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Romney goes medieval on Gingrich

Posted Jan 23, 2012 by William March

Updated Jan 23, 2012 at 03:53 PM

In surrogate comments, a new ad and statements to reporters in Tampa this morning, Mitt Romney is hitting hard at Newt Gingrich, hoping to shore up his Florida firewall and halt the Gingrich surge in its tracks.

Romney is hitting Gingrich on nearly every front—his highly paid work for the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac housing agencies, his record as House speaker and alleged ethical violations, and his personal temperament.

The language is tough. A quote from the new ad, titled “Florida Families”: “While Florida families lost everything in the housing crisis, Newt Gingrich cashed in.”

In a press gaggle following an appearance in Tampa this morning, Romney suggested that Gingrich’s past makes him too risky to be the nominee. He raised the spectre of an “October surprise,” a burst of negative publicity late in the campaign over a previously unknown controversy—the kind of event that can kill a campaign.

In fact, he said, “We could see an October Surprise a day from Newt Gingrich.”

In a conference call with reporters this morning, former candidate Tim Pawlenty, now backing Romney, and Florida House speaker designate Will Weatherford of Wesley Chapel demanded that Gingrich release records of his time as what Pawlenty called “a lobbyist and influence peddler” in Washington after he left Congress.

“We should have a chance to know who he represented and for what purpose and at what price,” Pawlenty said. He said Gingrich “has spent almost his entie adult life either as a member of the Congress or as an influence peddler … to suggest that he’s an outsider simply defies the facts.”

Weatherford mocked Gingrich’s assertion that he consulted for the housing agencies as a historian, not a lobbyist.

“I think we’re all aware of how tuition is going up, but $1.7 million for a history lesson? I think that’s got to be a record somewhere,” he said.

“The possibility of Newt Gingrich being our nominee against Barack Obama is essentially handing the election over to Obama,” he said.