Paul, Perry ding Newt on cap-and-trade claim

Newt Gingrich said tonight during Mike Huckabee's presidential forum on Fox News that filming a climate change ad with Nancy Pelosi was a mistake, but is getting heat for insisting he never backed cap-and-trade - a general concept he described as "very very good" in a four-year-old interview.

"I've said publicly, sitting on the couch with Nancy Pelosi is the dumbest single thing I've done in the last few years - but if you notice, I've never favored cap and trade, and in fact I actively testified against it," Gingrich said.


"I was at the U.S. House Energy and Commerce committee the same day Al Gore was there to testify for it, I testified against it and through American Solutions we fought it in the Senate and played a major role in defeating it."

Gingrich did testify against it, but Paul's camp and Perry's team both noted this interview he gave in February 2007 to PBS' Frontline.

The question was about a carbon cap pledge George Bush made in 2000, and Gingrich was asked whether he was for it at the time.

"I think if you have mandatory carbon caps combined with a trading system, much like we did with sulfur, and if you have a tax-incentive program for investing in the solutions, that there's a package there that's very, very good," he said. And frankly, it's something I would strongly support."

Perry's campaign emailed around that quote. And Paul adviser Jesse Benton emailed saying, "Every time Newt Gingrich opens his mouth, hypocrisy comes pouring out. This is exactly why our campaign released our now-viral web ad: so he can't get away with changing his position on virtually every issue of consequence. Newt clearly supported Cap and Trade and used his influence to promote it."

Paul made clear that this would be his line of attack against Gingrich last week, with the web ad in question - a video that torched the former House Speaker.

But now that Gingrich is the clear frontrunner in Iowa, with Paul running second, the attacks in this vein are likely to increase - and Paul is likely to have more company in making them.

The whole Gingrich interview, in which he also criticized Gore and said the former Vice President has been exaggerating how immediate a threat climate change is, can be read here.

This article tagged under: Newt Gingrich