Rush Limbaugh: Gingrich Only In Race Now To Target Romney

Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh said Tuesday that Newt Gingrich is no longer campaigning for the presidency.

Instead, Limbaugh believes the former Speaker of the House is now just attacking Mitt Romney as payback for all the negative ads placed against him in Iowa (video follows with transcript):

NEWT GINGRICH SPEAKING TO FOX NEWS'S MEGYN KELLY: If we identify capitalism with rich guys looting companies, we're gonna have a very hard time protecting it. I am totally committed to capitalism. I am totally committed to Main Street. I am totally committed to people's right to start companies; I am committed to their right to fail. But I think it has to be fair, it has to be out in the open. This is why you have this underlying anger about the financial class. Because people look over there and they go, "Wait a second. How come I lost my mortgage and you stayed a millionaire? How come I lost all my savings and you stayed a millionaire?"

RUSH LIMBAUGH: No, no, no. If anything they're saying, "How come I lost my mortgage and Fannie Mae paid YOU a million dollars?" I mean, it works both ways here. I don't understand why the Occupy Wall Street are protesting Newt. They're singing from the same hymnal on this. This is right out of the New York Times. Newt is parroting what the New York Times is writing about Romney on this: Six rich guys taking over. "But if we identify capitalism with rich guys looting companies..." Folks, it is clear here (to me, anyway) what's really going on. This is not a campaign for the presidency. That's not what this is anymore. This is payback time. This is Newt. It drove him nuts that series of ads the Romney super PAC ran against him in Iowa, and this is the result of it. That's why we are where we are. (interruption) No, no. I'm not making excuses, don't misunderstand. I'm just explaining. I'm not defending anybody. I just think this is very unfortunate. This is... (sigh) This is not the kind of stuff you want said by Republicans. I mean, even the establishment Republicans don't go after conservatives this way. Here is one final bite. Megyn Kelly says to Newt, "What is your goal in New Hampshire?"

GINGRICH: My goal in New Hampshire is to have done well enough -- which I think we already have, frankly. Uh, if you look at the energy level we have, you look at the size of our crowds, you look at the level of news coverage, we're doing just fine. My real goal was to make sure that Romney did not win here by a big enough margin to develop real momentum.

LIMBAUGH: All right. So that's it: My purpose here is Romney. I've taken out Romney. You can almost say that Newt is going Perot. You know, when Perot got involved in 1992 everybody was saying, "What the heck is this? Where did Perot come from?" and I found out. Do you remember, Snerdley? Do you remember the story? (interruption) Yeah, but why? (interruption) It was get Bush. Exactly. I'll tell you what happened. If you have forgotten, here's what happened. Ross Perot was a huge supporter of the military. He always has been. Loves them. At some point in the Reagan years, the administration wanted to investigate claims that there were American POWs in North Vietnam, but it was long after the war was over, and they needed private sector funds to do this.

So from what I was told, the Reagan White House dispatched George H. W. Bush to go to Perot and explain what they wanted, what they needed; and they asked for Perot to help fund the potential rescue mission -- and Perot was willing to; but he said he wanted to go, he wanted to be part of it, he wanted to be on the front lines and they said, "Oh, no, no, no. You can't go. Nobody can know. No, no, no. You can't have any role in this," and a couple of other things, and Perot felt -- (sigh) what's the word? -- slighted, betrayed, what have you, 'cause that was after. They told him after they got the money that he wasn't gonna be able to be involved in it anyway, and from what I was told -- and it was by somebody in the inner circle of Bush -- that that led to the desire of Perot to wage payback.

When I learned that, that's why I've felt all along that Perot never really wanted to win that campaign. He just wanted to deny it to Bush. He just wanted to deny reelection of George H. W. Bush in 1992. So you might say that Newt now has adopted the Perot stance, because he just said it: "I'm gonna make sure that Romney doesn't come out of New Hampshire with any momentum whatsoever," and he's using language that the left uses, and he's attempting to make hay with this. You know, he's trying to dredge up and have long-lasting negatives, attach to Romney (this is what's so unsettling about this) in the same way the left would say it. You could, after all these bites, say, "I'm Barack Obama, and I approve this message."