In Battered Area, Romney Assails Gingrich on Foreclosures LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. - Mitt Romney toured the epicenter of Florida's foreclosure crisis on Tuesday as he continued to try and draw attention to Newt Gingrich's work on behalf of Freddie Mac. Standing in front of a vacant home in a neighborhood full of them, Mr Romney accused Mr. Gingrich of defending Freddie Mac while getting paid to do it. The accusation drew anti-Gingrich boos from a crowd of about 200 people. "He's been working as an influence peddler," Mr. Romney said. You get paid and then you go out and say things that influence other people. We can't have influence peddlers leading our party. Mr. Gingrich has defended his work for Freddie Mac, saying that he worked as a consultant, provided historical advice and did no lobbying work. Mr. Romney mocked that answer on Tuesday and once again demanded that Mr. Gingrich release more information about his Washington work. He noted that Mr. Gingrich's organization got paid $1.6 million from Freddie Mac. "He says as a historian," Mr. Romney said. I'm waiting to see the history that he wrote for them. Even as Mr. Romney spoke, his campaign pressed its case that Mr. Gingrich's consulting work for Freddie Mac amounted to "influence peddling" that should offend Florida voters frustrated by the housing crisis. In the debate Monday night, Mr. Romney lashed out at Mr. Gingrich's connections to Freddie Mac, linking the fortunes of people in neighborhoods like Lehigh Acres to the actions he took in Washington. "I don't think we can possibly retake the White House if the person who's leading our party is the person who was working for the chief lobbyist of Freddie Mac," Mr. Romney said to Mr. Gingrich on Monday. Freddie Mac was paying Speaker Gingrich $1.6 million at the same time Freddie Mac was costing the people of Florida millions upon millions of dollars. Mr. Gingrich has said Mr. Romney was mischaracterizing his work and accused him of demeaning the election process. "The fact is I've had a very long career of trying to represent the people of Georgia and, as speaker, the people of the United States," Mr. Gingrich said. I think it's pretty clear to say that I have never, ever gone and done any lobbying. At the event in the suburb outside of Fort Meyers, Mr. Romney also took aim at President Obama. "He just does not understand what it takes to get this economy going," Mr. Romney said, drawing attention to the president's decision not to move forward with the Keystone Pipeline. It's just one mistake after the other Mr. Romney also sought to tap into the frustration of many in the crowd who have suffered the immediate effects of the foreclosure crisis. He made a vague pledge to help encourage banks to be more creative in helping people stay in their homes. "The banks aren't bad people - they are just overwhelmed right now," Mr. Romney said in an echo of a comment from last year when he said that "corporations are people, too." But he also suggested that government is not the answer. "Housing has become a mess in large measure because government got in the middle of it," he said.