Mitt Romney casts Newt Gingrich as a failed leader

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney holds a campaign rally at Eastern Ship Building in Panama City, Fla. (EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images / January 28, 2012)

By Maeve Reston

January 28, 2012, 3:09 p.m.

Reporting from Panama City, Fla. —

Building on the energy of a crowd that numbered in the hundreds at a shipbuilding yard Saturday afternoon, Mitt Romney renewed his attacks on rival Newt Gingrich, who drew a comparatively paltry crowd at an event across the state in Orlando.

The Romney campaign has pounded Gingrich with allegations that he exaggerated his accomplishments and prominence in the Republican Party during the 1980s. On Saturday in Panama City, Romney called Gingrich “a very nice fellow” but said his career as a historian “doesn't give him the right to rewrite history.”

“He was given the opportunity to lead our party” Romney said, referring to Gingrich’s tenure as House speaker in the 1990s.

“He failed!” a supporter in the crowd yelled to the candidate.

“You're right, he failed,” Romney continued. “We allowed him to lead our party…. We took over the House; that was great news. What happened four years later? Well, he was fined for ethics violations. He ultimately had to resign in disgrace. He can't rewrite history. We have to go back and look at history and say he may be a great guy with a lot of great ideas, but he is not the leader we need at a critical time.”

Romney’s new lines echoed the message of his new ad that amounts to a rebroadcast of a 1997 video clip in which then-NBC "Nightly News" anchor Tom Brokaw reported on Gingrich being sanctioned by House colleagues after an ethics investigation.

Gingrich has bitterly disputed Romney’s version of the events and has accused the former Massachusetts governor of being dishonest about his record. Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond sent an email to reporters Saturday morning calling the ad “another big lie from the Romney campaign.”

Hammond said the Romney campaign had omitted the fact that the IRS “cleared Speaker Gingrich of the substance of the ethics committee investigation” and he has called the charges politically motivated.

maeve.reston@latimes.com

Comments (38)

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Ed Piedra at 2:48 AM January 30, 2012

HOW DECEIVING and hypocritical CAN YOU BE WILLIARD ROMNEY

Billionaire Mormon Cult Bishop Willard "Mitt" Romney Moon. GOP billionaire and wanna be presidential contender Willard "Mitt" Romney is now condemning Newt Gingrich over Gingrich's recent statement of wanting to establish a NASA-run colony on the moon. However, it is Romney who has been a lifetime adherent of wanting to go to the moon.

http://tinyurl.com/6umkkaw ----

Men on the Moon!

Mormon Prophets claim

the moon is inhabited

Ed Piedra at 2:47 AM January 30, 2012

As one of the foundational powerbrokers of the Mormon Cult, Romney, who serves as a BISHOP in the Mormon Cult, has declared that he loves his "church" and will never leave the Mormon Cult his family has been tied to for generations. In fact, tax returns show that Romney has given millions of dollars to the Mormon Cult in just the last year alone.

Here is what Romney's cult teaches about the moon: President Brigham Young not only taught the moon was inhabited, but the SUN as well. In a sermon delivered in the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, President Young made these unbelievable statements: "Who can tell us of the inhabitants of this little planet that shines of an evening, called the moon?...when you inquire about the inhabitants of that sphere you find that the most learned are as ignorant in regard to them as the ignorant of their fellows. So it is in regard to the inhabitants of the sun. Do you think it is inhabited? I rather think it is. Do you think there is any life there? No question of it; it was not made in vain." (Journal of Discourses, vol. 13, p. 271)

Posted by James Hartline

LJP305 at 2:22 PM January 29, 2012

There's a dark side to Willard Mitt "Corporations Are People My Friend" Romney’s personality that puts priority on taking over companies by offering capital for expansion, and after gaining control then shuttering plants, slashing jobs/increasing unemployment, disposing/selling off company assets, putting the remnants into bankruptcy & using shell companies in 2 offshore tax havens (Bermuda & Cayman Islands) to help rich investors avoid paying US taxes on business conducted in the US.

This Mitt personality trait reared it’s ugly head when he commented on home foreclosures to the Las Vegas Review Journal's editorial board. Mitt said solving the foreclosure crisis required letting banks proceed against homeowners who have defaulted on their mortgages. New investors could then rent out the homes until markets adjusted. "As to what to do for the housing industry specifically and are there things that you can do to encourage housing: One is, don't try to stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom".

Mitt's subterfuge used to plunder dreams of many entrepreneurs who started/put their all into their companies with employees for years is similar to his preference to let foreclosures run their course, and not unlike the mindset of the Gordon Gekko character in the movie "Wall Street", but is not a mindset that is preferred for someone in the White House.

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