Paul on Gingrich ads: "Pointing out people's positions is not negative"
AMHERST, N.H. - Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, on Wednesday defended his hard-hitting attacks on Newt Gingrich, which include an ad in which he accuses his former House GOP colleague of "serial hypocrisy"and another in which he depicts Gingrich as a corrupt Washington insider.
"I think pointing out people's positions is not negative," Paul told reporters. "If you go after people and you distort information and it becomes personal, that could be construed as negative. But if the media won't talk about a person's record, I think the candidates have a responsibility to point out well, his position used to be this. What's wrong with that?"
Paul has seen his political stock rise in Iowa, where some polls have shown him in second place behind Gingrich. Paul said such numbers are evidence that his campaign is peaking at the right time.
"A lot of the candidates so far have come and go, you know, they'd shoot to the top and then they'd drop back rather rapidly," he said. "Ours has never been that way; ours has been very, very steady growth. And this last week or two there was a sudden extra growth, and the one thing that's characteristic of our campaign is when people join our campaign, they rarely leave. They're real solid, determined supporters."
Paul gets substantial media attention, including a scheduled Friday appearance on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno." And he has continued to bring in funds due to his supporters' periodic "money bombs," including one scheduled for Friday.
"I have a special advantage there," he said of such fundraising events. "And it'll hold up - right now there's a lot of excitement about fundraising."
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