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Schieffer: Gingrich one-ups Lazarus

Just a week ago, Mitt Romney seemed to be rolling to the Republican presidential nomination ... but then he got thumped by Newt Gingrich in Saturday's primary. Now as the candidates head into Florida in advance of that state's January 31 primary, it's a brand new race.

Bob Schieffer says the former House Speaker - who was trailing in the polls a matter of weeks ago - will only spur more interest among voters after his surprise victory in South Carolina.

"Newt Gingrich has become a great story. I mean, he's one up on Lazarus who only rose from the dead ONCE," said Schieffer on "CBS This Morning." "That feeds on itself: What's this guy doing? What's this all about? That's what Romney is up against now."

Schieffer predicts the Florida airwaves will be loaded with negative ads against Gingrich, as was the case in Iowa, but that Romney will have to rethink his campaign strategy and come out fighting.

"He's trying to do what all frontrunners usually try to do: Keep things totally under his control, make speeches, run television ads," said Schieffer. "But he's going to come out, it seems to me."

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And it is a three-person race for the lead in Florida, with Rick Santorum trying to coalesce the conservative vote.

"Santorum is a fighter," said Jan Crawford. "He's not going anywhere, because he thinks he's the only true social conservative, and he's been offended by the revelations from Gingrich's second ex-wife that he had asked for an open marriage."

But while the party establishment still professes to be against a Gingrich nomination, the GOP primary voters seem to be voting against that very establishment.

Gingrich's win scaring GOP establishment?

"Will the establishment at some point say, 'We cannot afford to have Newt Gingrich at the top of the ticket,' and do something, whatever 'something' is?" asked Charlie Rose.

"Who cares, if you're a voter?" replied Crawford. "The establishment is not going to dictate what the voters do, and the voters have been hearing that message from the establishment but the voters aren't listening. They're fed up with the establishment, too."

"The other part is, who is the Republican establishment now?" added Schieffer. "This party has moved to the right. It's not the party of Mitt Romney's father."

To watch more from this conversation, click on the video player above.

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