Newt Gingrich Slams Mitt Romney For 'Pious Baloney' In New Hampshire 2012 GOP Debate

Mitt Romney spent the first part of Sunday's GOP debate arguing -- rather unbelievably -- that he's a reluctant politician who never really planned a White House bid after he left the governor's office in Massachusetts. But he did it in rather smart fashion: going on and on and on until his time had run out. And with the rest of the field eager to pounce on Romney, Newt Gingrich finally jumped in at one point.

"I realize the red light doesn't mean anything to you because you're the frontrunner," he said. "Can we drop a little bit of the pious baloney..."

"You didn't have this interlude of citizenship while you thought about what you were going to do," he said, referencing the time before Romney decided to run for president in 2007. For good measure, Gingrich added: "You happened to lose to [John] McCain as you did to [Ted] Kennedy ... Just level with the American people, you have been running at least since the 1990s."

"Mr. Speaker," Romney responded, "citizenship has always been on my mind."

Earlier in the debate, Rick Santorum similarly attacked Romney for only running for one term as Massachusetts governor.

"Well, if his record was so great as governor of Massachusetts then why didn't he run for re-election?" Santorum said. "If Romney wouldn't stand for the people of Massachusetts and run on your record, if it was that great, why did you bail out?"

In contrast, Santorum said he ran for reelection multiple times in both the House and the Senate "and I won a couple of times." He pointed out that he ran in a primarily Democratic district and against an incumbent.

"At the end of that campaign, [Romney] wouldn't stand for conservative principles," Santorum said.

Romney said he believed he had accomplished what he wanted to during his term.

WATCH:

Comments

[jezoebel]

11:35 PM on 01/28/2012

To quote Jon Stewart, "You're bologna has a first name and it's PIOUS?"

[Terry Mckinney]

07:57 PM on 01/14/2012

OMG.It's the pot calling the other pot a pot.Too bad they have no clue about pot.

[Lobo912]

03:43 PM on 01/09/2012

Newt may be the smartest man in the room, but he's also clearly the most vindictive.

[charleymyboy]

02:38 PM on 01/09/2012

I dare say that if you look for the word "pius" in your Funk & Wagnalls you will see newtie's picture.

[grailpuffin]

02:15 PM on 01/09/2012

Lets call it like it is. They are all career politicians. Its what they do and anyone of them who says otherwise is a hypocrite.

[Freevo]

11:48 AM on 01/09/2012

Pious baloney described the whole lot of repub candidates. Thank
you, Newt, for the comment that will come back time and again to bite you.

[duger]

10:54 AM on 01/09/2012

This crop of GOP candidates is atrocious. The best and the brightest are sitting this election out. Newt is sinking fast, torpedoed primarily by his own mouth and his notorious past. All he can do now is try to submarine the generic , plastic, bobble-head who slyly launched a series of stealth attacks on him in Iowa. That leaves Santorum is even too religious and too fanatical, Paul who is too revolutionary, Perry who’s too stupid and Huntsman too much like a Democrat to appeal to the majority of Republican stalwarts. So like it or not, Romney is going to be the eventual nominee. The truth is, with Romney’s bland personality, his religious affiliation and his penchant sending American jobs overseas through his shady business dealings; he could very easily wind up in the general election with poll numbers that resemble those posted by Michael Dukakis.

[michaelnel4449]

10:53 AM on 01/09/2012

Many republicans wanted super pacs to tell lies against Democrats, they called it free speech. But they don't seem to care for it when it's used on them by their own party. I do enjoy watching GOP candidates pointing out the faults of each other. This group is really pathetic. So this is the best group of rodeo clowns that big money can buy? Hate to say it, smooth sailing for Obama in 2012.

[Lobo912]

03:45 PM on 01/09/2012

Particularly since the candidates are giving him the playbook.

[rocks4aliving]

10:23 AM on 01/09/2012

Newt, Santorm and Paul are all correct... Mitt claims to not be a career politician but he's been running forever... and his record as bad as it is ..would have been worst if he ran for govenor a second term.

[euryalus36]

10:19 AM on 01/09/2012

I guess where it seems many politicians miss their mark is that they appear to spend much of their time slamming their opponents. This negative campaigning does not rest well with me. I do not want to hear what they think of the other candidate. What I want to hear is what they intend to do and how they are going to accomplish it. That is what I believe is important. Also I look for consistency in what they say, and I guess most important, I pay more attention to what they have done, rather than what they are saying. Actions speak much louder than words.

[jayuucee]

11:33 AM on 01/09/2012

I agree with you 100%. Dirty politics leaves a sour taste in my mouth and I generally tune them out when they start. But when they have no positive or productive agenda to discuss that leaves them only one option.....blast their opponents. Bring them down to their level so they don't look as bad as they really are. Pathetic. The politicians are the biggest reason the country is in the mess we are in now. They can't handly our money, they have too much of their own money and their politics is changing daily to get more votes. Hence the 13% approval rating for these losers.

[thisaintnews]

10:03 AM on 01/09/2012

None of these guys has offered any concrete answers to our nations problems, because the source of our nations problems is Congress. Imagine what this country could do for the people, if Congress really did their job. Imagine what term limitations could do for Congress, imagine what legislation to control lobbyist could do to the money pool.......etc,etc,etc. Oh well, back to reality.

[ideassoul]

09:56 AM on 01/09/2012

Romney has the worse enemy that a politician could have. Newt is out there to destroy him and he will do whatever he can to make Romney life misserable. The problem the Republican contender have is that they go out on TV and they look like they want to be President at any cost, they look like they hate each other and are wasting to much time in talking things that are not important for the voters. They go out and Obama this, Obama the other but they do not offer solution to find jobs for the millions and millions of workers that cannnot find jobs. President Obama is going slowly but steady and it will be very difficult to defeat him he has a volunteer army that will go doors to doors explaining if the Republicans win the Presidency that will be the end of Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid, million of people will have to live in the streets.

Ideassoul

[IrishRed1952]

09:45 AM on 01/09/2012

Not that I'm supporting Romney but maybe he just changed his mind. Not all politicians make politics and making money their life. O f course, he has money.

[kevinclennon]

09:44 AM on 01/09/2012

The pudits or attacking romney this morning to bad they didn't watch same debate as me. Romney had great answers for these attacks and the media keeps cutting them out. Wonder why ,does the main stream media know Romney is going to beat Obama?

[jayuucee]

11:34 AM on 01/09/2012

Slim chance of that!!!!!!!!!!!

[JadedLady2]

01:36 PM on 01/09/2012

Keep dreaming.......

[rmachayes]

09:33 AM on 01/09/2012

I find it puzzling as to why these so-called Presidential candidates spend so much time moaning about what their competitors have said, done, not done, might do. If a person has to resort to such tatics, then to my way of thinking, the one doing the moaning doesn't have much of a platform to begin with. Scary. By far the one thing that evokes fear in me is the fact that ALL, ALL, the candidates NEVER spend time explaining how he/she will create a stance against the illegal importation of drugs, America's Number One problem, into our great nation. This needs to be addressed as it is not going away and if anything is growing by leaps and bounds while our so-called leaders stand by twiddling their thumbs and feeling their wallets grow bigger and bigger.

[kevinclennon]

09:44 AM on 01/09/2012

WOW ,thats why we have Obama nobody looked into his record or lack of one. Romney is more qualified then Obama even after being president for 3 years.