@0:00 - Laura: The super pac back and forth...You said Mitt Romney should take down the super pac ads, tell them to stop, and Mitt Romney said well I technically could, but basically said if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen because Obama's going to deliver hell's kitchen in a general election. What's your response to that, you can't take the heat?
Newt: My response to it is, defending the right to lie as a candidate is a pretty bad idea. The Washington Post just gave the newest Romney ad four Pinocchios. Do you know how hard it is to write and run ad that has four Pinocchios? That means there's no honesty in the ad, except maybe the tag line.
@0:41 - Newt: If Romney would like to take credit and admit these are his staffers, these are his donors, this is his negative campaign, and it's dishonest, fine I can take the heat. But all I have is some guy running around going 'oh me, I'm really innocent because I'm a businessman and I'm not a politician and I wouldn't do anything negative and gosh I wish those people weren't doing anything negative because gee I really feel bad but I can't tell them not to do anything negative because that would be a boo boo.' What he said yesterday morning on MSNBC insulted the intelligence of every American. Give us a break Mitt, just be honest!
@1:14 - Laura: Well isn't one of your former campaign guys Rick Tyler starting a super pac supporting you?
Newt: He is, and my message publicly is, it had better be positive. Because I will disown it and I will attack it. And if Romney wants to disown the people who have given millions of dollars, and he wants to attack his own personal staff for being negative, and, by the way, being dishonestly negative, that would be an honorable thing to do. That would show he's a leader. Right now he's proving he's learned politics pretty darn well.
@2:13 - Newt: I have faith that the people of Iowa can see baloney, they understand baloney, this is baloney, they want the real thing. Newt Gingrich has actually balanced the budget, reformed welfare, cut taxes. I'm prepared to run a campaign of honesty and a campaign of facts and a campaign of positive ideas. And I think people are going to look up in this kind of economy with this kind of deficit and this kind of president--we don't need to replace Obama's dishonesty with a Republican who is equally dishonest.
@3:04 - Laura: Don't we need Newt the fighter in order to stave off some of these ads?
Newt: Laura you've got Newt the fighter. What I'm fighting for is a campaign of honesty, directness, [inaudible] Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment. The only person helped by Mitt Romney's attack ads is Barack Obama. The only person who is better by the attack ads of the other Republicans is Barack Obama. If you look at the polling in the last two weeks Obama's positives are going up, Obama's head to head against Republicans are going up, and that's because the attack ads of Republicans.
@3:34 - Newt: Everybody who has watched the debates has seen me. I've said over and over in the debates, let's not fight each other, we have one opponent, it's Barack Obama.
@3:52 - Newt: Romney has $1.4 million in negative ads next week in Iowa. Now that is a level of drowning people in dirt that is an embarrassment to the American system.
@4:04 - Laura: Well why do you think you're going down in the polls?
Newt: Because I've had a whole number of candidates--when you are out here in Iowa and people say to you, 'I've gotten robo phone calls that are negative, I've gotten mail that is negative, I've gotten six ads in a row in an hour that are negative,' you take a temporary hit. And then you come back and you say to people 'alright, if this ad was honest I wouldn't vote for me either, and here's what the Washington Post said, it's totally dishonest.'
@4:34 - Laura: And Newt I know you're losing sleep over the fact that Meghan McCain called Callista 'icey' and said that she was doing damage to your campaign. Meghan McCain now being touted by MSNBC as a conservative thinker.
Newt: Ha. Well, listen, let's be fair. By the standards of MSNBC she IS a conservative thinker.
