Gingrich: Rivals 'ought to be ashamed of themselves' for running negative ads

HIAWATHA, Iowa - Newt Gingrich was very critical of his GOP rivals Monday as he is continuing to get hounded with negative ads in the Hawkeye State and is asking Iowans to help put a stop to it.

“If they run into one of these candidates, tell them they ought to be ashamed of themselves,” Gingrich said before roughly 150 people just outside of Cedar Rapids. “They ought to take this junk off the air.”


And it is these negative attacks that are perhaps causing the recent drop in polls.

“Watch TV here for 2 days. You had all sorts of people, all sorts of these Super PACs who have been consistently running negative ads,” Gingrich admitted to a couple hundred people early Tuesday at an event in Davenport.

The former House Speaker has vowed to run a positive campaign and not attack his rivals even when they hit him… most of the time.

"Every once in a while I slip when they get my goat and I can't quite help myself,” he admitted inside Level 10, an apparel manufacturer. “But I think I’ve done a pretty good job at staying focused on issues.”

Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, and Rick Perry all have TV ads and campaign mailers attacking Speaker Gingrich on a variety of issues, such as being a “flip-flopper” and not being a “consistent conservative.”

“I am not going to comment on the people who are suggesting I am not a consistent conservative although one wonders how they would know one if they saw it,” Gingrich said.

But the campaign, as the Speaker pointed out himself, is still organizing itself and having to play catch up with just 15 days until the first-in-the-nation caucuses.

“We are still putting our campaign together. It is wild. It is amazing,” he said. 

Gingrich, who is scrambling to get his name on the ballot in Virginia for the primary, told reporters in Davenport, “Some candidates have been running for five or six years and raised millions and millions of dollars. They're better organized than I am.”

But in the end, Gingrich said, it’s up to Iowans first and foremost to decide which type of campaign strategy should be rewarded.

“When you get ready to vote in 2 weeks ask yourself, do you really want to reward politics as usual, negativity as usual, attack as usual, consultants as usual, fundraising from Wall Street fundraising as usual,” Gingrich asked. “Or do you want to vote for the only person who has consistently, steadily been positive for the entire campaign.”

The Speaker continues with four campaign stops in Eastern Iowa Tuesday.

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This is way too ironic, coming from the king of negativity himself! He should beg forgiveness from the American Public for all his years of B.S. negativity and pandering to special interest groups.

  • 1 vote
Reply#156 - Wed Dec 21, 2011 3:40 PM EST

I guess Neut should know a bit about shame.

    Reply#157 - Wed Dec 21, 2011 3:41 PM EST

    Newt is correct. The ads should be concentrating on positive ads to promote the wellfare and betterment of America instead of "Walker Ads" that only bring to light the bitter and utter despair that people like Walker want to cast over America.

    Not allowing women to receive cancer treatments because they cannot afford it leaving them to die is pure madness and murder.

      Reply#158 - Wed Dec 21, 2011 3:49 PM EST

      business as usual in the snake pit. typical republican vile.

        Reply#159 - Wed Dec 21, 2011 5:33 PM EST

        Newt, what goes around, comes around. As the father of scorched earth politics, now you know what it feels like. You so deserve it!

          Reply#160 - Wed Dec 21, 2011 6:02 PM EST
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