Presidential hopeful Ron Paul downplayed being excluded from Wednesday's candidates forum hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition and called rival Newt Gingrich the "flavor of the week" in an interview Wednesday with CNN.
Paul was not invited to the forum in Washington, D.C., which the remainder of the Republican field attended, because of what Matt Brooks, director of the RJC, called "misguided and extreme views" on Israel.
Paul said that although "a healthy discussion is a good American tradition," he was "very aware of what private organizations can do. I truthfully don't have much recourse."
But, Paul said, he thought dismissing his isolationist foreign policy as anti-Israel was unfair, and he planned to make that case with an online release later Wednesday.
"To paint it and say, 'well, maybe he's not supportive of Israel, he's anti-Israel,' that's being dismissed rather carelessly and unfairly," Paul said.
Paul also knocked Gingrich, who has assumed a commanding lead at the top of Republican polls — new numbers released Wednesday from CNN/Time magazine show the former Speaker with double digit leads in Iowa, South Carolina and Florida, while trailing Mitt Romney by only 9 percentage points in New Hampshire — as "the flavor of the week."
"We don't know what it's going to be next week," Paul said. "The only thing that really counts is a month from now."
The Texas congressman argued that unlike other candidates, he had gradually built support and risen into the top tier of GOP candidates organically.
"He's the fourth person to have done this, so why would you assume the nomination was locked in?" Paul said, referring to the rise and fall of Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Herman Cain.
