GOP hopeful's video, part of one of the most expensive campaigns ever, simply shows a 1997 NBC news report
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney released a new ad on Saturday resurrecting old ethics charges against rival Newt Gingrich, who is being subjected to what may be the biggest battering in a GOP campaign since the 1960s.
The new ad, called 'History Lesson', simply shows an NBC news report from 1997 when House Republicans and Democrats overwhelmingly found Gingrich guilty of an ethics violation while Speaker.
The ad is part of one of the most expensive political ad campaigns ever, swamping Florida in the run-up to its primary on Tuesday. The outcome will go a long way towards determining whether Romney or Gingrich will be the Republican nominee to face Barack Obama in November.
Romney, enjoying a poll lead of about 9% and buoyed by a strong debate performance on Thursday night, boasted about the debate at a rally in Orlando on Friday night. "I had fun last night, I've got to tell you," he said.
He repeated a similar line on the campaign trail on Saturday morning.
Romney is backing up the ad campaign with a string of endorsements and campaign appearances by senior party figues such as the Republican presidential nominee in 2008, John McCain, who appeared with him in Orlando, and the Hollywood actor Jon Voight, a long-time Republican.
Ed Rollins, a veteran Republican strategist who managed Mike Huckabee's campaign in 2008, told the Wall Street Journal: "You have to go back to the attempted destruction of Barry Goldwater in 1964 to see anything like it."
Sarah Palin, whose influence with Republican voters may have waned as a result of her failure to join the race, but who still has a following, mainly among Tea Party activists, echoed this on Fox News. "Look at Newt Gingrich, what's going on with him via the establishment's attacks. They're trying to crucify this man and rewrite history and rewrite what it is that he has stood for all these years," said Palin, who has stopped just short of endorsing Gingrich.
Romney's new ad runs an excerpt from a report by NBC's Tom Brokaw in 1997 saying: "Good evening. Newt Gingrich, who came to power, after all, preaching a higher standard in American politics, a man who brought down another Speaker on ethics accusations, tonight he has on his own record the judgment of his peers, Democrat and Republican alike. By an overwhelming vote, they found him guilty of ethics violations; they charged him a very large financial penalty, and they raised – several of them – raised serious questions about his future effectiveness."
There was embarrassment for the Romney campaign when NBC asked him to pull the ad. Brokaw said: "I am extremely uncomfortable with the extended use of my personal image in this political ad".
Gingrich was fined $300,000 after the House voted by 395 to 28 to punish him for improperly financing two projects and misleading an investigation. Gingrich says the Internal Revenue Service later exonerated him.
Gingrich was subjected to a negative ad blitz in Iowa, which took its toll on his campaign, but the stream of negative ads in Florida is much more intense than that in Iowa.
Gingrich is preparing an ad of his own for release, quoting Huckabee on Romney in 2008. "If a man's dishonest to get a job, he'll be dishonest on the job," Huckabee said.
Huckabee claims the statement is taken out of context.
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