Posted on 01/02/2012 8:06:07 PM PST by Mariner
MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (AP) - Struggling to reverse a slide in his standing, Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich said Sunday he'd been "Romney-boated" in Iowa and suggested his GOP rival would buy the presidency if he could.
The sharp words against Mitt Romney, a multimillionaire many times over who is in strong contention to win Iowa, come two days before voters here weigh in on the Republican field. It was part of a stepped-up effort by Gingrich to contrast himself with Romney, and the candidate said he would adopt an even more aggressive strategy when the race moves to New Hampshire, the former Massachusetts governor's backyard.
Gingrich's nautical attack was a reference to a 2004 TV ad campaign by a group called the "Swiftboat Veterans for Truth" that bloodied Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. This year, Gingrich has faced an onslaught of negative TV advertisements by a group aligned with Romney.
Asked Sunday whether he felt that he had been "swiftboated," Gingrich replied, "I feel Romney-boated."
It was his second swipe of the day at the Republican frontrunner.
Speaking to reporters after attending morning Mass at the St. Ambrose Cathedral in Des Moines, Gingrich said the amount Romney will eventually spend on his various campaigns will rival the spending of billionaire New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has poured at least $261 million of his own money into his mayoral campaigns.
"Romney would buy the election if he could," Gingrich said.
A new Des Moines Register poll put Gingrich in fourth place, after leading the field a few weeks ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at siouxcityjournal.com ...
The denizens of Romneyland know this all too well.
Worse, it takes lots of money to be negative. Lots.
Any and every candidate that surpasses Romney in the opinion polls gets their character assassinated.
Coincidence?
I think not.
Romney is running the most negative primary in the history of the GOP and must be defeated by any means necessary.
Romney-boat establishment types for lies!
Santorum is next. Funny how Willard plays it dirty every contest he’s in despite a win/lost record of a pathetic 5-17 for the magic Mormon.
Nevertheless, Newt will SOON open up a can of payback in SC & FL.
I sure hope so. GO NEWT!
Newt said sitting on the couch with Nazi was a dumb thing to do. So was trying to run a positive campaign when nobody else is reciprocating. Hopefully he has now woken up from that Kool Aid and will come out swinging.
Actually, so-called “Swiftboating” was about exposing John Vichy Kerry and telling truth and FACTS about Kerry.
While there may be something to “one person’s negative campaigning is another person’s fact-checking” distinctions must be made between genuine information of importance and interest to voters and mere “smear” attacks (however hard to define impartially).
I vehemently reject all attempts to use the “*****-boating” expression to compare any negative campaigning with what happened in 2004.
In 2004 the country was saved from the lies of the progressive left, and that involved the “Swiftboat Veterans for Truth” exposing John Kerry.
No conservative should allow the media theme of “****-boating” to be a generic term for “unjustified negative campaigning.”
I’m not sure comparing himself to John Kerry is a good thing for Newt Gingrich to be doing, especially since he had that disastrous “debate” where he esstentially agreed with Kerry about Global Warming and how we needed to stop it.
And is Gingrich saying he disapproved of the swift boat veteran’s pointing out John Kerry’s record? Is he telling us he thought the Swift-Boating was false?
I agree.
Off limits.
Bad Newt.
of course it was the reporter who framed the question that way, and Newt found it hard to resist a juicy soundbite....
but I do think it is always important for conservative candidates and speakers to think about and challenge the media “memes” such as “Swiftboating was about unfair negative attacks”
Etiam non princeps sed usque ad genua, Principis Pacis!
Etiam non princeps sed usque ad genua, Principis Pacis!
Unlike most other politicians, he was man enough to admit he screwed up. Far be it for some FReepers to recognize this though. Their mantra will continue on until the 2016 election.
My feelings exactly.
Yes, exactly, I think Newt really stepped in it here.
He showed himself more comfortable with the MSM ill portrayals of the 2004 campaign than with questioning it.
Granted, it’s hard to educate anyone in our sound-bite culture, but Newt prides himself on being a substance-guy and should not have accepted the “frame” of that question. He took the easy path because it served his immediate political need, when he should have objected to the term “Swiftboating”....
I agree 100%. Newt was caught off guard, but I wish he would have clarified his comment.
When Mitt isn't going after Newt, I guess Admiral Yamamoto’s grandson is.
If he expects to hold onto people like me who aren’t that crazy about his candidacy anyway, Newt needs to get off the pity-pot and quit whining.
Comparing himself to John Kerry in any way is not the image he wants to project.
Newt using this rhetorical device of the left, show once again he is a creature of Washington. Unless Newt is trying to say that Romney is spreading the truth about him? After all Swift Boat Veterans for Truth told the truth about Kerry.
Of course, Newt making class warfare claims like Romney is trying to buy the nomination is further evidence that his instincts are now DC instincts and he can not be trusted to be conservative.
Jim O Neil and fellow SBV officers killed Kerry’s claims of being a war hero with true facts about Kerry’s ‘service’ (I sent the SBVFTers $100 myself) and Kerry could only respond to them by repeating ‘stop the lies’ not debunking any of the facts,
For the record, ‘Swift-boating’ is a liberal term made up by Democrats used to smear Jim O Neill and his fellow officers for telling the truth. Newt’s choice of words is very revealing..
Adopting lefty falsehoods and playing victim again. Somebody please remove Newt's feet from his mouth.
John not Jim O’Neill.
That would be John O’Neill.
If Mitt stands for anything, it’s easy for him to say he opposes anything. It’s all trash.
Thanks, it was > 7 years ago and I lost the Thank You card they sent me.
I actually talked with John O’Neill, who I believe is the number one reason for Kerry’s defeat.
I tried his law office in Texas and got him on the phone, effusing like a school girl about how thankful we were to him and the other military heroes who exposed Lurch.
It was an interesting conversation.
I bought and read his book on Kerry and really I looked forward to each next video that his org would post on the internet. I loved watching Kerry react to them in a panic, calling it all lies yet not willing to make the records public how he got his Purple Hearts. Kerry sure acted guilty.
Jim, eer John O Neill was the highlight of the 2004 election still fondly remembered by me.
Dan Rather didn't help Kerry either.
Recall that Newsweek had a reporter inside the Kerry campaign -- but he couldn't report anything until the election was over.
Upon being released from the embargo, the reporter remarked that the Kerry campaign had a good reason for not responding to the Swift Boat attacks: "Almost all of it was true", he said.
The reporter's explanation was never mentioned again by the media -- in Newsweek or anywhere else.
Actually he was asked by a reporter if he felt “Swift Boated?”
Gingrich replied, “No, Romney-boated.”
Amen.
I agree, Newt learned a valuable lesson, and is going to hit back hard now, and unlike Perry, Gingrich is articulate enough to destroy Romney oratorically with half his brain tied behind his back.
This is going to be fun to watch.
Go Newt!
If that is true, then Newt is a real jerk. His response should have been, the SBVFT were telling the truth about Kerry, Romney is not telling the truth about me. Newt is so inside the Beltway, he has adopted the lexicon of the MSM and the Left.
Freddie Newt got sliced and diced in Iowa.
He will get sliced and diced in SC, as well.
His baggage, and there is plenty, is the reason he’s dropping like a rock. His excellent debating skills,
are not enough to overcome his baggage.
Donate more $$$ to Willard for more attacks on Newt if you want, Newt is STILL winning SC, the Decider State.
When you have a train load of dirty laundry do not acted shock when someone runs some of it up the flag poll.
This is news?
So, from me Newt gets a pass this time.
??? yes, and so? I don’t think you can have read my posts.
I know perfectly well it was the reporter who framed the question.
I have explained why I think it’s terrible that any conservative could take up this “****-boating” theme rather than reject the premise.
A key part of *good* conservative politics is knowing how to challenge and reject media narratives which are based upon leftist assumptions.
I have explained that I think Newt took the easy path and pandered to the media.
You may not agree but it is pointless to reiterate what the reporter and Gingrich said when I am criticizing the very fact that Gingrich embraced the reporter’s “****-boating” theme.
well he gets no pass from me — “Swiftboating” is one of the great liberal media hoaxes of the past decade.
He did not have to get into a rebuttal of the question but he did not have to embrace the left’s “narrative” about “****-boating” either.
It was pandering to a very bad element in the leftist media.
Gingrich should know better.
I can excuse not taking up every issue at every opportunity (one has to make choices, of course), but I don’t excuse such pandering to dishonest media memes.
“I can excuse not taking up every issue at every opportunity (one has to make choices, of course), but I don’t excuse such pandering to dishonest media memes.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkaKwJ9eOUU
Enchante. You got my vote on what you wrote in post 6. May you and yours have a content and healthy upcoming new year.
Newt uses a term that suggests that the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth were a bunch of liars.
Frickin’ Fat RINO Son of a Biscuit.
He was asked if he was being "Swift-Boated."
"No," he replied, "I'm being Romney-Boated."
There was no slam against the SBV, who told the TRUTH. He was slamming Romney for smears and lies.
Every time he gets a chance to throw out 'free' negative soundbites, he jumps on it like a fly on honey!
Newt didn’t invoke the Swift Vets the reporter did and Newt refused to go along with it. Your agenda is showing.
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