Nancy Pelosi served on the committee that investigated Newt Gingrich for ethics violations. Almost all Republicans voted against him. Gingrich paid $300,000. Later, he resigned in disgrace. Now, Nancy Pelosi says she'll link information so secret, she once asked her husband leave their bedroom so she could discuss it privately on the phone. Information so damaging it would help Obama win. Gingrich. We can't afford the risk.
Setting aside the fact that Nancy Pelosi didn't say what Mitt Romney says she said about leaking information, this ad is incredibly dumb. It sets up a he said, she said between Newt Gingrich and Nancy Pelosi. The thing is, among Republicans, Pelosi is the second-most hated Democratic in the world. Within the context of the GOP, this is an argument Newt Gingrich will win every single time.
The ad glosses over the fact that Newt Gingrich sat down with Pelosi to endorse cap and trade. That's what Romney should be pounding on. Instead, he's making one of the GOP's biggest political enemies the lead witness for the prosecution against Newt Gingrich.
As I said yesterday, it's as if Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama had run an ad in 2008 making Newt Gingrich the lead witness for in a Democratic primary attack ad. An ad like that would have backfired instantly.
Who knows, maybe Republican voters trust Nancy Pelosi more than Newt Gingrich. (Or, more precisely, maybe they trust what Mitt Romney says Nancy Pelosi said more than Newt Gingrich.) But in an ad accusing Newt Gingrich of being too risky, that's a risk I would never take.