'All of you who want to play ‘gotcha' ... I’ll go to the next question,' Gingrich says. Gingrich says ignore record

Newt Gingrich doesn’t plan to answer what he calls “gotcha” questions or fight the 2012 campaign over obscure, years-old political debates.

Except when he does.


The former House speaker told a room of journalists Monday morning that he won’t allow the press to pin him down on every detail of his political and personal record, saying twice that he has cast over 7,300 votes, given more than 5,000 speeches and over 10,000 interviews, produced several films and written some two dozen books.

“All of you who want to play ‘gotcha,’” Gingrich said, “I’ll go to the next question.”

Gingrich then proceeded to confirm that he is himself on Medicare, defend his involvement in a 2009 special congressional election, cite a documentary about national security he co-produced with his wife, reveal partial details of his financial history and tout his work leading the Alzheimer’s Study Group with former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey.

In effect, Gingrich claimed a blanket exemption from discussing parts of his career he doesn’t want to address – and broad license to bring up whatever he wants.

Asked to define the line between relevant information and “gotcha” questions, Gingrich said that “everything is fair” for candidates asking “to lead the American people in the most important governmental job on the planet.”

But in the event he gets asked for information he doesn’t have at his fingertips, or considers trivial, Gingrich said: “My answer in the future is going to be: That’s really interesting, and I’m going to check it out and I’ll let you know.”

At a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, Gingrich repeatedly cast himself as a candidate interested in big, dramatic ideas, vowing to draw a bright, blazing contrast with President Barack Obama.

“I think I can articulate the very large differences with President Barack Obama,” he said, adding later: “I think the gap is going to be enormously wide, at least as wide as the gap between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter.”

In defending the rationale for his candidacy, however, Gingrich repeatedly went small, pointing to the kinds of arcane details of his career that he dinged the press for focusing on.

Asked about his views on fighting terrorism, Gingrich recalled, “Callista and I did a movie last year … ‘America at risk,” and described at length an exchange in the film between Attorney General Eric Holder and Texas Rep. Lamar Smith.

Asked to defend his endorsement of moderate New York Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava in a divisive 2009 special election, Gingrich took the bait and told reporters: “I tend to support the Republican candidate, which is exactly what the tea party wanted done in [Senate races in] Delaware and Nevada.”

On his past support for health insurance mandates, Gingrich recalled that the mandate was “ironically, the conservative position in ’93, blocking Hillary-care,” and pointed to his work at the Center for Health Transformation, an organization he founded.

Describing how his political views have changed over time, Gingrich said he’s “for much more decentralization of Washington than I was 10, 15 years ago,” and touted his service in advisory jobs during the Bush administration. “I spent six years inside the executive branch, looking at why it is so hard to get it to work,” he said.

And asked about the hundreds of thousands of dollars his wife, Callista, reported spending at Tiffany’s, Gingrich answered: “I owe no personal debts. None. Callista and I paid off our house, paid off our cars.”

“It’s all after-tax income,” said Gingrich, who has repeatedly declined to discuss the purchases in detail. “God has been good to us. We have been very successful.”

Gingrich dismissed the notion that his campaign has been struggling since last week’s interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” during which he referred to House Budget Committee Paul Ryan’s budget plan as “right-wing social engineering,” inflaming the GOP base.

“The reports of my campaign’s death were greatly exaggerated,” Gingrich said, paraphrasing Mark Twain’s familiar cliché. He also mentioned Harry Truman’s surprise political recovery in 1948 as an inspiration.

Gingrich, who was first elected to Congress three decades ago, even embraced the uproar over his comments as a sign that he’s an authentic political outsider despite the time he’s spent in Washington.

“I will clearly be the most change-oriented” candidate in the race, Gingrich said. “I’m confident Washington will react in a way that will make quite clear to the American people that I’m the people’s candidate, not the capital’s candidate.”