went through newt gingrich with a fine tooth comb they didn't find anything let's remember newt gingrich balanced the budget under bill clinton who wanted to spend about as badly as barack obama wanted to spend their reformed welfare. he's got a whole bunch of good credits and the myth that newt gingrich shut the government down no sorry about that it was bill clinton that shut the government down we're going back to the same battleaxe remember when it happened steve do you want to get in there because there's also the the freddie mac. money that gingrich got one point six million dollars i mean again all the way up to the only admitted to it when he was confronted with it i mean again he's the consummate insider how can this be something new how can he spin himself as something new. well you know the judge has got a difficult job there and i don't envy it all i mean there's gingrich always has an excuse for something he did you know he didn't do anything wrong you know they dismissed eighty four out of eighty five charges well you know dozens of judson's an attorney he knows better than

newt gingrich sounded

mitt romney and newt gingrich. or as i keep saying newt romney and mitt gingrich. if i do that on air tonight, i'm sorry. i keep doing it in the office. it's embarrassing. the thing emerging as the biggest hurdle to newt gingrich getting the nomination is the establishment wing of the republican party. today this came out into the open. there are people in the republican establishment willing to voice concerns or out right opposition to mr. beginning risch in recent weeks. today the flood gates opened. conservative columnist david brooks at "the new york times," quote, he has every negative character trait conservatives associate with 1960s excess. narcissism, self-righteousness, self-indulgence and intemperance. he would severely damage conservatism in the republican party if nominated. former reagan speechwriter, peggy noonan, writing in "the wall street journal," quote, those who know him fear or hope he'll be true to form in one respect. you he'll continue to lose to his number one longtime foe, newt gingrich. he is is a human hand grenade who walks around with

newt gingrich senior aide to newt gingrich. mr. gingrich's spokesman telling "the new york times" mr. gingrich did not want to be identified as himself to avoid the impression that he was getting into a fight with the romney camp. which, of course, he was. you wouldn't want to sound negative. at least not with your own name attached to it. better to lob the bomb anonymously. the other reason for the collapse of the smiles everyone, smiles, idea, is the entry of mr. gingrich himself into the top tier of the presidential race is bringing out the best i negativity from all over the right wing. the newt gingrich pile-on is already a who's who of the republican establishment. "the new york times" conservative columnist david brooks calling gingrich out for narcissism, self-righteousness, intemperance. peggy noonan saying people who know newt gingrich, quote, are mostly not for him. karl rove writing of mr. gingrich, quote, when a man of his self-confidence begins to feel on top of the world, bad things often happen. former republican se

newt gingrich's case for 20 years. in mitt romney's case he's the only governor in the united states' history to put into place socialized medicine. they both agree with barack obama. this is the seminal piece of legislation of barack obama. it's the one issue that our candidate has to take president obama on with, and they won't be able to debate him on this issue because they're on the same side as the president. but also newt romney are on the same side of the president when it comes to cap-and-trade, the $700 billion bailout, illegal immigration, even the payroll tax this week which there isn't one shred of evidence that that has created a single job. when you take a look and people say this is a two-man race, i would agree. but the one man is newt romney and the other man is michele bachmann. the only proven consistent constitutional conservative. i'm the only one that can take the debate to barack obama and win be elected. >> schieffer: i'm going to separate newt romney into two people again just to ask you this

so newt gingrich is the man to beat. statewide polls show him with wide leads in new hampshire, south carolina, florida, and even nationally. and in new hampshire, which shares a border with the state mitt romney used to govern, the former house speaker has narrowed the lead. politicians in both major parties are struggling to absorb the new political reality and so is gingrich himself. >> we still have a lot of work to do. with the next four weeks in iowa, then a real rush in new hampshire, then on to south carolina, then on to florida and nevada. i mean, all those are within about a month. so i think if we have a little interview right after nevada, we'll have a better sense of how real it is. gwen: cue the takedown. including this mitt romney video. >> doesn't have the discipline that you want in a president. >> he's out and basically out on the left wing of the republican party. >> with allies like that you don't need the left. gwen: the gingrich people today called this a sign of unbridled panic. is that what it is,

newt gingrich, has the new tv ad. the question is, does he have the money and the campaign organization infrastructure to beat mitt romney in a head to head fight? as we've often seen, who is up one month can be down the next. we still have a month to go. so a lot of twists and turns ahead, thomas. >> takes a lot of stamina. mark murray, appreciate it. >>> since herman cain suspended his campaign, the candidates are scrambling to grab his supporters. cain may announce he's endorsing gingrich today. joining me now is andrew rafferty, covering the cain campaign and jennifer jacobs joins us, chief political writer for the des moines register. andrew, i'll start with you. what are you hearing about the possibility that cain is going to endorse newt gingrich and also is there a revised public schedule now after this weekend's announcement, at least this week, in lieu of what's supposed to take place? >> reporter: good morning thomas. what we're hearing is the herman cain endorsement of newt gingrich seems a matter of when

newt gingrich is finding out what it means to be the front-runner. newt's under siege from rivals like mitt romney and rick perry. perry's hitting him for his three marriages, believe it or not, and romney's hitting him for changing positions, and religions. and now a conservative pastor out in iowa who's backing santorum is running a video calling newt the kim kardashian of the gop, and also attacking his serial marriages and his conversion to catholicism. with two debates in the next seven days, the attacks against gingrich are going ballistic. but republican voters are falling for newt, because they see him as a gladiator. he can counterpunch, and his supporters are betting he can survive the onslaught. are they right? >>> then, there aren't that many house republicans who endorse newt gingrich, but we'll talk to one of them about his chances -- newt's chances of winning iowa. georgia congressman jack kingston. he joins us tonight. >>> and dumping trump. that debate donald trump wanted to host has been rejected by count them, five republican presi

newt gingrich, ron paul and mitt romney. they are clearly the front-runners right now, but the results next tuesday, one week from today, could change a lot of that. possibly persuade some second tier candidates to call it quits. i just finished speaking with newt gingrich. he let loose with some very, very tough criticism of ron paul despite his earlier vow he was going to stay positive. listen. >> first of all, people get to know more about ron paul, he disowns ten years of his own newsletter, said he didn't really realize what was in it, had no idea that it was racist, antesemitic, called for the destruction of israel, all is a sudden shock? there will come a morning people won't take him as a serious person. as a potential president, the person who thinks the united states was responsible for 9/11. a person who wrote in his newsletter than the world trade center bombing in 9193 might have been a cia plot. i'd rather just say you look at ron paul's total record of systemic avoidance of reality and his newsletters and then

if newt gingrich wins iowa, newt gingrich wins south carolina, doesn't newt gingrich win florida? >> i -- the florida republican primary is closed. and what that means is it's only registered republicans. that electorate is going to be more conservative than maybe some people think a florida republican primary normally would be. and you have to say gingrich would be the heavy -- >> george lemieux, senator from florida, newt is running away with florida in a lot of polls. how does newt gingrich fare in your state that you represented in the united states senate? >> the numbers for newt in the polls are really amazing. he was in single digits and now he's at, you know, 38%, 40% of the polls. we'll see what happens. >> mark, ask him the question you asked off sound. >> senator, nice to see you. a lot of debate about general election electability. iowa caucus voters are shown to think gingrich would be a stronger candidate by a little bit over mitt romney. in your state you hope to be the general election candidate for senate. who do you think would be a stronger general election cand

. >> i believe newt gingrich is a gingrichite. all he cares about is newt gingrich. i don't think newt gingrich cares about conservative principles. newt gingrich cares about newt gingrich. >> what's the firepower right now of 72-year-old john sununu, steve? >> well, i think he's laying the predicate for a broader argument about the difference between the things that newt gingrich says and the things that newt gingrich does. you know, for example, fannie and freddie mac, an excellent example of this, and how many other issues there are out there. you know, for example, in the weeks ahead, whether newt gingrich be compelled to release his client list? will he be compelled to disclose the amount of money he made in the private sector, working on issues that were opposite of what he advocated when he was speaker? and i think that he's laying the foundation for a pretty robust look at newt gingrich's character in front of republican primary voters. >> but, steve -- >> i would say one thing to jennifer in iowa -- jennifer, hold on a second. let me say one thing. in iowa,

unregistered lobbyists. >> newt gingrich, anyone? anyway, newt's been taking heat in recent weeks for raking in over $1 million from freddie mac and framing his role as a, quote, historian. and yes, he was in attendance for the shout-out from colbert. president obama also spoke yesterday at a reception for the star-studded event. and in addition to shining a light on each of the honorees for their accomplishments, he pointed out one who might have something to offer to the political scene, specifically, the gridlock on capitol hill. let's take a look at this one. couldn't see this one coming. >> maybe the most amazing thing about yoyo mah is everybody likes him. you've got to give me some tips. it's remarkable. he's been named one of "people" magazine's sexiest men alive. he has appeared on "sesame street." i thought about asking him to go talk to congress. >> that smile's worth a million bucks. anyway, i think somehow yoyo mah is fine with his non-political presence in d.c. and casting call, some members of the 2012 presidential rac

you served with newt gingrich in the house. but earlier this year, you were asked about whether or not he could be a good president and you raised questions about that. let's watch. >> guest: why do we need somebody whose eye is critical and not harsh in their q. manner . i don't think he's necessarily harsh. i am looking for a leader who can bring us together. >> chris: as speaker newt gingrich takes the lead do you still have those questions about his fitness to be president? >> guest: chris, there is a lot of candidates out there. and i am not inclined to be a supporter of newt gingrich experiencing personally his leadership >> chris: why is that? >> guest: because i found it lacking awn times. >> chris: i don't want to pull teeth. but if you can explain why? it is important and people want to know what you think? >> guest: the thing is, there is all types of leaders, leaders that instill confidence and leaders that are abrupt and brisk and one standard for the people they are leading and a different standard for themselves.

>> we have debated newt gingrich at least ten times. we're going to be debating him twice more in new hampshire. you know, governor romney believes you know very strongly that he needs to debate all 0 the candidates that everyone has a father shot and newt gingrich just isn't special that should have a one-on-one debate. >> let's me ask you about this question of negative and negative ads. newt gingrich basically told your candidate to be man enough to own the negative ads from his super pac and that he should tell them not to go negative. he says that wouldn' be coordination. but we all know that it's illegal to actually tell a pac what to do. is that something that romney would do? >> well, you know, again, speaker gingrich is being d disingenuo disingenuous because there's plenty of times he been on the record including cnn talking about negative ads and talking about them, a, working and talks about your own anchors have said newt gingrich, quote, happy to rip someone's heart out. i think the problem here is not that he doesn't like

he and newt gingrich have that in common. i would love to see a debate just between newt gingrich and donald trump, although i don't know how you fit both their egos and all that hair on the same stage. i would love to see this debate go forward with rick santorum, newt gingrich and donald trump. that's great television, you have to admit. it's not a dignified march to the presidency, but none of this has been that. >> absolutely true. david, we saw rick perry's holiday mash note to school prayer and homophobia. he's in a last ditch effort to claim iowa. could ron paul actually pull that off? he's the dark horse who could ride away with it, isn't he? >> he could. i still think he is the third place candidate in iowa right now. his campaign has clearly indicated if they're in this for the long haul, you talk about newt gingrich's operation. ron paul does have an organization in iowa for the caucuses. they're going to be in this race through super tuesday. they have signaled that. remember, ron paul has been through this before

newt gingrich, i'm obviously not a fan but newt gingrich is not what we have. newt gingrich is as, i can never say the conservative writer's name from "the times." ross -- does it rhyme with nugget? however you pronounce his last name he talked about -- >> i like his work. >> he talked about how newt like michele bachmann, actually michele bachmann is a consistent conservative unlike newt, but herman cain, rick perry, donald trump, sarah palin, that it was all about catharsis. it wasn't about policy. it was about a mccartcatharsis t obamaism. >> can i just say i do think as well that the old thing which has always worked recently about being not of washington in this case people are feeling you need to know how to work washington and actually it is in fact in newt's favor that he has been a guy who's been an operator in congress and knows how to, you know, do the cut and thrust of politics which is what people don't feel they have right now. >> mika, do you not understand that? because you talked about, what reminded me is you talked about americans who believe

chris: it seems like newt gingrich has a couple of appeals. he has to go to the center, right and the center right. with the center right he's smart. with the far right he seems to have their fire, their willingness to attack obama personally. he does cover a lot of real estate in terms of feel. >> he does. but he met with conservatives this week in virginia and it was a great meeting for him. he got applause and all the rest. but they still have to agree to disagree. they're still skeptical about newt gingrich on the question of health care mandates, you know. teddy roosevelt republican, believes the government can have solutions to problems. immigration. so here's the choice, here's the choice, i think, for hrps -- do you take newt gingrich, who they believe has bad principles, or do you take mitt romney, who they believe has no principles at all? >> let me ask you about the voters. we remember yesterday better than three years ago and i've learned that people don't have much interest in 30 years ago. how can romney or the president run agai

could newt gingrich use callista? >> does he need to -- >> the story of them getting together is a not a positive and warm and fuzzy story. she represents herself in the way rudy giuliani's wife had a problem with him. >> you just present it. it's like you have to say this is us, you can't say, and then my wife or whatever. >> he certainly does it. every sentence belongs with callista and i -- i want to play a little sound from earlier debates when the subject of infidelity came up and rick perry and ron paul's response. >> i've always been of the opinion that if you cheat on your wife, you'll cheat on your business partner. >> what about our oath of office? that gets to me, where you're really on the line as a public figure. that's where people come up real shoert. >> do you think the american public is making the leap, that someone's fidelity to their spouse, you can draw a direct line to the oath of office or that are we even paying attention to that? >> i think it's a bigger problem for gingrich. at the beginning

finally there's newt gingrich. newt gingrich started off as the grumpy profiteering also ran d.c. scam artist guy with all the offices on k. street. as a late surging front-runner now, mr. gingrich plays a useful role in the race. not just for republican voters making a decision on who to vote for for president, but the whole country trying to understand republican politics by watching the republican presidential race. newt gingrich i think is the jonathan swift character in the race. he's the eat the poor candidate. it was 1729 when irish satirist jonathan swift wrote a satirical essay called "a modest proposal." about how the wealthy should deal with the way too many poor people among them. "i think it's agreed by all party this prodigious number of children in the arms, on the backs or at the heels of their mothers and frequently of their fathers, is in the kingdom of very great additional grievance. whoever could make a fair, cheap and easy method of making the children sound and useful members of the common wealth would deserve so well of the public to have his statue set up

did newt gingrich really do that? janine turner and leslie marshall will comment on michele bachmann's explosive charge. also tonight, lou dobbs on yet another possible green scandal for the obama administration. and a new poll says younger americans are pessimistic about president obama. caution, you where to enter the no spin zone, the factor begins right now. captions by closed captioning services >> bill: hi, i'm bill o'reilly. thanks for watching us tonight. newt gingrich and power. that is the subject of this evening's talking points memo. as the frontrunner, newt gingrich was under attack last night in the debate. especially by michele bachmann who criticized him on abortion and taking money from freddie mac. we will deal with that a bit later on mr. gingrich offered robust on the issue. one of the issues may have landed him in big trouble. how gingrich would deal with federal judges. >> you have proposed a plan to subpoena judges to testify before congress about controversial decisions that they make. in certa

and i -- you know, i think newt gingrich, i know newt. i don't think he's a saint, and neither do i think mitt romney or michele bachmann or rick santorum or rick perry or any candidate that we have out there, that they're a saint. but i think we need somebody that's prepared to do the heavy lifting, to get us to where i think we all want to go. and i think when you look at newt's leadership in terms of what he did as speaker, we had balanced budgets, we paid down debt, we took on entitlement programs and reformed them. and we did those things with a democrat president. so i think his track record as speaker is pretty good. >> congressman, thank you. appreciate your time and also professor jonathan turley, we appreciate your being here. >> thank you. >>> up next, new information about what the officials at penn state knew, when they knew it, and why they did so little when confronted with evidence of child sexual abuse. you can follow me, by the way, on twitter, if you know how to spell smerconish. this is "hardball," only on msnbc. progr

newt gingrich wants to go 15%. so you're talking about a massive difference in philosophy and governing philosophy. and i'll say this, i think newt wins that fight and i think that's what this election will be about. do we want growth or do we want envy? >> robert reich? >> well, that's -- look, i think the election is going to be about paying their fair share. are the wealthiest in this country paying their fair share to bring the budget deficit down and make sure that there is enough money left for schools and equal opportunity and investments and infrastructure for everybody else. steve moore and newt gingrich want to go back to what we had pre1930s when we had a very unequal society and a society that did not and was not able to invest. >> you keep saying that. the top 1% pay 40% of the income tax. >> steve, i think most people understand what's really going on. they know that there is no trickle down. they know that there is no trickle down economics. >> they know we can't tax our way back. >> they know the ga

newt gingrich had a target. mitt romney benefited by that. the other benefit is that should he get the nomination, he will have a target on his back from barack obama. any time he has had that target, he has sort of choked and clutched. i think these debates are great for him. if it goes on for a while, it will be good for him because he has to get to the point where he can compete against the president of the united states, and not look at it like a rich guy. >> what about ron paul. >> he defined himself as a libertarian. his position on foreign policy is so far beyond pillar of the republican party -- the isolationist strain that he is talking about, that just does not sell beyond the libertarians. the person who lays the profile it is michele bachmann. >> first of all, by avoiding the bullying tactic used last saturday night, and that is what mitt romney did, you say the yankees won the world series, do you want to bet $10,000? the rich bully can do it. mitt romney avoided that. i thought michele bachmann did a formidable job on the influe

newt gingrich is a grad yea tor. romney doesn't like this stuff. >> romney can't win a barroom brawl. he won't win the nomination unless he proves he can do it. with respect to gingrich, he's under attack from the right on the ground in iowa. he's under attack from above the elite of the party, the commentary in washington and new york. under ordinary rules, no candidate could survive this kind of challenge. what gingrich has to bet is the conventional rules do not apply. this is not a conventional year or moment. an unconventional candidate can prevail. he's got a lot of what would ordinarily be fatal weaknesses. >> there used to be a phrase you don't hit below the belt. i'm not sure where the belt is anymore. the first attack on gingrich was religion in the romney ad highlighting his con sis ten si in his fate. look at this mistake venturing into the issue of religion. >> i think people understand i'm a man of steadiness. you are not going to find somebody with more of those attributes. i've been married to the sam

newt gingrich, target of the night at the abc news debate in iowa. taking hits. >> we need people from outside washington, outside of k street. >> and returning fire. >> the only reason you didn't become a career politician is that you lost to teddy kennedy in 1994. >>> under pressure, romney wages big. >> i tell you what, 10,000 bucks. >> but will his gamble backfire? >> and did michele bachmann outplank her the front-runner with her attack. >> newt romney they were for obama care principals. newt romney. >> also rick perry gets personal. >> if you cheat your wife you'll cheat on your business partners. >> the abc news debate, a turning minute to this roller-coaster campaign. this morning, complete coverage and our the moderators, george stephanopoulos and diane sawyer. refraction jon huntsman, the other republican in the race. our abc news political team is standing by in iowa to break down the spin. the view of this unpredictable race. >>> good morning, and welcome to the program. we'll have all of the highlights of last night's showdown in the ha

newt gingrich, ron paul, mitt romney. ron paul has done something which we didn't think he could do. expand his base of the support. he has run the most professional campaign of the cycle. i'm saying that on the record. i've been very critical of ron paul at points on our blog. he has run an efficient effort. he had been much more tempered. of course, what we knew of ron paul in 2007 is he was a bit more engaged and entertaining. >> in the bedates he's come off as the sanest person on the stage, which is saying a lot. ron paul is considered far out there. he's the one that comes across as the most sensible. he sort of seems like the most normal one. i don't think that says good things about the others. >> normal is a phrase that we should parse out here. >> mainstream. >> some of what he's saying is not going to appeal to the gop base this is a guy who said i want to cut aid to israel. he's is only person -- >> legalize drugs. >> he's the only person not taking part in the republican jewish coalition forum. >> and the tru

now they are going after newt gingrich to try to build gingrich up. if you're the president and heavyweight champ, they make it more divisive -- >> they would rather face newt gingrich than mitt romney, is that what you're saying? sfl and they'd rather keep gingrich around as soon as possible. >> we would like to keep newt gingrich in arenarena. he's sound worthy. he's brilliant but as coburn said he's very divisive and represents the partisanship that the american people have been turned off by. >> who is a bigger threat potentially as the republican nominee to a second term for president obama? >> right now wolf, if you look at the polls, 50% of the republican voters are still in this dating phase. i would say that both romney and gingrich should be targeted by the obama -- >> a lot of republicans love the idea of newt gingrich debating barack obama. >> it's almost like, do you want to buy a ticket for that debate. republicans would vote for that. they need to remember when he was speaker and led republicans, republicans didn't fare so well. >> when

this is the attempt to show newt gingrich as not serious. i think you are going to see other things like that, but i think that the risk for mitt romney is that he is giving in essentially to what the elites wanted and he has already seen as the elite candidate but i don't think he had much of a choice. >> i guess it's the way we look at it. you might be right. you believe that the establishment in the republican party is still in the bush household guy, retainer, karl rove. it's still that. that's the new establishment. i'm looking at the media maybe because i'm on it and i look at people like limbaugh and his power to get these people to eat their own words. you know, month after month -- well, we've heard people say things that don't square with limbaugh's thinking and then they have to go crawling back to him and say i'm sorry, rush, you're the greatest man on earth. this time around i thought mitt might do it to donald trump. let me go over to chris on this. who do you think he was feeling the heat from, the media power of new york in t

newt gingrich. >> climbing the tower to cusp his ring. >> newt gingrich is the candidate of the moment. >> a man with a tab at tiffany's. >> you're talking about the godfather of gridlock. >> i found his leadership lacking. >> he's as establishment as you get. >> i'm not inclined to be a supporter of newt gingrich. >> con artist. >> the latest republican hopeful to meet with businessman donald trump. >> i'd want to go for the entertainment. >> the rise of the super ego. >> the ring master of the republican clown show. >> he wants to engage in this circus. >> i think we have incompetent leadership. >> to call this barnum & bailey is to raise it in status. >> it has a bill following of people. >> he'll moderate a republican debate. >> most candidates are going to join. >> i say don't do it, boycott it. >> don't you think this is harmful overall to the republican brand? >> ruins the brand of the republican party. >> mr. trump joins me now by phone. those poll numbers which i think that you wanted to re

i will speak with newt gingrich in the next hour. the front runner already looking forward to potential runni ning mates, but is he still in danger? and rick perry is back in the pack but says it's still a very fluid race. he talks about president obama's "war on religion." you're in "the situation room." >>> but first, this just coming in right now at this moment, our brand new poll shows newt gingrich leading the pack in three of the first four states to hold republican presidential contests. with less than a month to go before republicans start voting, newt gingrich has double digit leads in iowa, south carolina, and florida. he trails mitt romney in new hampshire but they still have some competition. ron paul essentially tied with romney in iowa and double digit support in new hampshire. let's discuss these numbers. they spell it exactly the same but they pronounce their names differently. >> he pronounces it incorrectly. >> we won't discuss the history right now. iowa is coming up january 3. here is what we have in our cnn time