September 26, 2007 6:16 PM
- Text
Newt Hearts Huckabee
CBS News' Joy Lin reports:
On tomorrow's 13th anniversary of the signing of the Contract with America, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will formally launch what he's characterizing as a new, non-partisan organization, "American Solutions for Winning the Future." The aim, according to Gingrich: "To provide real, significant solutions to the most important issues facing our country."
Gingrich has organized a series of online workshops Saturday on "how to transform the government." All presidential candidates were invited to give a workshop, but only former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee will be doing so.
And although they could be presidential rivals, Gingrich and Huckabee have been pretty cozy lately. On Monday, the former Speaker of the House guest-blogged on Huckabee's page and offered what looked like a very friendly pat on the back.
"Over the past few months I've been very impressed with the Governor's openness to new ideas and solutions for improving our country," wrote Gingrich. "He showed genuine leadership a few weeks ago by being the first candidate to sign the Nine Nineties in Nine debate pledge."
In fact, Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, has been the only GOP candidate to formally accept Gingrich's challenge to the presidential candidates to participate in nine 90-minute debates over the course of nine weeks. Rudy Giuliani has verbally expressed interest, as had Fred Thompson, but when Huckabee challenged the latter to a debate, Thompson responded that he would only consider engaging in long-form debates after the primaries.
Gingrich has said he will make a decision on running for president after the launch of his new organization. When asked about the relationship between Gingrich and Huckabee, the Huckabee campaign had no comment.
(newt.org)
Gingrich has organized a series of online workshops Saturday on "how to transform the government." All presidential candidates were invited to give a workshop, but only former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee will be doing so.
And although they could be presidential rivals, Gingrich and Huckabee have been pretty cozy lately. On Monday, the former Speaker of the House guest-blogged on Huckabee's page and offered what looked like a very friendly pat on the back.
"Over the past few months I've been very impressed with the Governor's openness to new ideas and solutions for improving our country," wrote Gingrich. "He showed genuine leadership a few weeks ago by being the first candidate to sign the Nine Nineties in Nine debate pledge."
In fact, Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, has been the only GOP candidate to formally accept Gingrich's challenge to the presidential candidates to participate in nine 90-minute debates over the course of nine weeks. Rudy Giuliani has verbally expressed interest, as had Fred Thompson, but when Huckabee challenged the latter to a debate, Thompson responded that he would only consider engaging in long-form debates after the primaries.
Gingrich has said he will make a decision on running for president after the launch of his new organization. When asked about the relationship between Gingrich and Huckabee, the Huckabee campaign had no comment.
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Brian Montopoli Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
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