by Nick Stone of Drawnlines Politics:

Newt Gingrich has taken some sharp jabs on the campaign trail recently - not from rival Mitt Romney, but Rick Santorum.

In Coral Springs this weekend, Santorum launched his Florida campaign by taking Gingrich to task over his short tenure as Speaker of the House.  Broadsiding Gingrich from the Right, Santorum said it was conservatives that wanted Gingrich fired as leader. “When Newt was speaker of the House, within three years conservatives in the House of Representatives tried to throw him out and in the fourth year they did. Why? Because he wasn’t governing as a conservative!” Santorum said.

Rick Santorum had an alarming take on Newt Gingrich's "conservative" record:

Santorum on healthcare: “For 20 years, Congressman Gingrich has demanded and encouraged and fought to get a mandate from the federal level – the very thing that the attorney general in this country is fighting for at the Supreme Court,” Santorum said. “Up until last year, Speaker Gingrich supported that mandate.”

Santorum on pandering: “We don’t need someone who sits on a couch with Nancy Pelosi – I mean it’s not as bad as sitting with Debbie Wasserman Schultz, but it’s close,” Santorum said, to loud cheers. “I’m not gonna sit on the couch with anybody!”

Santorum on rhetoric and record: “He didn’t live up to all of the hype. If you look at what he tried to do and what he accomplished, it just didn’t match with what he said.”

For his attacks on the media and rhetoric against Romney, Speaker Gingrich certainly sounds the dog whistle for conservative voters.  His record, however, is cautionary at best.  Florida Republicans should take a serious look at Gingrich's past before they cast their ballot.  Historians often recall that Gingrich's greatest accomplishment as Speaker was securing a second term for President Bill Clinton.  Is that the legacy we want repeated?

Florida Republicans, you decide...

On Meet The Press last Sunday, host David Gregory asked Newt Gingrich about a speech he delivered to Georgia Republicans.  Newt is recorded saying, "You want to be a country that creates food stamps, in which case frankly Obama's is an enormous success. The most successful food stamp president in American history. Or do you want to be a country that creates paychecks?"  After playing the clip, Gregory pressed Gingrich on whether or not the use of the term "food stamps" was racially tinged, coded language meant to inflame racist anti-Obama sentiment.  Gingrich told Gregory that the conclusion was bizarre.  Not only did David Gregory's statements disparage the motives of a statesman, but they also revealed his own racial assumptions.  Apparently to David Gregory, being black means you are poor and needy.  Whom then is the real racist?  Radio host Mark Levin also took Gregory to task over the flap.

Become a Drawnlines Politics insider today.