MUSCATINE, Iowa ? Onetime Republican presidential front-runner Newt Gingrich called on campaign rival Mitt Romney Tuesday to "just level with the American people" about his moderate political views.
Asked point-blank in a nationally broadcast network interview if he was calling the former Massachusetts governor "a liar," Gingrich replied, "Yes."
In the interview on CBS' "The Early Show," Gingrich declined to predict he'd win Tuesday's Iowa caucuses, but said "I don't think anybody knows who's going to get what right now." He said "I think anybody can come in first" because of a large number of Iowa voters who remained undecided on the day of the caucuses.
Of Romney, Gingrich was asked about previous statements he'd made accusing his opponent of lying. Gingrich assailed Romney for negative television ads that have hurt Gingrich's standing in the polls, saying Romney has been disingenuous about large sums of money that a super PAC has been spending on his behalf for the attack commercials.
"I just think he ought to be honest with the American people and try to win as the real Mitt Romney," Gingrich said. "He ought to be candid and I don't think he's been candid."
But when asked if he could support Romney if he became the party's nominee and runs against President Barack Obama, the former House speaker answered affirmatively. "He would be much less destructive than Barack Obama," Gingrich said. "If you think Barack Obama is someone who is not a risk to the country's future, then that's somebody to vote for."
"I wish Mitt would just level with the American people and be who he really is and let's have a debate between a Massachusetts moderate and a real conservative," Gingrich said.
Briefly the front-runner, Gingrich hoped for a respectable showing in the caucuses after being pounded by millions of dollars in attack ads.
Gingrich was making an 11th-hour push for support as his campaign bus rumbled through eastern Iowa. He began caucus day speaking to about 75 people in a sun-drenched coffee shop in Muscatine.
"All of you have been drowning in negative attack ads. None of them have come from me," he said to applause.
"Iowans have an opportunity tonight to send a message to Washington and to the political system that the age of negative consultants and negative attack ads is over."
He was scheduled to hold another event in Burlington before personally making his case at a caucus gathering in Cedar Falls.
Gingrich is setting his sights on New Hampshire and South Carolina, where he pledged to wage a more aggressive effort to draw contrasts with Romney.
After emerging in early December as a top GOP contender, Gingrich saw his support falter as he took a pounding from a wave of tough ads painting him as an ethically-challenged Washington insider.
The ex-Georgia congressman has tried to cast himself as the conservative heir to President Ronald Reagan, touting a supply-side economic plan of tax cuts and fewer regulations. But he has struggled to with that message by blasting some of his GOP opponents while promising to wage a positive campaign.
"I believe I am the only person who has the range of experience necessary to fundamentally get this country back on the right track," he said.
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