DES MOINES -- Newt Gingrich says he feels as though he's been "Romney-boated." The former House speaker today continued his condemnation of attack ads directed at him by an independent group backing GOP rival Mitt Romney. Gingrich also charged earlier in the day that Romney "would buy the election if he could."
Gingrich was playing off the term "swift boating," which was coined in the 2004 presidential race about the negative ad campaign directed at Democratic nominee John Kerry. That barrage was funded by a group known as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which sought to discredit Kerry's military service.
An analysis released last week showed 45% of all the political ads in Iowa have been negative spots directed at Gingrich, who once was leading surveys here and nationally.
The ads have had an impact: Gingrich is now at 12% in the Iowa Poll -- well behind Romney and Ron Paul -- with just a few days to go before voters here begin the 2012 presidential election season.
At a town hall meeting in Atlantic on Saturday, Gingrich conceded that he didn't respond quickly enough to the ads released by Restore Our Future, a "super PAC" that supports Romney. In one ad getting heavy airplay on Iowa TV, Gingrich is mocked for admitting he made mistakes on several issues.
Gingrich had said he wished there were one or two more debates before Tuesday's caucuses so he could have done a better job of clarifying some of the issues that have come up in the ads, such as his consulting work for Freddie Mac.
One example, Gingrich said, is how much he actually earned by providing strategic advice to the mortgage giant. Bloomberg News reported he received between $1.6 million and $1.8 million. Gingrich said the reality is the money went to his company and after salaries and overhead were paid, he only saw about $35,000 of that amount.
"I would have been more direct," Gingrich said Saturday if there were more debates.
On a Sunday morning talk show, one of Romney's surrogates stood by some of the content in the ads during an interview on CBS' Face the Nation.
Former Missouri senator Jim Talent said the Romney campaign supports ads that show contrasts among the candidates. "The governor has said he ... doesn't support the idea of the PACs, but he does support the idea of contrasting," Talent said.
(Contributing: Associated Press)
