Also Thursday, former congressman Jeb Bradley (N.H.) described how Gingrich worked to persuade him and other Republican lawmakers in 2003 to pass a new Medicare prescription drug benefit.
“I didn’t know at the time that he had a stable full of health-care clients — not that that would have mattered. There’s nothing wrong with lobbying. But when you’re running for president of the United States, you’re supposed to be honest and forthright about what you are and what your career is,” Bradley said.
Bradley said it was “pious baloney” — Gingrich’s own now famous phrase about Romney — for Gingrich to suggest he’s not been a lobbyist.
Such critiques don’t seem to be blunting the enthusiasm of tea party-friendly Republicans, who turned out in force Thursday for Gingrich at a lakeside green in Mount Dora after finally committing to rallying around the former House speaker in a conference call Sunday.
Gingrich drew crowds of 2,500 in Sarasota and 5,000 to Naples earlier this week; he also just in the past few days has consolidated the support of 42 different tea party groups across the state — a development that allowed Thursday’s rally, which was still uncertain a few days ago, to proceed.
“Remember: The Republican establishment is just as much as an establishment as the Democratic establishment, and they are just as determined to stop us,” Gingrich said at Thursday’s rally, again prompting cheers and yells from a crowd dotted with slogans such as “Don’t Tread on Me” and “No-Bama.”
“Make no bones about it,” Gingrich continued. “This is a campaign for the very nature of the Republican Party and the very opportunity for a citizen conservatism to defeat the power of money and to prove that people matter more than Wall Street and that people matter more than all the big companies that are pouring the cash in to run the ads that are false.”
Jose Mallea, Gingrich’s Florida director and the former campaign manager for one of the tea party’s earliest stars, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, said Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s departure from the race and Santorum’s poor showing in South Carolina contributed to their decision.
“The tea party was still fractured last week,” Mallea said. “Some of them were with Perry, some of them were with Santorum. Not many of them were with Romney, but they weren’t sure where they were going to go.”
Rubio has remained neutral in the race, but his many of his supporters have joined Gingrich. Rubio was not happy with an advertisement Gingrich has been running against Romney in which he characterizes the former Massachusetts governor as “anti-immigrant.”
But sources close to both Rubio and Gingrich said the two had a long and amicable conversation Wednesday. In addition, a source with knowledge of both operations said Rubio has been inundated with calls from grass-roots supporters who weren’t happy that he appeared to be criticizing Gingrich.
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