Weaving populism and rage against the Washington establishment into his remarks, Gingrich said Romney would not beat President Obama if he becomes the GOP nominee.

"We have to ultimately focus on beating Barack Obama, but we're not going to beat Barack Obama with some guy who has Swiss bank accounts, Cayman island accounts, owns shares of Goldman Sachs while it forecloses on Florida and is himself a stockholder in Freddie Mae and Freddie Mac while he tries to think the rest of us are too stupid to put the dots together to understand what this is all about," Gingrich said.

The former House speaker, also being slammed for working with Nancy Pelosi on climate change and for exaggerating his role under President Reagan, said the attack ads by Romney and his supporters are hurting him in Florida. But he said it was the denigration of his work with Reagan,  contrasted with Romney's past support of Democrats, that prompted him to be so "blunt."

"To have his campaign take on a lifetime of work and lie about it, frankly I do find it infuriating. I think it is one of the most dishonest things I've seen in politics," he told reporters after the rally. "I mean at some level, there ought to be a sense of shame that a person would be this fundamentally dishonest."

This is not sounding much like a clown car any more.