Rush Limbaugh opened his program this afternoon citing the glut of anti-Newt material surfacing in important conservative media outlets over the past 24 hours, calling it a "coordinated opposition research document dump."
"That kind of stuff is why people hate Romney so much," said Limbaugh referring to similar attacks by Romney against fellow candidates in the 2008 Republican primaries.
Limbaugh specifically highlighted the items linked on the Drudge Report including Elliot Abrams' National Review column, that "slices and dices with the most harmless tone," and R. Emmit Tyrrell's piece that "just dumps on Newt."
"This is obviously a coordinated attack to take Newt out here in Florida." said Limbaugh, listing Charles Krauthammer, Drudge, Brit Hume, Fox News, and The National Review, and admitted that they all had impeccable credentials in the conservative movement.
Limbaugh was careful not to take Newt's side, but marveled at the volume of attacks, and said he didn't remember Gingrich ever being anti-Reagan.
"My memory of Newt Gingrich is of a premiere defender of Ronald Reagan, that's why this stuff caught me totally by surprise." Limbaugh said. "It did happen, he did say this stuff," he clarified, "I just don't remember it."
