Former House majority leader Dick Armey told Candy Crowley on Sunday that former House speaker Newt Gingrich had digressed into a state of taking a second-rate campaign and turning it into a first-rate vendetta against former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Photo: CNN.
Former House majority leader Dick Armey, who was one of the guests on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ on Sunday, told the program’s host, Candy Crowley, that he was disappointed with the two Republican presidential candidates who were currently in the lead in the GOP nomination contest.
Mr. Armey, who chairs FreedomWorks, a non-profit organization which financially assists conservatives who run for Congress and state elections, described former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney as a candidate who was not a “reliable” conservative. Mrs. Crowley pointed out that, although he was often described as a ‘moderate’, Mr. Romney‘s share of the votes among those who described themselves as “strong Tea Party” supporters had more or less doubled between the South Carolina primary, where the former governor garnered 21 percent of the votes among this part of the electorate, and the Nevada caucus, where he was the favorite of 39 percent of those who are affiliated with this group.
Mr. Armey said he believed former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who won the Palmetto State, had benefited from circumstances which were unlikely to recur, and that the outcome in that state was nothing more than an “aberration”. “[...] he had just one masterful moment where he transformed himself from perpetrator to victim, attacked the media, which, Candy, as you know, is always popular with our base, and just sort of took that momentary surge,” he said. Shortly before the South Carolina primary, Mr. Gingrich indeed reacted angrily during a debate when CNN’s John King asked him if the rumors that he had threatened his wife with a divorce if she did not agree to an open marriage were true. “To take an ex-wife and make it two days before the primary a significant question in a presidential campaign is as close to despicable as anything I can imagine,” Mr. Gingrich told the moderator.
Mr. Armey then agreed with Mrs. Crowley when she suggested that Mr. Gingrich‘s rhetoric towards Mr. Romney could in no way help the Republican Party. “I don’t think it’s helpful, even to Newt. [...] I think he’s digressed into a state of taking a second-rate campaign and turning it into a first-rate vendetta. And I think he’s putting himself out of the game because he can’t get over his obsession about his own hurt feelings over the campaign in Iowa,” Mr. Armey said.
Mr. Armey also explained that, although Mr. Romney was not his favorite candidate, he would support him if he were to win the GOP nomination. “We would rather have a Republican president that’s not fully the guy we adore wanting our affections than a Democrat president who despises us and covets the affections of our mortal enemies on public policy,” he told the program.
