such accounts - so obviously Romay is lying or he does not consider tens of millions of dollars - significant amount of money.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIn what "bizzaro" world could Newt Gingrich insinuate that Mitt Romney lacks the character to be President? First, if there are to be any standards for character, any reasonable person would find Newt lacking.
For Newt to dismiss his personal character failings as having happened 11 years ago is equally silly. Is that supposed to be a long time ago? I've got polo shirts that I have had that long. I would have hoped that whatever character lessons would have been learned by him prior to his 57th birthday.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou have to stay plugged in to hear what Newt will say next. You definitely cannot make it up.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseFor such a smart guy, you'd think Newt would understand the concept of irony.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt seems like Newt is getting really annoyed that Mitt is playing perfectly, if a bit hardball, politics. I am sure that as a smart guy when Newt did the scenario planning before running he though that certain things, Fannie/Freddie, Spanish as a ghetto/barrio language, multiple marriages, problems at the end of his term as house speaker, should not matter and can be easily explained away. Mitt is not conforming to Newt's battle plan.
As we all know "No Battle plan survives first contact with the Enemy" -von Moltke, When Newt's battle plans go astray he lashes out, when Mitt's battle plans go astray he is in the OODA loop (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act).
It was painful to watch Newt on Fox News Sunday when he was trying to explain to Chris Wallace that it was ridiculous equate Bi-Lingual education with Spanish. When he does that he looses credibility.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIn other news, lightening struck earlier today during an ABC interview with Newt Gingrich.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThere's a character problem alright, and it's not Mitt's.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAccording to Pawlenty, Romney has a flawless character??
I don't think I've ever met someone with a flawless character, and I would greatly surprise me if the first one is a politician.
My guess is that Pawlenty has a lower bar for flawlessness than most people do.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou beat me to it. Now they are trying to make him a god? Flawless? How about disingenuous, vicious, greedy. And I don't need to hear the squeals from the phoney conservatives about attacking the capitalist system. There is a difference between wanting to build something and just being greedy. I loved his line about making his own money. Boo hoo. His daddy was president of Amercian Motors, governor of Michigan and ran for the Presidency. Yes sir, Mitts is a real Horatio Alger story.
The last politician who bought his way to the top was John "Corleone" Corzine. Another Wall Street wonder boy who was unseemly in his ambition.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGingrich is like heroin for Conservatives.
You feel really good for a bit, but then you come down off the high and feel like you want to throw up.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abusecoming off a heroin high for conservatives? I think you have the wrong blog. Try Media Matters.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt takes an extraordinary level of arrogance - or complete detachment from reality - to cheat on two wives and be the only Speaker of the House in history to be fined for ethics violations and with a straight face and an abundance of sincerity question another person's character.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse