Romney Campaign Press Release - National Review: When Gingrich Tried, and Failed, to Intimidate Tom Coburn

"The perception of Newt Gingrich as much quicker to compromise conservative principles than to ever admit a mistake comes heavily from Sen. Tom Coburn's 2003 book Breach of Trust, which discusses his years in the House under Gingrich as Speaker, and paints a picture of Gingrich as a raging egomaniac, wildly hypocritical and quick to toss Class of 1994 principles."

"When Gingrich Tried, And Failed, To Intimidate Tom Coburn"

National Review

Jim Geraghty

January 25, 2012

...

The perception of Newt Gingrich as much quicker to compromise conservative principles than to ever admit a mistake comes heavily from Sen. Tom Coburn's 2003 book Breach of Trust, which discusses his years in the House under Gingrich as Speaker, and paints a picture of Gingrich as a raging egomaniac, wildly hypocritical and quick to toss Class of 1994 principles.

...

When Gingrich said, "The eleven geniuses who thought they knew more than the rest of the Congress are going to come up and explain their votes," someone leaned over to [then-Rep.] Mark Sanford and said, "I have never heard of anyone having to explain their vote." Gingrich continued, "Those of you who had planned to go to John Kasich's wedding on Saturday are not going. No one is going anywhere until we get the votes we need to pass this rule."

. . . [Steve] Largent, an NFL Hall of Famer, went straight to the podium after [Dick] Armey finished speaking. A surprised Boehner recognized him. "Mr. Speaker," Largent said calmly and directly to Gingrich who was no more than ten feet away, "I am not intimidated. I have been in rooms much smaller than this one when I was on the opposite side of teammates during a player's strike against the NFL. The guys in those rooms weighed 280, 320 pounds and not only wanted to kill me, if they had gotten hold of me they probably could have. This isn't the case here tonight. More seriously, I am not intimidated because I feel good about this vote and the principles behind it . . . if, as a matter of conscience, I believe a vote is in the best interest of the American taxpayer I represent back home, well, then I just have to vote that way."

...

The event exposed a more disturbing trend that we all understood but weren't ready to accept: the Republican "team" was no longer being held together by principles but by careerism and the desire for power for its own sake . . . Gingrich's vitriolic response to us bringing down the rule for the bill confirmed to us he was willing to trade our principles for short term political advantage over the Democrats.