Gingrich's Two-Pronged Assault on Romney MANCHESTER, N.H.- If you want to get a good measure of the confused state of the Republican Party, consider these two things. One: A super PAC that supports Newt Gingrich has released a "documentary" that caricatures Mitt Romney as a corporate takeover shark who seized firms, squeezed them for profit and destroyed jobs. Two: Another new ad that Mr. Gingrich is (personally) running against Mr. Romney accuses him of being "pro-abortion" and calls Mr. Romney a moderate. Gasp. Can you imagine that? A moderate. With the documentary, Mr. Gingrich's supporters attack Mr. Romney from the left, painting him as an extremist. With the pro-abortion ad he attacks him from the right, painting him as a centrist. The former attack, from the left, is an attempt to capitalize on the national impatience with income inequality. The latter attack, from the right, is what's now expected of Republican candidates. The Republican Party has been marching rightward since the 1970s, driven by its religiously motivated and socially intolerant members. Barry Goldwater, who was the archetype (or arch villain) of conservatism when I was growing up, deplored the rise of the "moral majority" and once predicted that by now, he would be considered a moderate. He was correct. Since the elections of 2010, when Tea Party supporters were an important part of the Republicans" seizure of the majority in the House of Representatives, Republicans like Mr. Gingrich (and Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell) have been running scared and the Republican Party has grown even more ideologically inflexible. The Tea Party movement can brook no moderation. So how's Mr. Gingrich's two-pronged assault on Mr. Romney working for him? Pretty badly. His own showing in the first two nominating contests has been weak. He eked out a tepid fourth place finish in Iowa and tied (with Rick Santorum) for a distant fourth in New Hampshire. Centrists don't like him: He only received 8 percent of the Independent vote in New Hampshire. Neither do right-wingers. The Tea Party supporters in New Hampshire went for Mr. Romney, decisively, as did those who said they were very conservative or somewhat conservative. The only voters who gave Mr. Gingrich over 15 percent of the vote were those who said their social philosophy was "very conservative" and even there he was well behind Mr. Romney. Mr. Gingrich isn't helping himself, but is he hurting Mr. Romney? His tactics may have some long term impact - deadening Republican support for him on the far-right, and softening him up for the Democratics, who make hay of his past as a leveraged-buyout artist. So far, though, the highly conservative Republicans in Iowa and New Hampshire have made their choice. They've picked the faux conservative whose ideology may be suspect over the phony insurgent who has always been a full partner in the institutions they despise.