Updated: January 11, 2012 | 6:31 p.m. January 11, 2012 | 5:32 p.m.
Newt Gingrich stepped up his scorched-earth strategy against Republican rival Mitt Romney on Wednesday with a biting new Internet video that features a string of the former Massachusetts governor’s political gaffes.
The video is an unrestrained attack on the party’s front-runner at a time when some of Gingrich’s fellow Republicans are questioning the wisdom of his strategy, considering few in the party give the former House speaker much chance of winning the nomination after poor finishes in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary this month.
The video is titled "For the Dogs," and features, in one snippet, Romney discussing with a television interviewer a much-recounted anecdote in which Romney strapped his dog, who was housed inside a kennel, to the top of the family car during a trip. Romney explains in the interview that the dog liked the kennel and that the inside of the car was crowded with his five children.
The montage includes footage of several other Romney missteps, including this week’s comment that he “likes to fire people” who provide him with poor service, his earlier remark at a campaign event that “corporations are people,” and his now famous debate offer to rival Rick Perry of a $10,000 bet.
The video ends with words on the screen reading, “Imagine what Obama would do with a candidate like that. Only Newt Gingrich can win the debates against Barack Obama. Mitt Romney can’t.”
The final scene is of Romney, with a small group of voters, playfully recalling lyrics from the pop song Who Let the Dogs Out?
Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, left, holds up his Honoris Causa
distinction conferred by Gustavo Cobreiro, rector of the University
Havana, right, Wednesday in Havana, Cuba, his third stop of a Latin
American tour.
By NBC's Mary Murray
HAVANA
-- No surprise to anyone that we're hearing tough words during the
Latin American tour of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Swinging
through Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba and Ecuador, the Iranian leader
seems to be at home among America’s united enemies — and the left
leaders equally comfortable with him.
First and foremost, Ahmadinejad seems to be on his tour to defend his
country’s nuclear program. While Iran claims that the nation’s nuclear
program is solely for energy and other peaceful purposes, the United
States and Western allies accuse Tehran of secretly building nuclear
weapons.
During Monday’s stop in Caracas, Ahmadinejad addressed
the issue head on and charged the Obama administration with making
unjust threats.
"They say we're making a bomb. ... Everyone knows that those words
... are a joke, something to laugh at." Ahmadinejad claims Washington is
just "afraid" of Iran’s development.
For his part, Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez accused Washington of demonizing Iran and trumping
up false claims about the nuclear issue "like they used the excuse of
weapons of mass destruction to do what they did in Iraq."
Chavez
even joked how Ahmadinejad’s tour was making America nervous: "When we
devils get together ... it's like they go crazy," Chavez said.
From
Caracas, Ahmadinejad headed to Managua for the inauguration of Daniel
Ortega to another term. He called Ortega his "brother president" while
Ortega praised Ahmadinejad for his "peace" efforts. Once again,
Ahmadinejad dismissed the accusations about Iran's nuclear program.
Wednesday morning, Ahmadinejad landed in Havana.
In
each country so far, Ahmadinejad secured the backing for his
controversial nuclear program. Don’t expect less from the Cubans.
Fidel
Castro is on the record defending Iran's right to develop nuclear
energy and ridiculing the Obama administration for claiming that Iran is
secretly developing nuclear weapons.
Receiving an honorary
doctorate in political science from Havana University, Ahmadinejad spent
almost his entire acceptance speech accusing the West of being the
world's "bully." The wars in the Middle East, he charged, have been all
about winning elections in the West and about controlling oil reserves.
Ahmadinejad
was also expected to meet with the Castro brothers during his one-day
visit. Again, we should expect to hear more of the same given that the
two countries see eye to eye, especially when it comes to the United
States. Since the start of Iran’s nuclear program, Havana has
unflaggingly defended Tehran's right to develop nuclear technology while
openly ridiculing the Obama administration for its claim that Iran is
secretly developing nuclear weapons.
And for Iran's part, the Islamic nation has repeatedly condemned the U.S. economic embargo against the island nation.
But,
for as much as this trip is about criticizing U.S. policies, it also
seems to have a practical edge to it. Ahmadinejad is talking up the
importance of trade in Latin America.
In Venezuela, Iran has
already invested in the construction industry along with factories
producing farm machinery, trucks and food products.
Cuban-Iran economic ties are fairly strong too.
Back in 2003,
the two countries agreed to support mutual foreign investment and expand
bilateral trade. Since then, Iran has extended 200 million in euro
credit to the island, which the island has used primarily to upgrade its
rail system. There is discussion to increase that line of credit to 500
million euros. Cuba is helping to build a plant in Iran that produces
vaccines and medicines. The bilateral trade is said to be as much as 30
million euros a year.
From here, the Iranian leader heads to Ecuador as the last stop on his whirlwind tour. More from msnbc.com and NBC News:
The
Justice Department concluded in a Jan. 6 memo to the White House
counsel that the Senate's "pro forma" sessions don't actually interrupt a
congressional recess.
Because they don't, the president was entitled to exercise his constitutional power to make recess appointments, the department concluded. President Obama used that authority last week to name Richard Cordray director of the newly formed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He also made additional recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board.
"The
Senate could remove the basis for the president's exercise of his
recess appointment authority by remaining continuously in session and
being available to receive and act on nominations, but it cannot do so
by providing for pro forma sessions at which no business is to be
conducted," says a memo from DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel.
The memo was released today in response to calls for a fuller explanation of the legal basis on which the White House acted.
The
question, the Justice Department says, is a practical one: During these
pro forma sessions, is the Senate actually able to provide advice and
consent to nominations? Obviously not, the memo says, which makes them a
"recess" in name only, and not in substance.
Even so, it says,
"the question is a novel one, and the substantial arguments on each side
create some litigation risk for such appointments."
