Free Republic

Former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) on Sunday attacked Mitt Romney for "unseemliness and overkill" in his aggressive campaign against Newt Gingrich, the candidate Thompson has endorsed.

Facing the unthinkable here just seven days ago — a second loss in a row to Newt Gingrich — Mitt Romney’s campaign team hatched a two-part plan to win in Florida: make Newt mad and Mitt meaner. -snip- A team of some of the most fearsome researchers in the business, led by Mr. Romney’s campaign manager, Matt Rhoades, spent days dispensing negative information about Mr. Gingrich, much of it finding its way to the influential Drudge Report, which often serves as a guide for conservative talk radio and television assignment editors and to which Mr. Rhoades has close ties. The...

It would be perverse to suggest the recent Matt Drudge-delivered blitzkrieg against Newt Gingrich was anything but a massive, coordinated propaganda campaign to incinerate his candidacy to cinders and ash. Of course, it would also be unfair to insinuate Newt is anything but the father of many of his own current struggles. But, be that as it may, it is hard to see how such a scorched earth policy against a lively and talented Republican with vast leadership experience helps the GOP or harms Obama. Such propaganda campaigns are not unknown in politics, but are rare in healthy democracies. That...

MIAMI — Facing the unthinkable here just seven days ago — a second loss in a row to Newt Gingrich — Mitt Romney’s campaign team hatched a two-part plan to win in Florida: make Newt mad and Mitt meaner. [snip] If Mr. Romney does win here on Tuesday, it will have been through a blistering and unrelenting series of attacks. His campaign has pressed everything at its disposal into service to eviscerate Mr. Gingrich, painting him as an erratic, unreliable Washington insider in mailings and television advertisements, at two critical debates here (where his team made sure Mr. Romney had...

Furious conservatives have taken to blogs and Twitter on Thursday to vent their ire against what they allege is a conspiratorial dumping of twisted and manipulated negative attacks on Newt Gingrich. The target of their fury: The Drudge Report. For the last 48 hours, the conservative Web site led by Matt Drudge has become a virtual campaign arm for Mitt Romney, featuring huge, screaming headlines about Mr. Gingrich and his past. That prompted conservatives who support Mr. Gingrich to accuse Mr. Drudge of selling out to the Republican establishment — many of whom have come to Mr. Romney’s aid as...

"Right now we have a clandestine campaign going on to make sure Newt Gingrich is the Republican candidate because he is so flawed and unsteady he will implode in a spectacular fashion. This man is lacking in moral character and he verges on the psychopathic. If you need any convincing, ask yourself why would that sleazebag, Michael Reagan, the adopted son of the great Ronald Reagan, be supporting him? I remember the 2004 election. George W. Bush was at Madison Square Garden where the Republican Convention was being held. All the broadcasters had a booth in operation. I had my...

The circling of wagons against former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has been quite a spectacle. Establishment dinosaurs like former Sen. Bob Dole, the Reaganite grande dame Peggy Noonan, the moderate agoniste David Frum, the reclusive Web guerrilla Matt Drudge, even the flame-throwing Ann Coulter—rarely do you see such a diverse array of establishment and movement conservatives in such united opposition to someone who's at least nominally conservative. Myself, I'd rather see former Gov. Mitt Romney crushed under those wagon wheels. And so, apparently, does former Gov. Sarah Palin. In an interview with Fox News Business Network, Palin opined: "Look at...

The entire GOP establishment has unleashed on Newt Gingrich this week, and it looks like it is slowing his momentum in the polls. Almost all of the anti-Newt Gingrich material hitting the media is coming from conservative institutions: National Review, The New York Sun, and the Washington Times. Just look at the Drudge Report from last night and early this morning.:(Snip for graphic) The number one news source for many populist and conservative readers, looks like an anti-Gingrich pinboard. There are twelve anti-Gingrich links leading the site, with video of Gingrich trashing Reagan,

Forget the indirect attacks and distant exchanges between the Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich campaigns through the media. The Romney campaign pledged this week to run a “a full racketing operation,” right in Gingrich territory. A source close to the campaign told ABC News there will be a Romney surrogate at every public Gingrich event in Florida standing by to rebut Gingrich’s speeches to the media. “The campaign is entering a phase now where we are defining the terms of the Florida race,” a Romney staffer said. The staffer said it wasn’t a sign of fear on the Romney campaign’s...

AND NOW . . . amidst billowing clouds of fragrant, aromatic first- and second-hand premium cigar smoke. . . it is time for . . . that harmless, lovable little fuzz ball, the highly-trained broadcast specialist, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have, from behind the golden EIB microphone, firmly ensconced in the prestigious Attila-the-Hun chair at the Limbaugh Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies, serving humanity simply by showing up, and he’s not retiring until every American agrees with him, do NOT doubt him, with shrieks of joy at the mere mention of his name...

......The Drudge outburst seems to reflect a growing sense among the conservative opinion commentariat that Gingrich as nominee is a serious liability in a pivotal election year, a fact the GOP base has yet to fully grasp. The pundits apparently view themselves as the sober older sibling warning a starry-eyed sister about the hot guy on the Harley who's been around enough to leave a mark.

The Romney campaign sends along a statement by Bob Dole pasted below. Relations between Dole — an establishment figure in the party — and Gingrich were well known to be tense during the 1990s. Here it is: I have not been critical of Newt Gingrich but it is now time to take a stand before it is too late. If Gingrich is the nominee it will have an adverse impact on Republican candidates running for county, state, and federal offices. Hardly anyone who served with Newt in Congress has endorsed him and that fact speaks for itself. He was a...

Jeffrey Lord, a political insider in the Reagan White House, railed against Newt Gingrich critic Elliott Abrams today for “grossly misrepresenting” Gingrich’s speeches on the floor of the House of Representatives in the 1980s as anti-Reagan when Gingrich was in fact lauding Reagan for his fight against Communist insurgents in Central America. Romney -- any good to try and say that Newt Gingrich, as loyal a friend and ally to Ronald Reagan as could be found in the day -- was somehow some crazed anti-Reaganite who got the Cold War wrong. Not only is this not true, its laughably untrue,”...

"Right now we have a clandestine campaign going on to make sure Newt Gingrich is the Republican candidate because he is so flawed and unsteady he will implode in a spectacular fashion. This man is lacking in moral character and he verges on the psychopathic. If you need any convincing, ask yourself why would that sleazebag, Michael Reagan, the adopted son of the great Ronald Reagan, be supporting him? I remember the 2004 election. George W. Bush was at Madison Square Garden where the Republican Convention was being held. All the broadcasters had a booth in operation. I had my...

We have witnessed something very disturbing this week. The Republican establishment which fought Ronald Reagan in the 1970s and which continues to fight the grassroots Tea Party movement today has adopted the tactics of the left in using the media and the politics of personal destruction to attack an opponent. We will look back on this week and realize that something changed. I have given numerous interviews wherein I espoused the benefits of thorough vetting during aggressive contested primary elections, but this week’s tactics aren’t what I meant. Those who claim allegiance to Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment should stop and...

The Drudge Report saw a drop in traffic yesterday of two million hits in the wake of proprietor Matt Drudge's two-day attack on Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.Drudge started his attack on Gingrich Wednesday evening with a banner headline accusing Gingrich of insulting former President Ronald Reagan. Drudge carried on the attack all through Thursday, at one time having fourteen anti-Newt headlines at once.The assault on Gingrich prompted many supporters to announce they were swearing off the Drudge Report with some saying they would stop using it as their home page.According to statistics posted by the Drudge Report, the site's...

It has no name yet, but something akin to “Operation: Newtralize” is building into an onslaught against Newt Gingrich’s drive for the presidency. -snip- By late Thursday the conservative blogosphere was in open revolt, with right-wing bloggers aiming their fury at Drudge for what many perceived as an attack coordinated with Team Romney.

Just said it on his show. Couldn't believe my ears.

You’re being manipulated. A well respected, highly influential news source has cast aside all journalistic integrity to shill for the liberal, GOP establishment candidate in this presidential race. The New York Times, you say? MSNBC? The Washington Post? No. We all gave up on those “progressive” rags a long time ago. Regrettably, the latest media outlet to assume a decidedly yellow hue during this heated primary cycle is the Drudge Report. It pains me to even write this. Drudge has always been both my first and last internet news stops of the day.