Posted on 03/29/2012 7:02:04 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich met secretly with GOP rival Mitt Romney on Saturday, according to a source close to the campaign, but the former House speaker says he has made no deal to end his bid for the GOP nomination.
Mr. Gingrich, responding to questions from The Washington Times, did not deny the meeting, but explicitly said he hasn’t been offered a position in a potential Romney administration in exchange for dropping out.
Nor, he said, is there a deal to have Mr. Romney’s big donors help retire Mr. Gingrich’s campaign debt of more than $1 million.
“There is no agreement of any kind, and I plan to go all the way to Tampa,” Mr. Gingrich said, referring to the August GOP presi[JUMP]dential nominating convention in Florida.
Mr. Gingrich announced Tuesday that he was “downsizing the campaign, not suspending it. I am in Maryland, North Carolina and Delaware next week. We have events already scheduled in Pennsylvania, Texas, New York, Missouri.”
According to a source close to the Gingrich campaign, the two GOP rivals met early on the day of the Louisiana primary at Mr. Romney’s hotel in New Orleans.
On Tuesday, the former House speaker signaled that he is toning down the anti-Romney rhetoric he has used on the campaign circuit, telling reporters while campaigning in Annapolis that, “Obviously I will support [Mitt Romney] and will be delighted to do anything I can to help defeat Barack Obama.”
But Wednesday, the former congressman from Georgia struck a defiant note again. “Romney has to earn this. It’s not going to be given to him,” he told Washington-based radio station WTOP.
If the cash-strapped Gingrich campaign goes forward on bare-bones budget, the candidate is likely to limp into Tampa with little more than wife, Callista, his daughters as campaign staffers.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Newt had a secret talk with Romney? I guess it isn’t a secret anymore.
So the ‘inevitable’ guy with the ‘commanding’ lead is trying to cut a deal. Why bother, with such ‘commanding’ ‘inevitablity’?
If Newt continues to mount debt for his *campaign* b/c of stubbornness, I will lose all respect for him.
The article implies a contradiction in the last two statements. I don’t see one. He will fight Romney to the end, and if he loses, will support him as the GOP candidate against Obama.
Geez Newt, how ‘bout a ‘secret’ meeting with Santorum and hammer out a deal that will put a Romney candidacy to rest?
Beautifully said!
“If Newt continues to mount debt for his *campaign* b/c of stubbornness, I will lose all respect for him.”
Washington was a stubborn one as well. The nation lost complete respect for him too.
There’s something to be said for leaving on a high note. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpUyb37CFT4
Newt and Rick are about out of money.
Turn out the lights...the party’s over.....
Look for a 3rd party split in the fall.
Where does Newt spend all that money? He was only down $200K a couple weeks ago when the filings came out. Now he lost another $800K+. Where did it go?
Gingrich is a tough nut for the Republican elites. He’s to old to benefit from their normal bribes.
“Too bad, we should have had a shot at a conservative this year.”
Yes, it’s a shame that a serious conservative candidate didn’t run for the nomination.
Out of this cycle’s hatch we got a half dozen or so bumbling chicks and one serpent. Soon we will be down to one very fat, underperforming and unacceptable serpent.
..good for Newt—can’t be bought off
I guess it was too difficult for them, so we had to go with the people willing to do the work.
“I guess it was too difficult for them, so we had to go with the people willing to do the work.”
Yes; it reminds me of the disappointing experience with Fred Thompson in 2008.
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