SALON

Wednesday, Nov 30, 2011 11:29 PM UTC

Ron Paul skewers Newt Gingrich

A devastating new ad attacks the GOP front-runner on his flip-flops and industry lobbying – and I'm in it VIDEO

By

Topics: Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, 2012 Elections, ,

Ron Paul skewers Newt Gingrich

I was awestruck by a new Ron Paul ad attacking Newt Gingrich even before I saw that I have a cameo at the end. Full disclosure: I think the ad would be better without me. It’s most devastating when it features conservatives attacking Newt.

And it features plenty of them. Watch it yourself, below. It’s titled “Newt Gingrich: Serial Hypocrisy,” which seems an arch reference to Gingrich’s history of serial adultery. But the ad ignores the messy divorces and the Tiffany’s credit line to stick to politics, and there’s plenty to work with.

It starts with Gingrich blathering on about “policy and values and seriousness,” and it then marches through examples of his flip-flops and hypocrisy on each of those points. The ad he made with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, back when he admitted climate change was real, is damning, but news anchor voice-overs reporting his changing positions on the bank bailouts are pretty bad too. We get his attack on Paul Ryan’s budget, and Ryan’s angry reaction, as well as the GOP voter who told Gingrich he was “an embarrassment to the party.” We see Fox anchors and CNBC’s Larry Kudlow voicing disapproval for his shifting stands on Freddie Mac, before and after it was revealed he took almost $2 million for strategic advice (don’t call it lobbying!).

The ad gathers momentum, and a sense of moral outrage, as it focuses on Gingrich’s taking millions from Freddie Mac as well as the healthcare industry, and supporting policies — the individual mandate, universal private insurance, end of life care — that he now opposes, since they’re all anathema to the GOP base. That’s where MSNBC’s Ed Schultz and I come in; Schultz reads from the Washington Post story revealing Gingrich took $37 million from the healthcare industry, and I note his ever-changing positions on healthcare-related issues. “He’s flipped and flopped based on who’s paying him,” I tell Schultz. The central voice, though, is Rush Limbaugh, mocking Gingrich over and over. When Schultz and Limbaugh and I agree, you know someone’s in trouble.

I’ve been saying this week that it’s time for the former front-runner Mitt Romney to go on the offensive against Gingrich. But Romney had trouble holding his own in an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier. So he’s got his own problems now, when he’s tripped up by simple questions about his own flip-flops from relatively friendly Fox News. Ron Paul served up Gingrich’s goose instead. Paul showed similar flair with an ad taking down Texas Gov. Rick Perry, touting his ties to Al Gore. Whether on foreign policy or in the ad war, Paul keeps this race interesting.

I’ll be talking about all of this with MSNBC’s Ed Schultz — again — at 8 ET. I’ll aspire to make someone else’s highlight reel. Here’s the ad:

 

 

 

Joan Walsh

Joan Walsh is Salon's editor at large and the author of "What's the Matter With White People: Finding Our Way in the Next America." More Joan Walsh.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 165 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations