Newt: Establishment will 'go wild'

Newt Gingrich predicted Monday the Republican party establishment would "go wild the next week or two" as it comes to terms with the prospect of the former House speaker as a leading candidate for the GOP presidential nomination.

That, Gingrich said in a "Good Morning America" interview, is because he's a "populist conservative" and a genuine outsider who would shake up the nation's capital as president.

"I think you’re going to see the establishment go wild the next week or two," Gingrich told ABC, arguing: "I have no ties to Goldman Sachs, for example, the single biggest backer of Romney. I have no ties to the power structure."

That's a bit rich, given that Gingrich's interview was broadcast from McLean, Va., the ritzy Washington suburb where the longtime lawmaker and D.C. fixture makes his home.

But Gingrich made it clear that's how he plans to respond to attacks on his record from Romney, whom he accused of "deliberately saying things he knows are false," such as calling Gingrich a lobbyist.

"I just think that’s what the next week will be like," Gingrich said, emphasizing repeatedly that he's the candidate who will take a bat to Beltway elites.

"If people want somebody who’s timid, and gonna manage the decay, they should vote for Romney," he said.