On Wednesday morning, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told radio talk show host Laura Ingraham he could “absolutely” see himself teaming up with former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum to beat Mitt Romney.

“Of course,” Gingrich said. “Rick and I have a 20-year friendship. We were both rebels, we both came into this business as reformers, we both dislike deeply the degree to which the establishment sells out the American people. We both think Washington has to be changed in very fundamental ways, and we have lots of things that fit together. And the thing that’s interesting is if you take the votes, you add to that Perry and Bachmann, you begin to see the size of the conservative vote compared to Romney…if you take, you know, Santorum and Perry and Bachmann and Gingrich you get some sense of what a small minority Romney really represents..”

Romney barely won the Iowa Caucus Tuesday, beating Santorum by only eight votes. A post at the Gateway Pundit notes that Romney, who was endorsed by Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, actually received fewer votes in 2012 than he did in the 2008 Iowa Caucus.

In the 2008 caucus, he received 30,021 votes but was beat by former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. By comparison, he received 30,015 in 2012.

The Hill adds:

Gingrich, who has been in an ongoing war of words with GOP rival Mitt Romney over campaign advertising, also signaled that he still considers Romney the enemy.

“I don’t think Romney can get much above 25 percent,” Gingrich said, slapping down Romney’s performance in the Iowa caucuses, where he eked out the win with 25 percent of the vote and an eight-vote margin over Santorum.

Senator John McCain (R-AZ), the 2008 GOP nominee is set to endorse Romney, a move Gingrich panned.

“Congress is at 5 percent approval. Running around getting all the names of people with 5 percent approval doesn’t get you very far,” he said.

“I will stick with Tea Party and grassroots supporters and I will let Mitt Romney gather up all the names in Washington,” Gingrich added.

In the aftermath of the Iowa caucus, Texas Governor Rick Perry announced he would reassess his campaign to see if he should continue, and the National Journal reports that Bachmann is reportedly suspending her campaign.

If Bachmann and Perry decide to drop out, Romney would be left as the front runner in the GOP primary.

More on Newt Gingrich at modenook.com here.

—————————————————————-

If you like this article, you can follow Joe on Twitter @jnewby1956, visit his Facebook page, or click the Subscribe button to receive email updates when a new article is published.

Be sure to check out Joe’s other columns as well:

Spokane Military History Examiner

National Computer User Examiner