Newt Gingrich threw the kosher kitchen sink at presidential rival Mitt Romney Monday in a new attack against the former governor for eliminating kosher food for ailing Jewish nursing home residents in Massachusetts.
“Let me note in passing that Romney as governor imposed on Catholic hospitals provisions against their religious strictures and Romney as governor eliminated kosher food from retired Jewish senior citizens on Medicaid and he has no understanding of the importance of conscience and importance of religious liberty in this country,” Gingrich said at a campaign stop in Pensacola.
The blast from the former Speaker of the House stems from a New York Post article written last week that exposed Romney’s $600,000 cut of kosher food for Jewish nursing home residents in 2003.
Romney’s campaign fired back at Gingrich, saying the funds in question were eventually restored after the former governor had to reject hundreds of measures in order to contain spending in a time of financial crisis.
During his half-hour speech Monday afternoon against a backdrop of two bright yellow WWII fighter planes, Gingrich also took a religious shot at President Obama for engaging in what he called a “severe war against Christianity.”
“The Catholic bishops issued a letter yesterday to every church in the country,” Gingrich said. “And in at least one parish I know of, the priest talked about the danger of a dictatorship that imposed anti-religious standards in all of us.”
