Kentucky GOP senator and tea party supporter Rand Paul blasted Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich Friday, calling the former House Speaker a “big government, status quo Republican.”
“Gingrich is not from the tea party. He is not even a conservative,” Sen. Paul wrote in an opinion piece for The Des Moines Register. “He is part of the Washington establishment I was sent to fight. He has been wrong on many of the major issues of the day.”
Paul, a freshman senator elected largely on a wave of tea party activism, went on to assault Gingrich’s record, specifically his work for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
“While one candidate in the race, my father, Rep. Ron Paul, was publicly warning about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the crisis they were helping to create, Gingrich was earning millions to not only endorse but also promote the status quo.”
Paul also noted such Gingrich’s history of “global warming commercials with Nancy Pelosi, support for cap-and-trade, funding Planned Parenthood, and, recently, announcing that life does not begin at conception.”
As the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses draw near, Texas Rep. Ron Paul is trailing Gingrich in the latest Iowa polls. The Ron Paul campaign has been using its campaign war chest to launch a series of attack ads against Gingrich, who surged into the lead of the GOP primaries in November.
The op-ed also took shots at former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, calling him “a moderate, northeastern, don’t-rock-the-boat Republican.”
“Since the tea party started as a reaction to Republicans who voted for TARP, and was strengthened into a national political force during the fight over ObamaCare, I believe this disqualifies both Romney and Gingrich from tea party support,” Sen. Paul wrote.
Texas congressman Ron Paul’s presidential campaign blasted out the op-ed to supporters this morning.