Gingrich slams Romney in S.C. telephone town hall

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- During a teletown hall with South Carolina voters today, Newt Gingrich slammed Mitt Romney’sgubernatorial resume, an indication of how the former House speaker may try to rout the Republican frontrunner in the coming days. 

Gingrich criticized the universal health care plan Romney signed into law as Massachusetts governor, claiming the law unfairly favored abortion providers.


"Romneycare has a position for Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the United States,"Gingrich said on the call, referring to a stipulation in the law that one member of the MassHealth Payment Policy Advisory Board must be appointed by the state’s Planned Parenthood league.

"Governor Romney signed a bill that includes Planned Parenthood, has no right-to-life positions, only Planned Parenthood," Gingrich continued. "In every sense it is like Obamacare. So I don’t see how Romney could debate Obama."

Gingrich’s campaign told NBC that it would soon run an ad in South Carolina hitting Romney over the Planned Parenthood provision in the health care law.

The health law was not the only part of Romney’s gubernatorial record that Gingrich brought up, as he also mentioned his proposal of a $10 fee for state certification of blindness and another $15 fee for photo identification cards for the blind, which were both approved by lawmakers but later repealed, according to an Associated Press article in the Boston Globe.

"He raised taxes so much that he even raised taxes on people who were blind," Gingrich told the listeners on the call.

As he has frequently on the campaign trail in recent weeks, Gingrich called Romney a "Massachusetts moderate" and linked him with several of that state’s high-profile Democrats.

"There is a really big difference between a Georgia conservative who worked with Ronald Reagan and a Massachusetts moderate," Gingrich said."He voted for Paul Tsongas in 1992."

Later: "He's a Massachusetts moderate in the same tradition as Michael Dukakis and John Kerry."

And, characterizing Romney as to the left of one of the Senate’s most prominent liberals, "When he ran against Teddy Kennedy he ran to Kennedy’s left; he said he was more pro-gay rights than Kennedy was; he said he was more pro-abortion than Kennedy was."

Gingrich’s criticism also grazed President Barack Obama in he context of a key issue for South Carolinians.

When asked what he would do to stop outsourcing, Gingrich began by slamming Obama’s recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board, a target for South Carolina voters since the NLRB sued Boeing for moving a plant here to avoid striking workers in Washington state (the case was dismissed last month).

Gingrich called the NLRB "an anti-South Carolina, anti-American jobs board" and said Congress should refuse to fund the board until Obama fires the people he appointed.

"There’s no reason we have to tolerate an imperial president breaking the law. The Senate has not adjourned, there are no grounds for a recess appointment and what the president did is illegal," he said.

While he is staying in New Hampshire until that state’s primary election, unlike some of his opponents who are jetting to South Carolina for short interim activity, Gingrich played up his organization in the Palmetto State as his state director Adam Waldeck announced the campaign’s South Carolina victory fund.

"Basically every single dollar that we bring into South Carolina will be staying in South Carolina for media and things like this,"Waldeck said.

During the call, Gingrich also asked participants to press 1 if they intended to vote for him, 2 if they wanted to volunteer for him, or 3 if they wanted to serve as a precinct captain. He interrupted the town hall to make the announcement seven times.

Gingrich will start his ten-day bus tour of South Carolina on Jan. 11thin Rock Hill. His daughter Jackie Gingrich Cushmanwas here today, meeting with voters in the upstate town of Chester.

Alex Moe also contributed reporting.

Related story: Gingrich forced to answer looming questions in New Hampshire

Discuss this post

Newt appears to have his brush and can of blue paint ready ... we should have a new shade by the end of the weekend- Romney Blue. And yes it comes in an eggshell finish.

  • 3 votes
Reply#1 - Fri Jan 6, 2012 9:39 PM EST

An interesting point about Romney Blue, anything painted with it automatically flip flops over and suddenly it appears red but then upon further inspection you see that it is not either red or blue. If Romney thought it would get him elected President he'd eat a whole plate full of turd sandwiches in Time Square at midnight on New Year's Eve with all the World watching and he'd lick his fingers when he was done.

  • 1 vote
#1.1 - Sat Jan 7, 2012 11:22 AM EST
Reply

Hope they keep slamming each other. All the way to the convention, boys.

I bet you Willard's $10,000 OBAMA wins.

  • 3 votes
Reply#2 - Fri Jan 6, 2012 9:42 PM EST

At what point will Noot have his "ah hah!" moment that he has not a snowballs chance in hell at his already failed bid for the White House?

  • 5 votes
Reply#3 - Fri Jan 6, 2012 9:46 PM EST

Mickey, I think he just wants to play Slap the Willard.

  • 3 votes
#3.1 - Fri Jan 6, 2012 9:48 PM EST

[Mickey, I think he just wants to play Slap the Willard.]

...I don't even wanna know...

  • 3 votes
#3.2 - Fri Jan 6, 2012 10:01 PM EST
Reply

Slapping around Mitt isn'g going to get Noot anywhere...but he thinks it'll buy him votes.

...so much infighting...so little time...

  • 3 votes
Reply#4 - Fri Jan 6, 2012 9:59 PM EST

Newt is pissed. He knows this is the end of his political life. (Actually -- it ended in 1999 when his fellow Republicans kicked him out of the House) But he's not acting like Bachmann and bowing out gracefully, he's acting more like Hitler did at the end of the war --- Newt wants a scorched earth policy. He reminds me of the class bully in the 7th grade -- who just got his ass kicked by the skinny kid and now he's pouting.

  • 4 votes
Reply#5 - Sat Jan 7, 2012 8:45 AM EST

The biggest bully is Obama! Those people you are hammering have much more on the stick than the teloscreening Obama! Sorry I don't think much of your boy as a leader, he hides behind teenage children and poor people! It's all a show and you know it! The problem with the dems is they like poverty and ignorance is because that is what they like! Misery is what they run on, poor test scores, more money at the problems, how about some cultural changes in education and our work ethic! In this country we just need to stop whining! Oh I have it soooo bad, what a terrible country! Your all a bunch of losers!

    #5.1 - Sat Jan 7, 2012 9:24 AM EST

    [The biggest bully is Obama!]

    Oh, ya big baby...need a tissue...?

    • 2 votes
    #5.2 - Sat Jan 7, 2012 10:07 AM EST

    Ben Fox,

    “your boy”

    Isn’t that code for something … just saying?

    • 3 votes
    #5.3 - Sat Jan 7, 2012 10:15 AM EST

    Dennis

    Do you think it's the same code as "typical white person"?

      #5.4 - Sat Jan 7, 2012 12:09 PM EST
      Reply

      Man can you say vindictive? Let me get this straight: Gingrich has a completely checkered past, both professionally and personally, he willingly and of his own accord decides to and does file as a candidate for public office and in fact files to run for the hardest job in the World, President of the USA. He has shown throughout his career that he will stop at no ends to try and vanquish what he sees as his political enemies yet if anybody so much as raises a legitimate question about anything whatsoever he goes ballistic and automatically turns to the "nuclear option!" I don't think any of the GOP candidates or policies are good for the Nation but I must say that it is interesting to try and decipher the GOP mentality. The GOP turns every issue on its ear. Wrong is right, bad is good, injustice is justice, oppression is helping the middle class, fat cats who ship jobs overseas are job creators, tax breaks for he rich are necessary, help for the poorest and the downtrodden are entitlements and so on...

      • 1 vote
      Reply#6 - Sat Jan 7, 2012 11:35 AM EST

      We don't need a Romney Camelot!

        Reply#7 - Wed Jan 11, 2012 12:21 PM EST
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