Former Speaker Newt Gingrich is now a frontrunner in Iowa. The polls tell us this, and he’s already being attacked by one of his opponents. Two minutes after The FAMiLY Leader’s Thanksgiving Forum finished the Bachmann campaign sent out this email (Brian Myers attended the event for CT and will post on the last big event before the Iowa Caucus a little later):
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has failed to uphold a consistently pro-life stance throughout his career in public life. Gingrich has positioned himself as open to watering down the Republican Party’s commitment to the inalienable right to life and failed as the leader of the U.S. House of Representatives to stem the flow of taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood, the largest U.S. provider of abortions….
…Under Newt Gingrich’s tenure as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives 1995-1999, the federal government channeled $587,073,070 to Planned Parenthood components – more than half a billion dollars – and his Republican-dominated House never voted to bar taxpayer funding to this largest U.S. abortion provider…
…In 2009 Gingrich committed a grave error in political and philosophical judgment when he endorsed pro-abortion Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava in a special congressional election for New York’s 23rd District….
…At the height of the controversy over Gingrich’s endorsement of Scozzafava, he defended his support for the pro-abortion candidate with language strikingly similar to his prior moderation on the pro-life issue during the 1980s and early 1990s.…
…Scozzafava eventually withdrew from the race and endorsed her former Democrat opponent Bill Owens over the pro-life Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman. Gingrich belatedly switched his support to Hoffman in the aftermath of Scozzafava’s withdrawal. The pro-abortion Democrat went on to win the special election, taking over a seat that had been in Republican hands for decades….
You can see the entire email here. Will this strategy work for Bachmann as she desperately tries to gain some traction after being in free fall since the Ames Straw Poll. It is a tough sell with Gingrich’s substantive positions on social issues, and the fact he has refused to go negative on any of his opponents. This could potentially backfire, but it is likely the only thing her campaign can do just shy of 45 days from the Iowa Caucus which she must do well in if she seeks to continue on.