Gingrich attacks ‘liberal’ rival as gap widens

Newt Gingrich has criticised Republican presidential rival Mitt Romney for “carpet-bombing” his record and derided him as a “liberal” ahead of tomorrow’s pivotal presidential primary in Florida.

The attacks came after a NBC/Marist poll showed Romney with support from 42% of likely Florida Republican primary voters and Gingrich slipping to 27%.

On the defensive after a barrage of attacks from Romney and a political committee that supports him, Gingrich said his rival had lied and the Republican Party establishment had allowed it.

“I don’t know how you debate a person with civility if they’re prepared to say things that are just plain factually false,” Gingrich said during appearances on yesterday’s TV talk shows.

“I think the Republican establishment believes it’s OK to say and do virtually anything to stop a genuine insurgency from winning because they are very afraid of losing control of the old order.”

The Florida contest has become decidedly bitter and personal with Gingrich casting himself as the insurgent candidate against Romney, the party establishment’s favourite.

Romney and Gingrich have tangled over policy and character since Gingrich’s stunning victory in the South Carolina primary on January 21.

Gingrich has been under heavy attack from Romney and allies of the former Massachusetts governor.

Romney had spent the past several days, including during two Florida debates, sharply criticising Gingrich’s discipline, temperament and ethics during and after his time as the speaker of the House of Representatives in the 1990s.

Yesterday, Gingrich objected to a Romney campaign ad that includes a 1997 NBC News report on the House’s decision to discipline the then-House speaker for ethics charges.

“It’s only when he can mass money to focus on carpet-bombing with negative ads that he gains any traction at all,” Gingrich said.

He acknowledged the possibility that he could lose in Florida and pledged to compete with Romney all the way to the party’s national convention in late August.

While Romney had spent the past several days sharply attacking Gingrich, he pivoted over the weekend to refocus his criticism toward President Barack Obama, calling the Democratic incumbent “detached from reality.”

The former Massachusetts governor criticised Obama’s plan to cut the size of the military and said the administration had a weak foreign policy.

Gingrich’s South Carolina momentum has largely evaporated amid the pounding he has sustained from Romney’s campaign and the pro-Romney group called Restore Our Future.

Gingrich had been labelling Romney a “Massachusetts moderate”. Now Gingrich has stepped up the criticism by adding the liberal tag to his criticism of Romney.

Outside a church in the Florida town of Lutz, Gingrich called his rival a “pro-abortion, pro-gun control, pro-tax increase liberal.”

Gingrich was trying to raise doubts about Romney’s conservative credentials by pointing to more moderate positions the former governor took towards gay and abortion rights and gun control as a politician in Democratic-leaning Massachusetts.

Romney widened his lead over Gingrich to 11 percentage points in Florida, according to a another poll out yesterdays, up from 8 points a day earlier, as he cemented his front-runner status in the Republican nomination race.

Ahead of Florida’s primary tomorrow, Romney led Gingrich by 43% to 32% among likely voters in Florida, the Reuters/Ipsos online poll results revealed. He had previously led Gingrich by 41% to 33% in the online tracking poll.

“The momentum in Florida . . . really seems to be moving in Romney’s direction,” said Chris Jackson, research director for Ipsos Public Affairs.