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(CNN) – Mitt Romney on Monday tore into fellow Republican presidential frontrunner Newt Gingrich, describing his opponent's recent proposals to dismantle federal courts and expel judges as unconstitutional. "There are a lot of decisions by judges I vehemently disagree with," Romney said on Fox News. "But I also agree with the Constitution. The solution to judges-out-of-control is not to tear up the Constitution and say the Congress of the United States becomes the now ultimate power in this country."

For nearly a decade, 2012 contender Newt Gingrich has been floating some controversial ideas aimed at reining in the federal judiciary. He's called that branch of government "grotesquely dictatorial" and elitist. Should he become president, Gingrich says he'll ignore Supreme Court decisions if they don't square with his interpretation of the Constitution or what he believes the country's founders intended. Gingrich says federal judges should be called before Congress to explain their decisions, suggesting Sunday that he'd even approve of arresting them if they refused to show up. It's an issue raised Thursday in Fox News' GOP debate in Iowa,...

(Reuters) - Newt Gingrich's tax plan could blow a gaping hole in U.S. government revenues, while preserving special interest tax breaks, said economists aligned with the Republican presidential candidate's own party. While other Republican contenders have made headlines with their tax proposals, Gingrich quietly released his months ago. It calls for slashing the corporate rate, giving individuals big tax breaks, and retaining many major deductions and credits. Conservatives have applauded his proposal to lower rates, but economists on both the left and right have said his plan would drain federal coffers in the near term, making it impractical amid concerns...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich still smashes his GOP presidential rivals in South Carolina, while his closest but still distant rival Mitt Romney received only a 4-point lift after an endorsement from S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley. A survey conducted Sunday evening by InsiderAdvantage/Majority Opinion Research found support for Gingrich dropped from 38 percent at the end of November to nearly 31 percent among likely South Carolina Republican primary voters. Romney rose slightly from 15 percent to 19 percent. InsiderAdvantage CEO Matt Towery said the race in South Carolina should have gotten closer, but it remains a state where he predicts...

Michele Bachmann, asked just now by CNN’s John King about a statement from her South Carolina spokesman saying Newt Gingrich is buying votes, said her campaign has heard that “money is changing hands.” Her S.C. spokesman Wesley Donohue made the accusation against Gingrich last month in an interview with the Columbia Free-Times: Bachmann is trying to grow an organic base of supporters, and Newt Gingrich is trying to buy off tea party groups. … Newt Gingrich knows the only way he can get the tea party vote is to buy it. When King asked Bachmann tonight to support or deny...

NEW HAMPTON, Iowa — This state was once poised to launch Rick Perry on the path to the Republican nomination. Now, it’s threatening to end his campaign. There’s an opportunity for Perry: Newt Gingrich, the fifth candidate to shoot to the top of state polls, is slipping. Voters continue to say their minds aren’t made up, and the leading candidates aren’t spending much time here — unlike Perry, who launched a 14-day bus tour last week. That complements a slew of ads running in the state and a retrenched appeal to the evangelical, social-conservative voters in his natural base who...

Iowa Speaker Paulsen endorses Gingrich for 2012 GOP nomination HIAWATHA — Iowa Speaker of the House Kraig Paulsen is endorsing Newt Gingrich for the Republican nomination for president. Paulsen, a Hiawatha Republican, will announce his endorsement at an 8:30 a.m. State Capitol news conference Dec. 21.

Heard a short blurb by Fox News Radio that in an interview I think schedule for tonight, Newt believes that a couple of new candidates may enter the race by April and he mentioned Palin - saying that if she enters with her level of support that it would really shake up the race.....hmmm! Interesting times indeed!

WASHINGTON, DC, Dec 19, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Conservatives have spoken. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has won the Townhall.com and HotAir.com National GOP Primary. Voting ended Thursday, Dec. 15 and Newt Gingrich was declared the winner after over 250,000 votes were cast. Jonathan Garthwaite, general manager of Townhall and HotAir said, "This gave our nationwide audience a chance to have their individual voices heard. In an extremely volatile primary season, over 250,000 votes from conservative Republicans were cast for the nominee they want to see on the ballot in 2012. It was extremely important for all our readers...

DAVENPORT, Iowa — Returning to Iowa where the latest polls show his campaign suddenly slipping, Newt Gingrich lamented what he called a barrage of negative ads aimed at him and promised a 44-stop “jobs and prosperity” tour before the voting on Jan. 3 to fight back. Mr. Gingrich renewed a vow to stick to the high road and campaign positively, but he still aimed a stinging barb at unnamed Republican rivals for ads that have relentlessly gone after his record on Freddie Mac and other issues and seem to be raising doubts with voters. “I’m candidly very disappointed that some...

One of the more interesting examples of the Washington establishment’s hypocrisy in today’s Republican presidential campaign is the bashing of Newt Gingrich over his consulting work for Freddie Mac. The other campaigns all know Gingrich opposed the Bush-supported bailout of Freddie Mac, and its evil twin Fannie Mae, and that Gingrich even went before a meeting of House Republicans to rally opposition to the bailout saying, “…it's an absurd bill. If a Republican administration wasn't supporting it, it wouldn't get five Republican votes.” In particular, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (who should have been at that 2008 meeting and has received political...

Why, you may ask, is the meteoric rise of Newt Gingrich giving so many in the Republican establishment a bit of holiday-season indigestion? Look no further than party leaders' worries about the shaky Gingrich relationship with a category of Americans who may matter more than any other in the 2012 election: independent voters.

Former Oklahoma congressman J.C. Watts is expected to endorse Newt Gingrich on Monday, according to multiple media reports, earning the former House Speaker another nod from a member of the 1994 Republican Revolution. Watts, who served four terms representing Oklahoma's 4th district, was a star quarterback at the University of Oklahoma and replaced now-Speaker John Boehner as chairman of the House Republican Conference in 1999. Since leaving Congress, Watts founded a lobbying and consulting firm in Washington. He has also served as a political commentator for CNN. Watts provides Gingrich with much-needed establishment support while his once-ballooning poll numbers have...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is spending $242,000 ona week’s worth of television ads in Iowa, according to a Republican media buyer, as he seeks to combat massive spending against him in the run-up to the Jan. 3 caucuses. he money will go to 30-second spots airing from tomorrow through next Monday. The focus is on Des Moines — the average person will see the Gingrich ad ten times in a week in that market — but there will also be heavy rotation in Cedar Rapids and Sioux City with smaller buys in Davenport and the Rochester-Mason City market. Gingrich...

Alabama’s unemployment rate fell at a record pace in November amid stepped-up efforts by President Barack Obama’s deputies to frustrate enforcement of the state’s popular new immigration reform. The state’s unemployment rate fell 0.6 percent in November to 8.7 percent, according to new state reports, partly because the state’s employers opened up jobs to Americans after shedding illegal immigrants. The unemployment rate is far below October’s rate of 9.3 percent and September’s rate of 9.8 percent. “The continued drop is proof that people — American Citizens [and] legal migrants, have suffered at the hands of politicians who choose politics over...

Has Newt Gingrich lost momentum in polling for the Republican primary? Not in the latest CNN poll, although he may not have as much as Mitt Romney. According to their survey conducted from Friday to Sunday nationally, both GOP fronrunners have 28% of the respondents, leaving the rest of the field trailing badly. CNN reports this as Gingrich’s lead disappearing, which is true but a bit misleading: Newt Gingrich’s lead in the race for the GOP presidential nomination has evaporated, according to a new national survey. A CNN/ORC International Poll released Monday indicates that 28% of Republicans and independents who...

There Is No Power and No Reason to Subpoena Federal Judges December 19, 2011 12:21 P.M. By Andrew C. McCarthy I was surprised that the usually excellent Megyn Kelly’s debate question to Newt Gingrich about his proposal for reining in the judiciary intimated that former Bush administration attorneys general Michael Mukasey and Alberto Gonzales had panned the proposal as “dangerous, ridiculous, totally irresponseible, outrageous,” etc. To be sure, that’s what they said about some aspects of Gingrich’s proposal; but not the overall plan. In fact, as Megyn’s report states, Judge Mukasey said of Gingrich’s plan, “There’s a lot in there...

Newt Gingrich’s popularity as a presidential nominee is increasing in South Carolina, yet most S.C. voters are still unsure of who is the best GOP candidate to support. That’s the finding of the second Clemson University 2012 Palmetto Poll of a sample of 600 S.C. voters. The Jan. 21 S.C. presidential primary is expected to draw 600,000 voters early next year. “With the demise of (Herman) Cain’s candidacy, which was high in our November poll, Gingrich has risen in popularity,” said Clemson University political scientist Dave Woodard. “This surge is being reflected nationwide, as well.”

Gingrich 26% Romney 24% Paul 11% Bachmann 7% Perry 7% Santorum 4% Huntsman 2%

In last night’s debate among Republican presidential candidates, Newt Gingrich defended his proposal to oust bad judges from office by statutorily abolishing the judicial offices they occupy. In a series of posts, Matt Franck and I will explain why we believe that this particular proposal of Gingrich’s is constitutionally unsound and politically foolish. (Matt and I may have somewhat different thinking on the underlying issues, so the views expressed by one of us should not necessarily be imputed to the other.)In this opening post, I will set forth Gingrich’s proposal to abolish judgeships. At the outset, let me emphasize that...