Pushing his ongoing apology for attacking Paul Ryan’s Medicare proposal to new heights, Newt Gingrich sent supporters an e-mail on Thursday requesting donations in order to promote the Ryan plan.
“The only way our country can win the future is by engaging our fellow citizens in serious discussions about major reform—not by avoiding hard choices,” the e-mail reads. “Congressman Ryan has made a key contribution to entitlement reform, courageously starting the conversation about how to save and improve Medicare. And that’s exactly the kind of national conversation I want our campaign to be about!”
As his e-mail demonstrates, Gingrich has been carefully following the approved spin manual for handling Ryan since condemning his Medicare voucher plan as “right wing social engineering” two Sundays ago on Meet The Press. In recent days he’s lavished Ryan with praise, demanded that Democrats not use his prior criticisms in ads, and even lobbied congressional Republicans to support the Ryan plan. All without ever reversing his position on the Ryan plan itself.
It may be too late for Newt to recover, however. The latest polls show his support imploding among Republicans.
Benjy Sarlin
Benjy Sarlin is a reporter for Talking Points Memo and co-writes the campaign blog, TPM2012. He previously reported for The Daily Beast/Newsweek as their Washington Correspondent and covered local politics for the New York Sun.
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