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ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Under pressure to help unify his party, Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich pledged Tuesday to support Mitt Romney if the former Massachusetts governor wins enough convention delegates to clinch the nomination by the end of the GOP primary season in June. If Romney falls short, "I think you'll then have one of the most interesting, open conventions in American history," the former House speaker said as he campaigned for votes in next week's Maryland primary.

There have been a number of times in my life when I’ve realized that my instinct was contrary to my interests. It’s no easier for me to cope with than it is for anyone else. But if you want broader success (and I do) then the only option is to set aside those instincts and do the smart thing instead of the thing that feels best at the time. We all must do it sometimes. We’re conservatives after all. We aren’t some childish liberals only worried about intentions and sentiment. We are interested in actually accomplishing things and the only...

Newt Gingrich said today he would be willing to be second on a Mitt Romney ticket. “No, I wouldn’t say no,” Gingrich said on Fox News Channel’s Your World with Neil Cavuto about what he would do if he was asked to become Romney’s vice president. “I can’t imagine him offering.” He also blasted Obama’s remarks caught on mic to Russian president Dmitry Medvedev. “The question it raises is how many countries, whether it is Iran or somewhere else has he had a similar conversation with?” said Gingrich. “You know, let me pretend I’m tough long enough to get reelected,...

..A few of Newt Gingrich’s… Not-So-Greatest Hits: August 30, 2004: “Now he’s back, preaching the gospel of party moderation. At an Aug. 30 forum held by the centrist Republican Main Street Partnership, Gingrich heralded the GOP’s new, bigger big tent. “Everywhere I’ve been, I’ve argued in favor of electing the moderates,” Gingrich said… He even chastised the fiscally conservative Club for Growth — a group that finances primary challengers to Republican incumbents they deem too liberal — for not getting with the program. “Their strategy is explicitly wrong,” Gingrich said. “The key is to elect more Republicans and have a...

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On issues such as Social Security, taxes and environmental regulation, the Newt Gingrich of the 1980s and 1990s is proving to be a problem for the 2012 presidential hopeful, who promises to fundamentally transform Washington. From appearing in a television ad advocating global-warming awareness with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to backing the 1986 amnesty for illegal immigrants to his early support for an individual mandate requiring Americans to purchase health insurance, Mr. Gingrich’s past is sprinkled with positions that cause some conservatives heartburn. Mr. Gingrich earlier this year waved off the Pelosi ad as “probably the single dumbest thing I’ve...

Has it really come to this? Newt Gingrich as the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney? That's what many in the punditocracy have proclaimed as the former speaker of the House has surged recently in the polls. Yet a look at his record reveals that Newt is hardly the "anti-Mitt" -- he's Mitt Romney with more baggage and bolder hand gestures. Every Gingrich profile proclaims that he's a dazzling "ideas man," a "one-man think tank." It seems that, if you clamor long enough about "big ideas," people become convinced you actually have them. But most of Gingrich's policy ideas over the...

Jackie Battley was Gingrich’s geometry teacher in high school. They secretly dated until they got married on June 19, 1962. ...In 1980, the couple separated after Gingrich began an affair with Marianne Ginther. Ginther met Gingrich at a political fundraiser in 1981. Ginther is the daughter of a former Ohio mayor. They married six months after Gingrich divorced his first wife, Jackie Battley. ...Gingrich began an affair with House of Representatives staffer Callista Bisek in the mid-1990s. ...Newt began an affair with Callista while she worked as an aide for the House of Representatives. They continued their affair during the...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Sunday that he strongly supports a federal mandate requiring citizens to buy health insurance – a position that has been rejected by many Republicans, including several who likely will be running against him for the Republican presidential nomination. Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Gingrich told host David Gregory that he continues to advocate for a plan he first called for in the early 1990s as a Congressman, which requires every uninsured citizen to purchase or acquire health insurance.

After many feints in this direction dating back to 1996, Newt Gingrich seems to be finally preparing a run for president. Generally, he is not being taken as seriously as potential candidates like Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, and Mike Huckabee—or even D.C. insider heartthrobs such as Haley Barbour, Mitch Daniels, and Chris Christie. I agree with this assessment of Gingrich’s potential, to an extent; he’s the opposite of a fresh new face, and the guy’s baggage rivals Charlie Sheen’s. Yet having carefully watched Gingrich up close since he was a Rockefeller Republican in the 1970s, I also know that he...

Newt Gingrich Eyes 2012 Run Susan Davis reports on politics. Newt Gingrich is keeping an eye towards 2012, the former speaker of the House told reporters Thursday evening before a speaking engagement at Randolph Macon College. Gingrich said he and his wife, Callista, “will look seriously and we’ll probably get our family totally engaged, including our two grandchildren, probably in January 2011, and we’ll look seriously at whether or not we think it’s necessary to do it,” he said, according to the Richmond Times Dispatch. “And if we think it’s necessary we’ll probably do it. And if it isn’t necessary...