Benefiting from the political demise of Herman Cain, surging GOP presidential-primary candidate Newt Gingrich got a hero’s welcome at a Staten Island Tea Party event yesterday — as he slammed President Obama and dismissed the “petty” complaints of former Republican colleagues in Congress.
Gingrich fed red meat to the conservative faithful at the Hilton Garden Inn, mocking Obama for postponing action on a Canada-to-Texas oil-pipeline project.
“It’s one thing to say somebody can’t play chess. It’s a second thing to say somebody can’t play checkers. But you can’t play tic-tac-toe, too?” he said to big applause.
He challenged Obama to seven three-hour debates should Newt become the GOP standard-bearer.
“Let’s be fair. I’ll allow him to use a teleprompter,” he joked to the 700 attendees.
Gingrich also challenged as “delusional” Obama’s claim at a New York fund-raiser last week that the president is a friend of Israel.
Gingrich also landed the endorsement of former Staten Island Rep. Vito Fossella, who didn’t run for re-election after it was revealed he had fathered a love child with a Virginia mistress.
Meanwhile, Gingrich, the former House speaker, blasted GOPers who oppose his candidacy — like Long Island Rep. Peter King and former Staten Island Rep. and Borough President Guy Molinari — as “petty.”
“I am a very aggressive reformer. I have stepped on a lot of toes,” Gingrich told reporters of his House tenure.
“It means some congressmen who have petty interests . . . find themselves unhappy.”