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Newt Gingrich reportedly owed up to $500,000 to Tiffany Posted by Brian Montopoli Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who entered the 2012 presidential race just last Wednesday, is having an epically bad week. And it's only Tuesday. On Sunday, Gingrich angered conservatives by criticizing Rep. Paul Ryan's budget plan and semi-supporting an individual mandate for health care. Now he is being stung by a report that he carried up to $500,000 in debt to the Tiffany jewelry company - and may still be carrying it. Politico got the scoop by looking at financial records filed with the Clerk of the...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) on Monday sought to walk back his controversial remarks on healthcare after coming under friendly fire from the right. Gingrich, who's acknowledged that his discipline and judgment would be a key metric of success in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, had come under intense criticism from conservatives stunned by his comments on NBC's “Meet the Press." “I am completely opposed to the ObamaCare mandate on individuals," Gingrich said in a video posted to his website on Monday. “I am for the repeal of ObamaCare and I am against any effort to impose...

CHICAGO — U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan said Monday that Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich does not fully understand a GOP proposal to turn Medicare into a voucher system, dismissing criticism from the former House speaker that the plan would be a radical change. "I just think he's missing the mark on what our plan actually does," Ryan, chairman of the powerful House Budget Committee, told reporters after a speech to the Economic Club of Chicago. "Our plan is one of the most gradual things one could do," because it would not affect people over age 55 and would not kick...

I would contend Newt Gingrich’s interview with Bill Bennett this morning did not go well for the candidate. I don’t think I’ve ever heard Bennett, one of the most patient and courteous hosts in talk radio, so exasperated with a guest: Bill Bennett: We had some tough comments about you, want to give you a chance to respond. Let me put it this way: Is there anything about this Meet the Press interview that you would like to either take back or clarify today?Newt Gingrich: Yeah, there’s a lot that I would like to clarify, but let me start by...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich might not want to count on a presidential endorsement from South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. In an interview with CNN Tuesday, Haley sharply admonished Gingrich for his comments over the weekend disparaging the Medicare plan proposed by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan as "radical change" and "right-wing social engineering." The remarks opened a floodgate of conservative criticism, with elite opinion writers on down to Iowa voters accusing Gingrich of throwing his own party under the bus and making it easier for Democrats to attack the Ryan plan. Haley, whose promise to endorse a presidential candidate...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, May 15, 2011, where he said he favors a "variation" on the individual insurance mandate. (AP Photo/NBC News, William B. Plowman) (CNSNews.com) - Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R.-Ga.) said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” yesterday that he supports requiring all individuals to buy health insurance, post a bond to pay for health care, "or in some way you indicate you're going to be held accountable"--a position he called a “variation” on the type of individual mandate included in President Barack Obama’s health-care reform law. Led...

The Republican Presidential campaign is off to a slow start, but judging by the last week not slow enough. First Mitt Romney defends his ObamaCare prototype in Massachusetts, and now Newt Gingrich has decided to run against House Republicans on Medicare. They must be loving this at the White House

Other GOPers likely to follow Gingrich’s lead in criticizing Ryan’s budget plan, say political analysts 12:04 AM 05/17/2011 Though former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has been skewered by conservative opinion makers since criticizing House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget plan on “Meet the Press” Sunday, political prognosticators expect that other Republican candidates will soon follow Gingrich’s lead. Popular entitlement programs like Medicare, which would be drastically altered in Ryan’s budget proposal, have historically been the third rails of American politics, issues which politicians on both sides of the aisle are reluctant to target for change. While cutting spending is the...

Brit Hume trashed Newt on Fox and called him nothing less than a Bomb thrower.  That's an understatement. Brit said that Newt attacked Paul Ryan and handed a talking point to the Democrats......"vote for a Republican and Medicare will be gone."  All that on day 5 of his campaign. Brit pretty much said that Newt is going to implode even faster than he did as Speaker of the House. He complimented Ryan for his detailed plan and ridicules Newt for not offering anything but a lot of noise.

ATLANTA (AP) --- Newt Gingrich, the House speaker who led a national GOP resurgence in the 1990s before facing ethics questions and resigning, is running for president. Gingrich's announcement, made on social networking websites Monday, came after months of public flirting with a bid. He enters a slow-to-form GOP presidential field that has left some Republicans craving more options as they search for a nominee strong enough to credibly challenge President Barack Obama. The former Georgia congressman, well-known to most Republicans, brings to the race a years-in-the-making political machine with ties to early nominating states as well as a network...

As Newt Gingrich enters the presidential race the New York Times did an piece on it that had a particular interest in his wife, Calista. I know he's not a fan favorite, but his wife has my vote. At 45, 22 years her husband’s junior, Mrs. Gingrich always looks perfectly composed. She favors an almost retro look — platinum hair teased and sprayed, bold-colored suits accessorized by a triple strand of pearls or eye-popping diamond jewelry. In college, friends say, she once signed up for an 8 a.m. bowling class and rolled a 200 wearing a pencil skirt. Based...

Trust me, when it comes to the 2012 race for the Republican presidential nomination, I am going to be fair in assessing the candidates. Already I have polled for NewsMax, and my early polls placed former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich in fourth place among announced or potential candidates. But before I go into my harsh analyst mode -- which once in a while leads to an "I'm hurt" email from Newt -- let me share my personal feelings about the man who has just announced that he will seek the presidency. Other than the man most call my "other...

Remember earlier this year when civil discourse was en vogue in the wake of Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ shooting in Tucson? That theme has eroded somewhat over the past several months. On Thursday’s “Morning Joe” on MSNBC, Mika Brzezinski asked her co-host Mike Barnicle if former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich’s run would “reignite hope” for the Republican Party. And that led Barnicle, the once-accused plagiarist who resigned his position at the Boston Globe in the wake of those charges, to go off a diatribe about the former House Speaker. “Well, they better hope not,” Barnicle said. “He...

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said Friday that General Electric's aggressive legal and accounting strategy, which led to zero corporate tax payments last year, was a clever and rational response to the nation's high tax rates. In his first public speech since announcing his candidacy, the former House speaker said he wanted to slash an array of taxes and bureaucracies. He denounced President Barack Obama's foreign and domestic policies, and said the incumbent can't win in 2012 without using his office to coerce massive campaign donations from people. Gingrich lived up to his combative, self-assured reputation at a Washington meeting...

Newt Gingrich, carrying heavy baggage from multiple marriages and RINO stances, is now trying to rewrite history. Lambasted over an ad against "climate change," in which he sat on a couch with Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, Gingrich is trying to clarify the meaning of the ad. Gingrich-spokesman Rick Tyler sent an email out to that effect (emphasis mine): "Newt does not apologize for trying to persuade his ideological opponents that his conservative solutions are the best solutions. His attempt to work with Speaker Pelosi is another testament to Gingrich's willingness to debate his conservative solutions with liberals, in this case Pelosi....

My father, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, has been in politics as long as I can remember. And as long as I can remember, media coverage about him has contained misstatements of facts. The vast majority are simple mistakes that are easily corrected, understood and rewoven into an ongoing storyline. But one of them seems to have taken on a life of its own, and simple corrections have not sufficed to set the record straight. Why does this happen? I can't be sure, but I suspect that the narrative created by these untruths proves to be so much...

Discussion on the Sunday talk shows centered on the budget and the looming debt ceiling, with House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) on CNN’s State of the Union and House Speaker John Boehner (Ohio) on CBS’s Face the Nation. Domestic energy production and the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East also were addressed. Meet the Press (NBC) Gingrich: Paul Ryan' s plan is "right-wing social engineering," goes too far Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R) explained that he felt compelled to run for president because "to not seek to help the country to fix the problems we have would...

This is now the mainstream press treats Republicans now. They simply default to the racist charge. NBC news anchor David Gregory interviews Newt Gingrich, GOP candidate for president, and calls him a racist since he mentioned 47 million people are now on food stamps. Listen to how Gregory mentions - twice - that Gingrich gave the speech in Georgia, clearly implying Georgia is obviously some sort of racist hot spot. Media bias on display.

Says Andrew Stiles of NRO, “Newt Gingrich’s appearance on ‘Meet the Press’ today could leave some wondering which party’s nomination he is running for.” DrewM at Ace’s site thinks it’s yet another illustration of Newt’s loose-cannon lack of message discipline, but I can’t believe that; he surely must have considered how this will play in the primaries, especially after the pounding Romney just took on the right for his health-care speech. What’s his strategy? Maybe he’s decided his shot at the nomination is so long that his only chance is by Mediscaring seniors, who famously turn out in high numbers...