Video: Planned Parenthood's Holocaust Apologist

Proof that Planned Parenthood is evil. In the abortion debate, you have those who believe that life begins at conception vs. those who believe life begins after the mother and child are separated at birth. The pro-death abortionists have officially run headlong into the buzz saw of a reality that they are committing crimes on par with - or worse than - those committed by the Nazis.

This video provides the proof.

Her name is Alisa LaPolt Snow and she is a lobbyist for Planned Parenthood in Florida. In this video, she is answering questions from Florida legislators who seek to determine what Planned Parenthood's position is on the murder of infants that takes place after babies are born alive, following a botched abortion. Using Planned Parenthood's own logic, once the baby is separated from the mother, it is a living, breathing human being. Here is where the entire pro-choice argument falls apart.

If LaPolt says the baby should not be murdered at that point, Planned Parenthood is on the hook for committing an untold number of murders. If she says the murder can proceed, the entire premise that life begins outside the womb is demonstrably false.

Watch as LaPolt defends the murder of the most innocent of people.

Via Weekly Standard:



After seeing that, check this out from a "former" abortion provider (h/t Mitch):

Does Jeb Bush CAIR too much to be President?

With all of this talk about Jeb Bush running for president in 2016, his record of appeasement when it comes to Islamists in his state when he was Governor of Florida warrants closer inspection. That Presidential election year will mark the tenth anniversary of the forced resignation of O'Neal Dozier, a conservative Pastor whom Bush had put on the Judicial Nominating Committee in 2001.

In 2006, Dozier was fighting the construction of a mosque in the same neighborhood where his church stood. During a radio interview on the Steve Kane show, he made comments that were critical of Islam. Word got back to Bush, whose office then demanded Dozier's resignation. The larger issue not addressed by the Florida Governor was the validity of Dozier's concerns relative to who was behind construction of the mosque.

The following is an excerpt from Unsung Davids, which features a chapter on Dozier's battle with the Republican Party in general and Jeb Bush in particular:

The reason for Dozier's appearance on the (radio) show was to talk about the attempts of the Islamic Center of South Florida (ICOSF) to build a mosque near his church. As recently as 2009, ICOSF was listed as being owned by the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), which was identified in a 1991 Muslim Brotherhood document as being a member group... NAIT, along with the CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) and ISNA (Islamic Society of North America) was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial, the largest terrorism financing trial in American history.

There was no investigation against NAIT. As Governor, Jeb Bush had the authority to recommend one. Instead, Dozier was forced to resign and the red flags raised by the mosque at the root of his concerns were ignored. Bush's action against Dozier, coupled with his inaction against groups with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood in America put him on the very wrong side of a very real struggle in the United States.

Just one year prior to Dozier being forced to resign, Bush was invited to CAIR's annual banquet in Orlando, at which attendees were to be encouraged to contribute to the creation of a CAIR office in Orlando. Though Bush didn't attend, his office sent a letter to CAIR, which he signed, that said in part:

"It is a great pleasure to extend greetings and best wishes to all attending the Florida Chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR-FL) annual banquet... I commend your contributions to the protection of civil rights and freedom of religion... Once again, congratulations on your accomplishments and my warmest greetings and best wishes on your continuing success."

CAIR has had great success since receipt of that letter and much of that success has come as a direct result of people like Jeb Bush pandering to them.

Dozier's battle against a mosque in 2006 foreshadowed a similar battle over the Ground Zero mosque in New York City in 2010. The resulting backlash further validated Dozier's concerns and should give people pause when considering Jeb Bush's future as a presidential nominee.

Video: George Zimmerman reenacts shooting

On the day after the Trayvon Martin shooting, police took George Zimmerman to the scene to reenact what happened. That video is now posted.

Via ABC:



Here is ABC's Chris Cuomo giving analysis of what the tape of Zimmerman's reenactment means for both the defense and the prosecution.

Florida to Eric Holder: Go pound sand

Florida is getting the Arizona treatment when it comes to the Department of Justice. After removing a bunch of deceased voters from the rolls, Florida heard from one of Eric Holder's minions, who essentially said, cease and desist. That's right, further proof of the despicable level of corruption at the highest levels of our government; Holder wants dead people on the voter rolls.

Florida has responded with a gesture involving two body parts - a thumb and a nose.

Via Stand with Arizona:

Florida has drawn a line in the sand which must be adopted by every state against an Attorney General and administration which is increasingly abusing and distorting the law to stop efforts to keep illegal voters away from the polls this November.

The Department of Justice this week demanded that Florida immediately cease its current massive purge of non-citizens and dead persons from its voter rolls, absurdly citing the outdated and outmoded Voting Rights Act of 1965. Well, now Florida has refused, saying it will not give up its efforts to make sure only legal citizens can vote.

Here is Florida's official response:

“We have an obligation to make sure the voter rolls are accurate and we are going to continue forward and do everything that we can legally do to make sure that ineligible voters cannot vote,” said Chris Cate, a spokesman for Detzner. “We are firmly committed to doing the right thing and preventing ineligible voters from being able to cast a ballot. We are not going to give up our efforts to make sure the voter rolls are accurate.”

Speaker Boehner, how about you take a lesson from those with less power than you, who are actually standing up to Eric Holder, and issue that contempt order in Fast and Furious?

Video: Zimmerman's Bond Hearing; a must-see

This video starts with George Zimmerman's attorney, Mark O'Mara, grilling the state investigator - Dale Gilbreath - who signed the probable cause affidavit. At several points, Gilbreath - in addition to looking like a bureaucratic lackey - comes across as being a foolish lemming for putting his name to an affidavit that is reminiscent of that of a kindergartner with finger paints.

Welcome to the media circus spawned by Al Sharpton. Gilbreath may end up being more of a casualty than Zimmerman.

Un-be-leeeev-able.

Two Black men Arrested for nearly beating White man to death with a Hammer... in same community where Trayvon was Killed

Two black men slightly older than Trayvon Martin pulled a 50-year-old white man from his vehicle near Sanford, FL - the same community where Trayvon was killed one month ago - and repeatedly beat him with a hammer, nearly killing him. Hate crime anyone?

Via Orlando Sentinel:

A tip to Crimeline has led to the arrests of two men in a brutal beating that occurred a week ago in the Midway community east of Sanford.

Julius Ricardo Bender, 18, and Yahaziel Isaac Israel, 19, face charges of attempted first-degree murder, burglary with assault or battery and armed burglary.

The victim, a 50-year-old Winter Springs man whose name has not been released, is on life-support at Orlando Regional Medical Center.

Deputies were called to the area of Lincoln Street and Beardall Avenue about 6:30 p.m. March 26 to investigate a report of a man being beaten, Seminole County Sheriff's spokeswoman Heather Smith said.

As Weasel Zippers points out, the Orlando Sentinel article does not make any reference to the race of either the assailants or the victim but does include mugshots of the two arrested men, who are clearly black.

A local news report on WFTV 9 does mention the race of the victim; he's white.

Ok, so at about the same time that the New Black Panther Party (NBPP) was putting a bounty on George Zimmerman's head; the same time that Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson were throwing gas on an enflaming racially tense situation in Sanford, FL; these two black men - in the same community - allegedly beat an innocent white man within an inch of his life.

Flashback to the days after the Gabrielle Giffords shooting. Within hours, the New York Times' Paul Krugman alleged that Giffords' shooting was likely a right-wing attack:

We don’t have proof yet that this was political, but the odds are that it was.

He also blamed talk radio:

You know that Republicans will yell about the evils of partisanship whenever anyone tries to make a connection between the rhetoric of Beck, Limbaugh, etc. and the violence I fear we’re going to see in the months and years ahead. But violent acts are what happen when you create a climate of hate. And it’s long past time for the GOP’s leaders to take a stand against the hate-mongers.

As it turned out, the shooter - Jared Loughner - if he was political at all, leaned left (the Communist manifesto was listed as one of his favorite books); he also didn't listen to talk radio.

Applying Paul Krugman's standard, Sharpton and Jackson should be in handcuffs right now.

Paging Paul Krugman...

20 Year-old Video: Al Sharpton on Manipulating the Media for his advantage

This man is an utter disgrace. Here is video of Al Sharpton from twenty years ago, explaining exactly how he is able to manipulate the media in race cases. By the way, that would be the same media that is now - thanks to this video being available for every member of the liberal media to view - willfully complicit in the furtherance of Sharpton's tactics from this point forward.

Via Breitbart:

DOJ on New Black Panther Party's Commission of likely Felonies: No comment

No incident has dogged the Obama administration longer than the New Black Panther Party (NBPP) voting rights case, which occurred on election day in 2008 when Jerry Jackson and King Samir Shabazz stood outside a polling station in military garb. Approximately one and half years later, Attorney General Eric Holder sat in front of a congressional committee and defended his Department's decision not to pursue the case while referring to blacks as "my people."

Before we get to his latest problem with the NBPP, check out this exchange from last year:



Pre-disposed to protect the New Black Panther Party? You betcha!

According to J. Christian Adams, once a federal attorney who resigned from the DOJ over the latter's handling of the aforementioned case, the solicitation of unlawful kidnapping in the state of Florida is a felony. Nonetheless, that's exactly what the New Black Panther Party has done in the case of George Zimmerman and there doesn't appear to be an explanation as to why the DOJ isn't pursuing the NBPP other than they're being Holder's "people."

Via Washington Times:

The U.S. Department of Justice had no comment on the $10,000 bounty the New Black Panther Party (NBPP) was offering for a "citizen's arrest" of George Zimmerman, the 28 year old man who told Sanford, Florida Police he shot and killed 17 year old Trayvon Martin on February 26 in an act of self-defense.

According to a number of reports, the NBPP  "called for the mobilization of 10,000 black men" to do the "arrest." Zimmerman and his family have received death threats since the case became a national issue. Mr. Zimmerman has not been arrested by local authorities. Federal, state, and local investigations of the shooting are happening, and he is currently in hiding.

No comment? On felonies happening right now? Can someone please tell me where John Boehner is? Like it or not, he is the most powerful Republican in the country today and he is practically invisible on every egregious development involving the Obama administration. It's like a fire marshall who goes into hiding when the alarm goes off.

Occupy Oakland is back for 'Spring Offensive,' using Trayvon Martin killing as fuel

We knew this was coming. The Occupy movement miscreants - who cried uncle in the face of disease, rapes, murders, assaults, arson, mountains of human waste, and the bitter winter cold - have climbed back out of their holes (made warm by someone else's hard work). Perhaps the city with the worst reputation when it comes to the OWS movement (worst of the worst) is Oakland, which is coincidentally, where Van Jones is from.

As added incentive, Occupy Oakland is using the Trayvon Martin killing as fuel for its crime spree, masked as a righteous encampment.

Via Police One:

OAKLAND, Calif. — Occupy Oakland activists have set up a new encampment in a park north of downtown, calling it a response to the recent arrests of protesters in New York and the shooting death of an unarmed Florida teenager.

About a dozen people in six tents spent Wednesday night in Mosswood Park at Broadway and West MacArthur Boulevard. They were still there Thursday.

Police visited the group around 9 a.m. but did not ask them to leave, according to protesters.

"This is the start of the spring offensive," said Melvin Kelley, a member of the group's Tactical Action Committee. "This is our new encampment until May 1, when we retake" Frank Ogawa Plaza, which the group occupied last year.

Kelley said the activists had pitched tents to show support for Occupy Wall Street protesters who were arrested in New York's Zuccotti Park last week while commemorating the six-month anniversary of the movement.

They are also protesting the killing of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African American who was shot to death by a white man in a gated community near Orlando, Fla., on Feb. 26. The man, George Zimmerman, says he was defending himself against the unarmed teen and has not been arrested.

The description of Zimmerman as a "white man" is a bit misleading. He is actually a Latino. Say, are these OWS movements made up of any Hispanics? If so, and Zimmerman is exonerated (this is a possibility, at least based on one witness account), will those Hispanics continue to side with the movement?

h/t GWP

Video: New Evidence shows Jesse, Al, and Barack should shut their mouths about Trayvon Martin shooting

It looks like there is shocking new evidence to come out in the Trayvon Martin case and it involves a witness who claims to have seen the entire episode. He was interviewed by the Fox affiliate in Tampa and appears to paint a picture of what happened that is completely different from the narrative being pushed by the typical race-baiters. The fact remains that Martin was unarmed but if the testimony from this witness is accurate, it points to Martin actually attacking Zimmerman.

The meme being pushed by the race-baiters is that Zimmerman was going after Martin while talking to a 911 operator, who told him not to continue. The implication - if you listen to the race baiters - is that Zimmerman kept pursuing Martin while also being the only one of the two with a gun. This witness, who would not go on camera, seems to indicate that Zimmerman listened to the 911 operator and turned back before Martin attacked him.

Again, according to this witness, Zimmerman fits the description of the person who was on the bottom of a scrum between two people and Martin fits the description of the person who was on top, attacking him. The fact remains that Zimmerman was the only person in possession of a gun so if he shot Martin, it may have been a case of excessive deadly force in response to what Martin was doing to him. That could be offset by one possibility. Was Martin going for Zimmerman's gun?

We still don't know the answers to these questions but that doesn't seem to stop the race baiters. Anyway, here is the news report from Fox's Tampa affiliate (h/t Free Republic):

Witness: Martin attacked Zimmerman: MyFoxTAMPABAY.com

We all remember when President Barack Obama was asked about the arrest of his friend and (black) professor, Henry Louis Gates. He jumped to conclusions after admitting he didn't "have all the facts" and said the "police acted stupidly." As those facts came in, we learned that the police acted lawfully and it was our president who acted stupidly by speaking without the facts he admitted he did not have. It led to the face-saving and now infamous White House beer summit. Conclusions were jumped to based almost entirely on race.



Now, after the initial reports of the Trayvon Martin shooting painted the picture of an innocent boy returning home from the store with little more than a bag of skittles, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have already assumed their roles as bomb-throwing race-baiters who love to rub raw the sores of racial discontent. Obama, who either doesn't understand the size of his pulpit or does and loves to misuse it, said that if he had a son, he'd "look just like Trayvon."

Mr. Obama should be careful because he's coming precipitously close to saying that George Zimmerman acted stupidly. Whether he did or didn't, as Obama said prior to being proven wrong in the Henry Louis Gates case, "we don't know all the facts."

One other thing to note here. Zimmerman is Hispanic.

Via MediaIte:

Video: Florida Pastor on CNN says Homosexuality makes 'God want to vomit'

Florida Pastor and Rick Santorum supporter O'Neal Dozier sat down with CNN reporter Brooke Baldwin on the day of the Florida primary. The interview started out with Baldwin quoting Dozier's comments about homosexuality. When they moved on, Dozier insisted that God is not a 'socialist.' From there, Dozier discussed Mitt Romney's Mormonism.

Gotta say it. The man doesn't hold back. In fact, I think Baldwin fell out of her chair after the interview.

Via MediaIte:

Has Rubio been bitten by the Establishment Vampire?

Florida Senator Marco Rubio has been a Tea Party favorite, much like South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley was. Haley endorsed Romney and was thoroughly rebuked by her state's voters when Gingrich won going away.

Rubio hasn't officially endorsed Romney but he has come about as close as Sarah Palin has to endorsing Gingrich. In fact, Rubio's rebuke of Gingrich's ad that went after Romney for being anti-Immigration may have been almost as effective in deflating the Newtmentum in Florida as Romney's negative and egregious ads that targeted Gingrich. The Senator from Florida even rebuked Gingrich when the former Speaker likened Romney to Crist. Rubio defended Romney as someone who stood by him in his race against Crist.

As John Hawkins points out at Right Wing News, Romney didn't get behind Rubio until the Tea Party had spent a year pushing Rubio past Crist:

Back in May of 2009, I got together with Erick Erickson, Stacy McCain, and other bloggers to support Marco Rubio and went after the National Republican Senatorial Committee for endorsing Charlie Crist over Marco Rubio.... 

Back then, when Charlie Crist had what looked like an overwhelming lead and the support of the GOP establishment, guys like Mitt Romney were absolutely nowhere to be found. 

Of course, Mitt did eventually BOLDLY endorse Marco Rubio. It was almost a YEAR later on April 17 of 2010 and the GOP primary was already as good as over.

So why is Rubio siding with the establishment in this Florida primary? What has happened to these Tea Party favorites who wouldn't be sniffing higher public office if not for the conservatives who fought for them?

I can think of only two possibilities. Either Rubio got bit by an establishment vampire or it's nothing more than the disgraceful human tendency to betray instead of doing what's right.

Jeffrey Lord hits back at the Republican Establishment

If you're a conservative and don't know if you should go with Gingrich or Romney, Jeffrey Lord's latest piece at the American Spectator should help you decide.

Via the Spectator:

"Ford Declares Reagan Can't Win" -- Headline in The New York Times, March 1, 1980

Yet still more mush from the wimps.

To borrow a famous Reagan phrase: "Well, there they go again."

Somewhere an exasperated Gipper is doubtless shaking his head.

The war between conservatives and the Republican Establishment -- and make no mistake, this is a war -- is on once more.

The people who brought the GOP losing candidates from Dewey to Dole are at it again.

Last week's assault on Newt Gingrich -- with various Romney supporters seriously and deceptively trying to tell unwitting voters that Gingrich was never really a real Reagan ally -- in reality has nothing to do with Newt Gingrich at all.

A certain staunch conservative - former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin - has been practically screaming for people to vote for Newt as her 2008 establishment running mate - John McCain - continues to stump for Romney.

Lord continues:

Sarah Palin is dead-on right.

If Newt Gingrich disappeared from the planet today and in his place stood only Rick Santorum -- or Sarah Palin herself or some other conservative -- you can be certain the Establishment GOP would have their sights trained on that conservative, running some version of precisely the same multi-gazillion dollar campaign they are running against Newt Gingrich right now. As a matter of fact, they did exactly this to Governor Palin from the very moment she stepped on the national stage in 2008. If by chance Rick Santorum emerges as the sole conservative left in this race -- look out Rick.

Here is Sarah Palin's appearance on Hannity one night before the Florida primary:


Read Lord's entire piece. It's long but well worth it.

Is Romney's Florida Spokesman redistricting Allen West out of Existence?

If this is true, the Tea Party may have an issue to take national. Florida state representative Tim Weatherford (R) is a Florida spokesman for the Romney campaign. According to the Shark Tank, he has confirmed that Rep. Allen West (R) may be a victim of redistricting.

One of Governor Mitt Romney’s spokesmen was Florida Representative Will Weatherford, and during the course of his remarks in the “Spin Room”, he shed a very dim light on the ongoing redistricting process in the Florida Legislature. Over the past several weeks, many Republicans have voiced their disappointment towards the Republican legislature after the release of the preliminary redistricting maps. Much of the ire concerns the proposed boundaries of Congressman Allen West’s 22nd Congressional District that would be redrawn to include far more registered Democrats.

William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection seems to think this is a foregone conclusion:

A website, SaveAllenWest, had been set up, but it appears to be too late.

One of the rising stars of the Tea Party is about to be sacrificed by the Republican establishment in Florida, led by someone spinning for Mitt Romney.

Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Folks, this is establishment level arrogance on display. The Tea Party is being slapped in the face because one of its members - West - isn't towing the establishment line. There is a way for the Tea Party to have the last laugh, however.

Though West hasn't officially endorsed Gingrich, he has been defending the former Speaker against establishment attacks recently. Gingrich has also said he would consider West when selecting a running mate. West hinted that he would be interested.

If a scenario plays out where Lt. Col. Allen West is redistricted out of a job, it might be the perfect opportunity for Newt to launch a counter-attack by naming the Tea Party favorite as his running mate.

One of the downsides to a presidential candidate selecting a running mate from Congress is that, well, you lose that candidate's vote in Congress. That's one of the best arguments against the eventual nominee selecting Florida Senator Marco Rubio. If Gingrich overcomes the odds and wins the nomination, West could be much more appealing in terms of him being out of a job anyway. The payback factor would be nice too.

Having someone as Vice President with West's military background could be a perfect fit.

Anyway, here is video of Weatherford.

Video: Why this is the Sleaziest ad from Romney Campaign

It is politics so the notion that the Romney campaign could be found guilty of defamation or slander for this ad is indeed laughable but that doesn't make it any less defamatory. The ad features a January 21, 1997 news report from NBC's Tom Brokaw in which the anchor reports on a bipartisan Congress voting to find then-Speaker Newt Gingrich guilty of ethics violations, with a harrowing music bed.

First, watch the ad and I'll illustrate exactly why it's so despicable.



What Romney - whose voice approval you heard at the end of that ad - ignores is the fact that in 1999, Gingrich was fully and completely vindicated. I've posted this before but in the context of that Romney ad, it's even more relevant.

Here is a CNN news report from 1999 in which Brooks Jackson reported that Gingrich had been fully exonerated of all the charges that Romney is attempting to pin on the former Speaker.



Romney's ad incorporates the dishonest tactics of the left and wasn't it Romney who in a recent debate said that if the tactics of the left are used, they will be turned back on those who use them?

h/t Hapblog

Video: Greta Interview with Newt on Florida Campaign Bus

This is an excellent two-part interview between Fox News Channel's Greta van Susteren and Newt Gingrich. The Romney campaign, which has become increasingly petulant didn't seem to like it very much. Before watching the interview, check out what Greta posted about the angry responses she got from Romney supporters, who are actually behaving like unhinged liberals.

Via Gretawire:

I received more than one nasty email from Gov Romney supporters criticizing me for coming to Florida and interviewing Speaker Gingrich in person and not Gov Romney. Perhaps a dose of the facts will tone down those emails: 1/ they must have forgotten that two weeks ago I went to South Carolina and interviewed Gov Romney in person and 2/ we made the same offer – interview with Gov Romney in Florida -and the Romney campaign declined.

Here is Part 1:



Here is Part 2:

Video: Newt Campaign Spokesman confronts Rep. Chaffetz on Campaign Trail

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) has endorsed Mitt Romney for president but seems to be following the Newt Gingrich campaign around, apparently for opposition research. At one such event, Newt's campaign spokesman, R.C. Hammond decided to approach Chaffetz and have an interesting exchange with the congressman from Utah.

Chaffetz came off as trying to walk a fine line between appearing cordial without conveying condescension. At several points, he attempted to distance himself from Hammond by saying he wouldn't talk to him because he wasn't with the press. That was a misplaced distinction, to be sure. As a high-profile Romney supporter who is showing up at Gingrich campaign stops, refusing to talk to the campaign's spokesman because he's not with the press is rather lame. Chaffetz should expect confrontations like this if he's essentially doing opposition research when he shows up.

Chaffetz did obfuscate when Hammond asked about lobbying or if he knew about Romney's ties to Freddie and Fannie, which is exactly what team Romney has been using against Gingrich.

It's disappointing to see this from Chaffetz. As a member of the House Oversight Committee, he has been one of the bulldogs in the Fast and Furious investigation. Frankly, with the biggest hearing to date in the near year-long investigation coming up on February 2nd, it's mildly disturbing to see Chaffetz more focused on Newt Gingrich than on his confrontation with Eric Holder.

Chaffetz came across as a little more arrogant than not, here.

Yes, Chaffetz is also a Mormon, like Romney.



h/t Freedom's Lighthouse

Video: Newt Deals with Far Left Heckler on Florida Campaign stop

This is the kind of energy Newt brings to a crowd that Mitt simply lacks. A left winger in the crowd begins screaming at Gingrich about taking money from Freddie Mac. Newt responds by saying that the only article about his recommendations to Freddie Mac appeared in a New York Times article and that his conclusion at the time was that the GSE should not be given any more money. The heckler didn't stop, at which point, Newt smacked her down while invoking Lincoln.



h/t GWP

Newt and the Sarah Palin Effect

In 2008, John McCain rarely went anywhere without Sarah Palin. Most of their campaign stops were as a tandem. Why? Because without Palin, McCain's crowds would have been drastically reduced in size and in energy. Palin's energy brought crowds, yes, but it also brought the full force of the mainstream media.

Fast forward to 2012. Newt seems to be drawing the crowds that Palin drew in 2008 and McRomney seems to be about as inspiring as the 2008 nominee. Newt, like Palin, has also come under the full fledged attacks from the media while Romney desperately needs the support they appear to be willing to give him.

Via New York Times:

As Republican presidential candidates duke it out down here in Florida, the most visible measure of how they are doing is the crowd count.

And by that very simple measure, Newt Gingrich is crushing his opposition.

At an event Tuesday afternoon, more than 1,500 people showed up to rally for Mr. Gingrich. Later that evening, he stood before as many as 5,000 people, all applauding his surge toward the Republican nomination. And then on Wednesday, another 4,000 people.

Contrast that to Mitt Romney, who, according to polls, is roughly tied with Mr. Gingrich in the state. He, too, has been traveling around Florida in an effort to recover the momentum he had after a big win in New Hampshire.

Mr. Romney has not had a crowd with more than a couple hundred people since he arrived in the Sunshine State.

Unlike McCain, Newt has another entity gunning for him - his own party's establishment.

If Newt takes Florida, it will be monumental in light of the onslaught he is having to face. He will also need another home run of a debate performance tonight.

h/t Free Republic

Newt goes after Mitt on using Charlie Crist Staffers

In 2008, the Barack Obama campaign was successfully able to tie John McCain to George W. Bush. Electing John McCain, they said, would be like giving Bush another term. In 2012, Mitt Romney already has to fend off the 'Republican establishment' label and campaigning in Florida with former Charlie Crist campaign staffers in tow is an opportunity Newt Gingrich doesn't appear to be willing to waste.

To further make his case, Gingrich is highlighting the fact that Marco Rubio's former campaign manager is working for him.

Via the Miami Herald:

Newt Gingrich stepped onto a podium at the Tick Tock Restaurant with a hometown message.

"As many of you know Jose Mallea is helping us with our campaign. He was Marco Rubio's campaign manager. We discovered last night that Mitt Romney has picked up Charlie Crist's campaign people," he said to yelps and a few boos. "That sort of tells you everything you needed to know about this contest."

Yes, Crist is still a whipping boy in Republican circles, though he turned out for Monday night's debate.

And, to be fair, Romney has some anti-Crists in his campaign: namely Alberto Martinez and Brett Doster, Florida advisers who worked for Crist's 2006 Republican opponent Tom Gallagher. Doster managed one of now Sen. Marco Rubio's political committees, and Martinez is part of Rubio's inner-circle.

There are definitely hairs to split on who is supporting whom here. In a campaign, however, perception is reality and if Gingrich can capitalize on the perception that he is the anti-establishment candidate who is going against the establishment's choice in Romney, he'll probably do it.

Rubio didn't just overcome long odds at several turns to become Senator in Florida; He ultimately won going away and continues to be very popular.

If Gingrich can portray himself as the Rubio candidate in Florida while portraying Romney as the Crist candidate, the nuances that blur the lines may not matter all that much.

h/t Newsmax