Will media ask Gingrich to explain apparent change of heart on Sen. Clinton?

In a March 1 article in the New York Post, reporter Maggie Haberman wrote that "[f]ormer House Speaker Newt Gingrich [R-GA] yesterday called Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton [D-NY] 'a nasty woman' who runs an 'endlessly ruthless' campaign" during a "wide-ranging New York Post editorial-board interview." Haberman observed that "Gingrich's harsh comments about Clinton were surprising because he has complimented her abilities and worked with her last year on a health care initiative." But will the media question Gingrich about his apparent reversal?

On the January 21 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday, in a discussion with host Chris Wallace about Sen. Clinton's announcement declaring her bid for the presidency, Gingrich said of Clinton: "Now, she's still -- and I don't care what anyone else says -- she and her husband are the most formidable pair of politicians in America. He is the smartest politician in America. She is a hard-working, disciplined person. She has won the Senate race in New York twice by very large margins." Other examples of Gingrich's positive commentary on Sen. Clinton include:

• In a July 22, 2005, "Washington Sketch" column, Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank wrote that Gingrich had told a panel at the National Press Club "that 'to a greater extent than we would have guessed,' the former speaker and the former first lady have discovered that 'we have the same instinct.' " Gingrich and Clinton appeared together at the meeting to discuss health care policy. At the event, Gingrich said, "We may be at the end of a 40-year cycle of bitterness. ... I've spent enough of my life fighting. It would be nice to spend some time constructing, and I think that there's a feel in the country that's very similar."
• According to a May 11, 2005, USA Today article, Gingrich described Clinton as "very competent, very professional, very intelligently moving toward the center."
• During a January 20, 2005, interview with Charlie Rose on the Public Broadcasting Service, Gingrich said: "Hillary Clinton is an extraordinarily professional person, very, very smart and works very hard. And any Republican who thinks she's going to be easy to beat in 2008 is just very foolish." He later added: "I think Senator Clinton is positioning herself very intelligently as a centrist Democrat. That makes conservatives gag; they can't believe it. But she's the first New Yorker to serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee since it was created. She does a superb job working with America's military. She has been, frankly pretty solidly in support of the president on some very tough foreign policy issues."

Additionally, on the March 1 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, host Wolf Blitzer called Gingrich's comments an "ugly incident in the presidential race" Later, CNN correspondent Mary Snow reported: "Well, Wolf, the zingers aimed at Senator Hillary Clinton are a change in tone for former Republican leader Newt Gingrich."

Gingrich is a Fox News political contributor and, according to a Nexis search, has appeared on Fox News 15 times since the beginning of 2007. Gingrich also occasionally appears on Sunday news talk shows and most recently appeared on NBC's Meet the Press on December 17, 2006.

From the March 1 New York Post article:

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich yesterday called Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton "a nasty woman" who runs an "endlessly ruthless" campaign machine.

The conservative Republican made the surprising comments -- after months of taking care not to trash the Democratic presidential front-runner -- in a wide-ranging New York Post editorial-board interview.

Asked whether Americans are ready to elect Rudy Giuliani -- a leader, the questioner noted, whom [former New York City Mayor] Ed Koch had called a "nasty man" - Gingrich shot back, "As opposed to a nasty woman?"

Gingrich added that he thinks she'll be the nominee, and cited the battle between Clinton's camp and Sen. Barack Obama's [D-IL] team last week over Obama donor David Geffen bashing the former first couple.

"Nobody will out-mud the Clintons," said Gingrich, who added that he'll decide in the coming months whether to run for the White House.

He called Clinton's political team one of the most "talented" in U.S. history, but "endlessly ruthless."

"You can't beat them tactically . . . They're too relentless, they're too well-organized, they have too big a machine and they'll just grind you down," he said.

"If they think [Obama] is a real threat, they'll just grind him up."

Gingrich's harsh comments about Clinton were surprising because he has complimented her abilities and worked with her last year on a health-care initiative.

From the January 21 edition of Fox News Sunday:

WALLACE: All right, let's talk some politics. With Senator Clinton now officially in the race, how do you assess the Democratic field?

GINGRICH: Well, first of all, I think you have to give Barack Obama a tremendous amount of credit. And I think he forced Senator Clinton's hand by weeks. I mean, he has gained ground so rapidly that I think she sort of thought she had to remind her friends she was around.

Now, she's still -- and I don't care what anyone else says -- she and her husband are the most formidable pair of politicians in America. He is the smartest politician in America. She is a hard-working, disciplined person. She has won the Senate race in New York twice by very large margins.

She is ahead in every poll. She can raise far more resources than any other Democrat, probably raise more resources than all the other Democrats combined. And you'd have to say, given those assets, that she has a 6-out-of-10 chance or better of being the Democratic nominee.

From Milbank's July 22, 2005, column in The Washington Post:

Clinton sent the first valentine. She said appearing with Gingrich was "a great thing to do" despite the critical calls she got. "Underneath Newt's great political skills is a policy wonk," Clinton gushed, alternating between respectful references to "the speaker" and familiar references to "Newt and I."

Gingrich returned the affection, calling his old foe "Hillary." He said that "to a greater extent than we would have guessed," the former speaker and the former first lady have discovered that "we have the same instinct."

From the May 11, 2005, USA Today article:

Since arriving in the Senate in 2001, Clinton has worked with Republicans, even when she "disagrees profoundly with them on other matters," Brookings Institution political analyst Thomas Mann says. She has formed alliances with conservative Republicans: House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas on foster care, and Sens. Sam Brownback of Kansas and Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania on electronic media's effect on children's behavior. The thaw with Gingrich was clear at a newspaper editors meeting last month. He praised Clinton, who has risen in polls as a leading Democratic presidential candidate for 2008. "Sen. Clinton is very competent, very professional, very intelligently moving toward the center," said Gingrich, who is contemplating a White House bid. "Any Republican who thinks she's going to be easy to beat has a total amnesia about the history of the Clintons."

But if it seemed Wednesday that it was Clinton who had forgotten history when she declared, "We have a lot in common," Gingrich apparently has not.

Asked where else they agreed, he said: "Let's keep it to" health care. "Otherwise that becomes the story."

From the January 20, 2005, edition of PBS' Charlie Rose:

ROSE: Would Bill Clinton have done well against George Bush?

GINGRICH: Sure, Bill Clinton would do well against anybody. I mean, anyone who underestimates either Bill or Hillary Clinton is just very foolish. These are two of the smartest, most professional, hardest working people in modern America. And I mean, you have to say, given all the battering President Clinton took, he has an enormous capacity to rebound, and while most of us conservatives may not like that, you have to take your hat off to his sheer ability to take the beating and keep coming.

Hillary Clinton is an extraordinarily professional person, very, very smart, works very hard. And any Republican who thinks she's going to be easy to beat in 2008 is just very foolish.

ROSE: Yes, but you just criticized the left in the Democratic Party as being out of touch -- and wait a minute, let me finish the question. And in denial. Are you suggesting, therefore, that any Republican who perceives her as sort of being the candidate of the left has got it wrong, because she, like her husband, will come at America from the center and therefore will be a formidable candidate?

GINGRICH: I think Senator Clinton is positioning herself very intelligently as a centrist Democrat. That makes conservatives gag; they can't believe it. But she's the first New Yorker to serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee since it was created. She does a superb job working with America's military. She has been, frankly, pretty solidly in support of the president on some very tough foreign policy issues.

From the 7 p.m. hour of the March 1 edition of CNN's The Situation Room:

BLITZER: Meanwhile, another ugly incident in the presidential race. The former House Speaker Newt Gingrich reportedly describing Senator Hillary Clinton as, quote, "a nasty woman." So much for the truce between the Republican and the Democrat, who have teamed up on various political projects in the past.

Now, many people are wondering, once again, about Newt Gingrich's presidential plans. Let's turn to CNN's Mary Snow. She's watching this story for us -- Mary.

SNOW: Well, Wolf, the zingers aimed at Senator Hillary Clinton are a change in tone for former Republican leader Newt Gingrich. And some political observers say it's very telling.