Majority Leader Eric Cantor, via The Hill:TPM has more:"There's no question there was a misspeak here," Cantor said on WLS radio in Chicago. "Just to sit here while all but three Hosue Republicans voted for the Ryan budget, to somehow portray that as a radical step, I believe, is a tremendous misspeak."Tea Party leaders:
Cantor advised Gingrich to explain his comments and "get back on board with what we're trying to do."Gingrich’s spending call irritates his baseWSJ ed board:
GOP hopeful urges more Alzheimer’s researchGingrich to House GOP: Drop DeadGOP Voter in Iowa yesterday (VIDEO):
Newt undermines his former comrades on Medicare.Voter: You’re an embarrassment to our party.And now Nikki Haley, who rang up CNN’s Peter Hamby to let loose.
Gingrich: I’m sorry you feel that way.
Voter: Why don’t you get out before you make a bigger fool of yourself."What he said was absolutely unfortunate," Haley told CNN in a phone interview. "Here you've got Representative Ryan trying to bring common sense to this world of insanity, and Newt absolutely cut him off at the knees."
"When you have a conservative fighting for real change, the last thing we need is a presidential candidate cutting him off at the knees," she added.
Dick Armey, who had a legendarily tempestuous relationship with Gingrich when they were in the House leadership together and is now a Tea Party organizer, told Politico that Newt was "confused and conflicted" on policy."We always say: Newt always has so many great ideas," Armey said. "Well yeah, but then he shifts between them at such a rate it's pretty hard to track it let alone keep up with it."
The conservative press wasn't any kinder, as contributors to the National Review and the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal unloaded on the former Speaker in a piece entitled "Gingrich to House GOP: Drop Dead."
"The episode reveals the Georgian's weakness as a candidate, and especially as a potential President -- to wit, his odd combination of partisan, divisive rhetoric and poll-driven policy timidity," they wrote.
Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer told FOX News Gingrich's remarks were a "capital offense" that ruled out any chance of winning the nomination. "This is a big deal," he said. "He's done."
Gingrich, for his part, has sought to walk back his comments a bit. But on the basic point -- that the Ryan budget is "too big a jump" -- he has stuck to his guns.