TPM: "Good Newt's" positive campaign expired today

[flpoljunkie]

Newt Gingrich: Romney Got Rich ‘Laying Off Employees’

BENJY SARLIN DECEMBER 12, 2011

Newt Gingrich’s positive campaign expired today. It was pronounced dead at 10:12 AM, Monday morning, after reports surfaced that the candidate accused rival Mitt Romney of amassing a fortune off the misery of laid-off workers.

The fatal moment came after Gingrich was asked by reporters whether he should return some of his reported $1.6 million in consulting fees from housing giant Freddie Mac in light of the 2008 subprime mortgage collapse.

“I would just say that if Gov. Romney would like to give back all of the money he’s earned from bankrupting companies and laying off employees over his years at Bain, that I would be glad to listen to him,” Gingrich told reporters in New Hampshire after a town hall. “I’ll bet you $10, not $10,000, that he won’t take the offer,” he continued.

Gingrich has up to this point made an ostentatious display of his positive campaign, repeatedly pledging to refrain from attacks against Romney and other rivals even as they pile on him in debates, ads, and public statements. But the slap at Romney’s time at Bain, a general election vulnerability that’s rarely come up in the more investor-friendly Republican primary, suggests he may be departing from that strategy.

Update: Now with video, courtesy of TIME.

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/12/newt-gingrich-romney-got-rich-laying-off-employees.php?ref=fpb

[freshwest]

1. Anyone who thinks there is anything positive about the author of the Contract ON America, who...

Owed his GOP majority to Rush Limbaugh, should talk to someone who lived through the pornographic three-ring circus that was the Gingrich years.

It was Rush's well-funded attacks on Clinton, Hillary and even their daughter (I saw the episode where he called her a dog) that terrified voters into voting GOP to stop Hillary's attempt at healthcare reform. The Obama death panel meme was a re-run of the very successful GOP/ Rush campaign.

Rush pushed the idea that those Evil DemonRats were going to kill everyone they didn't see as worthy to live. That's where the 'Hitlery' meme came from.

Of course, Rush left out, as all the GOP do, that the 'who will be found worthy to live' argument is in effect now, managed by the private insurance corporations. If you can't afford premiums, co-pays at whatever price the market will bear, you are simply not worthy to live.

This level of low-brow attack by the Newt is right up his alley. His newer fans didn't see the Ken Starr Chamber going around, making a fortune off intimidation, trying, but failing to make their case. All the cable news pundits, from Tweety to the rest of the list, got their start during those years as Newt gave them a national platform to spew their hatred.

This guy has never done one good thing for this nation, not one thing. He's a disgrace, a con artist and crook.

[AtomicKitten]

2. I must have blinked and missed the "positive" campaign.

Otherwise I'm completely fine and encourage Newt and Mitt to go at it with hammer and tongs.

[Andy823]

3. Now it's Mitt's turn.

I hope Romney comes back on Newt with all the "ethics" charges and the fact he had to resign so he wouldn't have to defend against those charges.

I want to see a knock down drag out fight between these two clowns, with both sides taking off the gloves and going at it! Let's let all the voters in this country know just how terrible these two are, and when one of them wins the nomination, the whole country will know what they "really" are like!