DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) -- Onetime Republican presidential
frontrunner Newt Gingrich called on campaign rival Mitt Romney
Tuesday to "just level with the American people" about his
moderate political views.
Asked point-blank in a nationally broadcast network interview if
he was calling the former Massachusetts governor "a liar," the
former House speaker replied, "Yes."
In the interview on CBS's "The Early Show," Gingrich said Romney should "just level with the American people and be who he really is and let's have a debate between a Massachusetts moderate and a real conservative," Gingrich said.
Briefly the frontrunner, Gingrich hoped for a respectable showing in the caucuses after being pounded by millions of dollars
in attack ads.
The former House speaker was set to make an 11th-hour push for
support as his campaign bus rumbles through eastern Iowa. He is
scheduled to hold events in Muscatine and Burlington before he
personally makes his case to a caucus gathering in Cedar Falls.
Gingrich rallied supporters in Davenport Monday night, urging
them to help him pull off "one of the great upsets in the history
of the Iowa caucuses." Earlier in the day he had all but conceded
defeat, saying he didn't "expect to win."
Still, he is setting his sights on New Hampshire and South
Carolina, where he pledged to wage a more aggressive effort to draw contrasts with Republican rival Mitt Romney, whom he has labeled a "Massachusetts moderate."
After emerging as a top GOP contender in early December,
Gingrich saw his support falter as he was hit with a wave of tough
ads painting him as an ethically-challenged Washington insider.
The ex-Georgia congressman has tried to cast himself as the
conservative heir to former President Ronald Reagan, touting a
supply-side economic plan of tax cuts and fewer regulations. But he has struggled to stay on message, blasting some of his GOP
opponents even as he promised to wage a positive campaign.
"I believe I am the only person who has the range of experience
necessary to fundamentally get this country back on the right
track," he said.