Newt Gingrich’s closest competitors in the GOP nomination race now have their sights set on the former House Speaker and current front-runner, and Gingrich’s long career in Washington has left them with plenty of ammo.
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney’s campaign launched a website today, Unreliable Leader, highlighting a TV commercial about global warming that Gingrich made in 2008 with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“Over his three decades in Washington, Speaker Gingrich has been an unreliable leader,” says Romney communications director Gail Gitcho on the website. “When conservatives applauded Paul Ryan for proposing bold new ideas to solve the budget crisis, Speaker Gingrich attacked his plan and threw him under the bus. And while conservatives were fighting job-killing cap-and-trade schemes, Speaker Gingrich shared a loveseat with Nancy Pelosi and lent his name to Al Gore’s environmental agenda.”
Texas Rep. Ron Paul also released a two-minute TV spot Sunday, calling Gingrich “a corrupt Washington insider who got rich through influence-peddling.”
The Paul ad highlights Gingrich’s accumulation of wealth as he moved through the ranks of Congress, along with a large number of ethics complaints brought against Gingrich — but later dismissed — while he was House Speaker.