Topics: 2012 Elections, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul 
 
 I was awestruck by a new Ron Paul ad attacking Newt Gingrich even before I saw that I have a cameo at the end. Full disclosure: I think the ad would be better without me. It’s most devastating when it features conservatives attacking Newt. 
 
 And it features plenty of them. Watch it yourself, below. It’s titled “Newt Gingrich: Serial Hypocrisy,” which seems an arch reference to Gingrich’s history of serial adultery. But the ad ignores the messy divorces and the Tiffany’s credit line to stick to politics, and there’s plenty to work with. 
 
 It starts with Gingrich blathering on about “policy and values and seriousness,” and it then marches through examples of his flip-flops and hypocrisy on each of those points. The ad he made with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, back when he admitted climate change was real, is damning, but news anchor voice-overs reporting his changing positions on the bank bailouts are pretty bad too. We get his attack on Paul Ryan’s budget, and Ryan’s angry reaction, as well as the GOP voter who told Gingrich he was “an embarrassment to the party.” We see Fox anchors and CNBC’s Larry Kudlow voicing disapproval for his shifting stands on Freddie Mac, before and after it was revealed he took almost $2 million for strategic advice (don’t call it lobbying!). 
 
 The ad gathers momentum, and a sense of moral outrage, as it focuses on Gingrich’s taking millions from Freddie Mac as well as the healthcare industry, and supporting policies — the individual mandate, universal private insurance, end of life care — that he now opposes, since they’re all anathema to the GOP base. That’s where MSNBC’s Ed Schultz and I come in; Schultz reads from the Washington Post story revealing Gingrich took $37 million from the healthcare industry, and I note his ever-changing positions on healthcare-related issues. “He’s flipped and flopped based on who’s paying him,” I tell Schultz. The central voice, though, is Rush Limbaugh, mocking Gingrich over and over. When Schultz and Limbaugh and I agree, you know someone’s in trouble. 
 
 I’ve been saying this week that it’s time for the former front-runner Mitt Romney to go on the offensive against Gingrich. But Romney had trouble holding his own in an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier. So he’s got his own problems now, when he’s tripped up by simple questions about his own flip-flops from relatively friendly Fox News. Ron Paul served up Gingrich’s goose instead. Paul showed similar flair with an ad taking down Texas Gov. Rick Perry, touting his ties to Al Gore. Whether on foreign policy or in the ad war, Paul keeps this race interesting. I’ll be talking about all of this with MSNBC’s Ed Schultz — again — at 8 ET. I’ll aspire to make someone else’s highlight reel. Here’s the ad: 
 
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 Close ||||| Texas Congressman and fundraising powerhouse Ron Paul‘s campaign released an absolutely brutal web ad attacking current national frontrunner Newt Gingrich for “serial hypocrisy.” The spot, which is a too-long-for-TV 148 seconds, features a review of Gingrich flip-flops, accompanied by blistering criticism from the likes of Rush Limbaugh and GOP golden boy Rep. Paul Ryan. With Paul polling in third place in New Hampshire, should Newt be worried about the Ronulan attack? 
 
 The ad doesn’t even touch all the bases on Gingrich, but hits hard at Gingrich over his climate change ad with Nancy Pelosi, his criticism of the Ryan budget plan, his Freddie Mac connections, and his support for an individual health insurance mandate, all set to an epic score, and sinister, grainy black-and-white photography. The production is slick, if a bit cliched, but the overall effect is devastating. 
 
 Ordinarily, a web ad wouldn’t figure to have much of an impact, but Ron Paul’s supporters are a highly motivated, resourceful lot who will doubtless make sure this spot reaches maximum eyeballs. 
 
 Newt Gingrich is the latest in a long line of non-Romneys to take a ride at the top of the polls, and Ron Paul is one of the only candidates left who hasn’t gotten his turn. While Paul is routinely ignored by the media as a candidate with a cultish following who can’t improve on his middling poll numbers, much crazier things have happened in this year’s Republican race. Game on. 
 
 Here’s the ad, from the Ron Paul campaign: ||||| In another surprising 2012 plot twist, Ron Paul became the first Republican candidate to take on the new frontrunner Newt Gingrich today, releasing a scathing video that attacks Gingrich for "serial hypocrisy." 
 
 The 150-second web spot is a dramatic — and very well-produced — mashup of Gingrich clips from over the years, including his cozy global warming ad with Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi. It also features Gingrich's fight with House Budget Chair Paul Ryan and references his ties to mortgage giant Freddie Mac. 
 
 The message throughout is that Gingrich is happy to change his policy positions "depending on who's paying him." 
 
 It is a hard-hitting attack that clearly aims to remind conservatives why they didn't like Newt Gingrich the first time around. 
 
 Watch the video below. ||||| 2951825 
 
 Texas Rep. and GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul released a harsh attack ad Wednesday evening against Newt Gingrich, the former House Speaker and a fellow GOP candidate. 
 
 The ad, available to journalists through a “private” YouTube link, hit Gingrich for numerous allegedly contradictory statements about individual health care mandates, his involvement with Fannie and Freddie Mac, and Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget plan. 
 
 The Web ad uses quotes from media outlets and commentators including ABC News, the Los Angeles Times, MSNBC’s Ed Schultz, Fox Business Network’s Gerri Willis and conservative radio talked Rush Limbaugh — and numerous statements from Gingrich himself. 
 
 The Paul campaign says it is working to prove that Gingrich is not a consistent conservative. 
 
 “Our campaign is making a bold move to debunk the myth that the Newt we are seeing on the 2012 campaign trail is the conservative he has been touted to be all along,” said Paul national campaign chairman Jesse Benton. 
 
 “This step we are taking is necessary, as voters are seeking authenticity among conservatives who are able to show a decades-long career of consistently walking the walk of Constitutional principles, limited government, and promoting sound money and economic policy,” Benton continued. “Ron Paul is the only Republican presidential candidate with that record.” 
 
 The Gingrich campaign defended Newt’s conservative record, but refrained from mentioning Paul — instead taking a shot at GOP candidate Mitt Romney. 
 
 “No candidate in the race has achieved more conservative reform of government or spent more time and energy championing the cause of the conservative movement than Newt Gingrich, which is why voters across the country are choosing Newt over Mitt Romney,” Gingrich campaign spokesman R.C. Hammond said when asked for comment. 
 
 Watch: 
 
 Follow CJ on Twitter ||||| The “right-wing social engineering” comment 
 
 Attacking Gingrich for his since-retracted “Meet the Press” statement belittling Paul Ryan’s budget proposal has become de rigueur among his fellow Republican presidential candidates. 
 
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 Romney’s campaign this week rolled out two surrogate phone calls lashing Gingrich for the anti-Ryan apostasy as evidence the former House speaker cannot be trusted to carry the Republican banner. 
 
 “Gov. Romney is much more disciplined in his approach and much more thoughtful about what he says and how he says them,” Iowa state Rep. Renee Schulte said in a Romney campaign press call Friday. 
 
 The opportunity to nail Gingrich Saturday for his social engineering remark is almost too tempting to pass up. His five rivals would benefit from tethering themselves to a rising star in the party like Ryan, reinforce their fiscal conservative credentials and all without much downside risk. 
 
 Freddie Mac 
 
 The information about Gingrich’s work for Freddie Mac that’s already in the public record makes this is a target-rich environment. 
 
 Gingrich insists he never lobbied for the mortgage giant. He and his companies earned millions working, he says, as a highly paid adviser offering historical advice. 
 
 Whatever role he played, Gingrich has considerable exposure. And his opponents have considerable motive to attack him. 
 
 Romney, without being specific, has repeatedly charged that Gingrich has spent his entire life working in Washington — so a Freddie Mac hit on Gingrich would be a two-fer. 
 
 Bachmann also has railed against “crony capitalism” in previous debates. 
 
 Perry bemoans the clubby insider nature of Washington, threatening to “blow up” the influence industry in which Gingrich enriched himself. 
 
 What better way to highlight those criticisms than to attach them to the front-runner through the Freddie Mac connection? 
 
 Immigration 
 
 The issue of illegal immigration was the root of Romney’s first attack on Perry, and the Texas governor’s inability to ably respond played a significant role in his demise. 
 
 Gingrich is certain to avoid the performance errors that doomed the Texas governor, but his position that undocumented immigrants should be allowed to stay in the country legally without a path to citizenship is anathema to immigration hard-liners like Bachmann and Santorum, and Romney is practiced in leveraging the issue to his advantage. 
 
 The trick will be for candidates to draw blood from Gingrich without appearing, to use Perry’s loaded term, heartless. At the foreign policy debate Nov. 22, Gingrich deftly batted away charges that his plan amounts to amnesty, without significant pushback. 
 
 Recent Iowa polls show that, while likely caucus-goers don’t necessarily agree with Gingrich’s more moderate immigration position, the issue is far less important than the economy on their list of concerns.
– Dear Newt, Ron Paul would like to warmly welcome you to your new role as frontrunner, or at least almost-frontrunner, with this blistering new ad. It's called "Serial Hypocrisy," notes the Daily Caller, and it weaves together various clips (Gingrich talking health care with Nancy Pelosi, the "social engineering" comment about Paul Ryan, his Freddie Mac riches, Rush Limbaugh blasting him, etc.) into a two-and-a-half-minute assault. Business Insider: Calls it "scathing," with a clear aim to "remind conservatives why they didn't like Newt Gingrich the first time around." Politico: "The hardest blow yet against Newt Gingrich ..." Mediaite: It's "absolutely brutal" ... Salon: Joan Walsh is "awestruck" by it, and not because she's in it.