WASHINGTON – Former House speaker Newt Gingrich has criticized former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney for inconsistent comments on conservative issues, although Gingrich’s record shows that he, too, has been inconsistent on many of the same issues.
As Gingrich has risen in the polls from an also-ran to a top contender, his contradictory positions on several issues have come under increased scrutiny. Those include his support for the individual health care mandate that he now describes as “unconstitutional;” his long relationship with housing lender Freddie Mac during a time when he was critical of politicians for propping up the government-sponsored enterprises and his view on the impact of climate change.
Unlike Romney, however, Gingrich has not seen a backlash with the base. Instead his stock among conservatives has recently experienced a resurgence. Several former aides say that’s because of his long record in conservative circles and others to the passing fancy of the right wing of the Republican Party.
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MORE: Newt Gingrich’s changing positions
BLOG: Ron Paul video hits Gingrich for ‘serial hypocrisy’
“I don’t know that it will last forever,” former Gingrich aide and Republican strategist Rich Galen said of the current conservative honeymoon. “He’s probably steeled himself to the (old attacks) but challenges to his positions are something he may not be as ready for, because he may see them as challenges to his intellectual honesty.”
One Republican contender, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, has released an opening salvo against him with an ad questioning Gingrich’s “serial hypocrisy” and quoting newspaper articles, pundits and conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh to illustrate Gingrich’s numerous policy changes.
“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 spokesman R.C. Hammond said in a statement responding to Paul’s ad.
The Paul ad begins with a commercial Gingrich shot with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in 2008 promoting bipartisan solutions to climate change.
In his 2007 book, A Contract with the Earth, Gingrich and his co-writer Terry Maple wrote that they “recognize climate change is supported by a wealth of scientific data derived from a diversity of measurement techniques” and said they “cannot be certain about the variance introduced by distinctly human activities.”
In a recent interview with Fox News, Gingrich called the ad a “stupid” misstep and reiterated his belief that “the evidence is not complete” on the subject.
During the last few debates, Gingrich has bristled at moderators and fellow candidates who have questioned his policy shifts on everything from foreign policy to health care to his relationship with Freddie Mac, the federally backed housing lender.
Gingrich bristled at a question about his perceived flip-flop on Libya during an Aug. 11 debate in Iowa. He had first supported a no-fly zone and later said he would not intervene.
At the debate, Gingrich called it a “gotcha question,” saying he was taken out of context and changed his answer after President Obama changed his policy. Gingrich said the situation in Libya had changed between the two comments, so it was not a flip-flop.
During a CNN debate in October, Romney told Gingrich the idea for his state’s requirement that residents buy health insurance came from Gingrich. Gingrich, who supported such a mandate, said the idea came from the conservative Heritage Foundation.
In a recent interview with CNN, Gingrich said he could have handled the exchange better. “If I would have been clever, I would turn and say, ‘I’ve admitted I was wrong. I’ve learned, and I’ve changed my mind. Why haven’t you?’ ” he said.
Such flexibility makes Gingrich a better candidate, says Tony Blankley, a GOP strategist, former Gingrich aide and current supporter.
“I think there is a sense that people understood that Newt was going for what he thought was right,” Blankley said. “Romney has given the impression, maybe falsely, that he’s going for what he thinks is useful for him.”
His relationship with Freddie Mac before the collapse of the mortgage industry in 2008 has been a tougher issue for Gingrich to explain.
Gingrich has acknowledged reports that he received $1.6 million in consulting fees from Freddie Mac between 1999 and 2008. In an April 24, 2007, interview posted on Freddie Mac’s website, he said Freddie Mac and other government supported enterprises (GSEs) made it easier for people to buy homes.
His explanations for his work for Freddie Mac have shifted. He said at a debate in November that he gave Freddie Mac executives advice as a historian, told them their business model was “insane” and that the housing market was a giant bubble.
Former representative Bob Walker, a Gingrich adviser, said the idea that Gingrich was “out shilling” for Freddie Mac was false.
“They were looking into how to get more conservative support, they chose not to (take his advice),” he said. “That happens a lot in corporate America.

Update at 7:20 p.m. ET
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich highlighted the benefits of Freddie Mac’s business model in 2007 — a position that appears to contradict his assertion that he warned the mortgage company of its “insane” business practices.
In an interview posted in an archived version of Freddie Mac’s website, Gingrich discusses the so-called government-supported enterprise model, dubbed GSEs. “While we need to improve the regulations of the GSEs, I would be very cautious about fundamentally changing their role or the model itself,” he said.
He went on to praise Freddie Mac’s and Fannie Mae’s “important contribution” to homeownership.
Asked about his consulting work for the quasi-governmental housing agency at a Nov. 9 presidential debate, Gingrich said he had offered advice as a historian and sharply criticized its approach.
“When they walked in and said to me, we are now making loans to people who have no credit history and have no record of paying back anything, but that’s what the government wants us to do, is I said — I said to them at the time: “This is a bubble. This insane. This is impossible,’ ” Gingrich said during the debate in Michigan.
That’s not the tone Gingrich takes in the Freddie Mac interview in which he touts the GSE model.
“There is not much support for the idea of removing the GSE charters from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae,” he said. “And it’s clear why. The housing GSEs have made an important contribution to homeownerhip and the housing finance system. We have a much more liquid and stable housing finance system that we would have had without the GSEs.”
Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond said the Freddie Mac interview, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, demonstrated Gingrich was “advocating for improved regulation.”
“As to whether Newt now advocates a more aggressive overhaul of Fannie and Freddie than he previously did, of course he does,” Hammond said in an e-mail. “The total collapse of the global financial system has a tendency to make one look at a situation with a fresh set of eyes.”
Gingrich, who now sits atop national GOP presidential polls, has faced numerous questions in recent weeks about his consulting work on behalf of Freddie Mac.

WASHINGTON – In addition to the sleek flat-screen televisions, smartphones, computers and cut-rate designer clothing, Black Friday’s shopping legions seized on another hot item for 2011: guns.
Gun dealers flooded the FBI with background check requests for prospective buyers last Friday, smashing the single-day, all-time high by 32%, according to bureau records.
Deputy Assistant FBI Director Jerry Pender said the checks, required by federal law, surged to 129,166 during the day, far surpassing the previous high of 97,848 on Black Friday of 2008.
The actual number of firearms sold last Friday is likely higher because multiple firearms can be included in a transaction by a single buyer. And the FBI does not track actual gun sales.
Some gun industry analysts attributed the unusual surge to a convergence of factors, including an increasing number of first-time buyers seeking firearms for protection and women who are being drawn to sport shooting and hunting.
Larry Keane, a spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said 25% of the purchases typically involve first-time buyers, many of them women.
“I think there also is a burgeoning awakening of the American public that they do have a constitutional right to own guns,” Keane said.
Yet Keane said last Friday’s number appeared to defy complete explanation. “It’s really pretty amazing,” he said.
Dennis Henigan, acting president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said he was “skeptical” of the Black Friday gun surge.
“I think there may be no real signifcance at all,” Henigan said. “It’s possible that gun companies are just catching on to creating a Black Friday frenzy for themselves

Martina Davis-Correia, the sister of late cause celebre death row inmate Troy Davis, has died, NAACP senior communications associate Derek Turner has confirmed.
Davis-Correia had battled cancer, but helped take her brother’s case around the globe, maintaining there was too much doubt in the details of his murder conviction to allow for his execution. Davis died by lethal injection on Sept. 21 at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, Ga. Between hospitalizations as she fought her disease, Davis-Correia addressed groups and took part in rallies globally to draw attention to the case.

Davis, 42 when he died, had been convicted in 1991 of the 1989 shooting death of Savannah, Ga., police officer Mark MacPhail. But Davis-Correia and another sister of Davis’, Kimberly Davis, had worked with the NAACP and Amnesty International in maintaining to people worldwide that several witnesses in Davis’ murder trial had recanted testimony.

The Davis’ mother, Virginia Davis, died a few months before the execution.
Martina Davis-Correia was 42 and had been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000, according to WSAV television.

Robert Nave, a death penalty opponent who had long worked with the Davis family in attempting to stay Troy Davis’ execution, wrote on Kimberly Davis’ Facebook page that Davis-Correia died earlier in the evening, and in an email said she passed away at 5:45 p.m. ET. Nave, state and regional death penalty abolition coordinator for Amnesty International in Connecticut and the northeast USA, said it was all right for On Deadline to publish his note.

“Although cancer took her body, her beautiful spirit has touched me and the world in ways I never new possible. I will celebrate her life, although through my tears, as we all will miss her so dearly,” Nave wrote.
Amnesty International issued a statement Thursday night hailing Martina-Correia as a “Hero of the Human Rights Movement.”

Altaf Hussain, in his telephonic address to MQM office bearers and workers from Lahore zone, said a conspiracy was also being hatched to get the assemblies dissolved and go for snap polls to inflict a defeat on MQM. “But MQM will contest from across the country in the next elections,” he vowed.

He assured his party workers that the day was not far off when Punjab would witness a revolution that would transform the grand houses of feudal lords and capitalists into boys and girls schools.

“Just when the philosophy of MQM began to gain ground in Punjab, an antagonistic drive was launched to project it as an enemy of the state,” he alleged.

He challenged that no intelligence agency could prove that ‘Altaf Hussain owns even one inch of land in Pakistan but the khadims of this nation have majestic houses.’

The MQM Chief without taking name of Dr. Zulfiqar Mirza, said claims of a cast out from one of the Sindh’s parties were mind-boggling.

“This man (Dr. Mirza) is a desecrator of the Prophet (PBUH) because he claims to be bigger (in status) than Sarkar-e-Do-Alam,” Altaf Hussain alleged, adding (Mohajirs) did not come from India in tatters’.

He said the entire blame of law and order situation in Karachi was pinned on MQM when ‘actually 14 members of his party were also killed’ in the May 12 carnage.

1. Eyeball Method – This is by far one of the most common ways to measure how much food you take in. Used in major diets around the world, the eyeball method provides a way to measure portion sizes without needing any additional tools. Your protein portion should be the size and thickness of the palm of your hand. Carbohydrates in the form of starchy carbs should be the size of your clenched fist. If you opt for carbohydrates in the form of vegetables and fruit, you can measure two fistfuls. Last, for fat, you’ll want to use the tip of your thumb to measure fat that you add into your meal. Easy enough? You can use this method to control portions at your home, at a restaurant and even at a party. When at a restaurant, it’s a great idea to portion out your meal and put the rest into a take home box. Ask your server to bring you a doggy bag right away so you aren’t tempted to eat the rest!

2. Measuring Cups – Yep, you can carry measuring cups around in your purse or laptop bag. Grab your 1 cup measuring cup and use it for protein, fat and carbohydrates. Your protein portion should be about ½ – ¾ cup. Carbohydrates of the starchy kind should equate to approximately 1 cup and carbohydrates from veggies and fruit should measure about 2 cups. Fat should be just a smidgen at the bottom of the measuring cup or about 1 tablespoon. This method may provide a bit more structure as you can actually measure out amounts. Some people may or may not want to tote around a few measuring cups though.

3. Portion Control Gadget – The Meal Measure gadget is a tool that you can actually put on your plate to fill each section with the perfect amount of protein and different types of carbohydrates. A little bit more controlled, this option offers a plate size tool that is great for home use. You may or may not want to tote this bad boy to a restaurant – your choice. Either way, this is an excellent source to keep your portions under control.

4. Use Smaller Plates – Smaller plates make portions look bigger. Sometimes this weight loss game is one that involves tricking yourself into believing that you’re taking in more than you actually are. It gives the mind a little bit of satisfaction. Instead of using full dinner plates, use a few smaller plates for your meals. Side dishes and saucers make great portion control tools. Use a saucer for protein and carbohydrates like bread or pasta. Use a side dish plate or salad plate for salads and veggies and get your teaspoon or tablespoon out for fat like olive oil or canola oil. This method is great because there is no need to buy any extra tools and most restaurants won’t mind bringing you a few extra dishes.

Measuring what you take in can be easy and convenient. It’s important to truly stick to the portion sizes listed above or you can easily find yourself eating too much again. Once you get yourself in the groove of eating the correct amounts, you’ll find it hard to eat much more than that. Pick one method above and stick with it for at least 6 weeks to determine how it works for you. If you’re not seeing the results that you want, you may want to reel your portions in a little more or try counting those calories to get the success you’re looking for.

Margot Rutigliano is a freelance writer as well as the owner of Vita Vie Retreat. She has been a fitness trainer, wellness coach and healthy living adviser since 1999.