"That's not a serious accusation," Bush told National Review Online about Gingrich's allegations. "Candidates win elections. I'm not a big Charlie Crist fan, as you recall, but these guys shouldn't have that moniker attached to them, as if Gov. Romney is part of some evil plot."
The latest Quinnipiac poll suggests that Romney, who has more money than Gingrich and has been able to hammer him in a series of attack ads, is opening up a considerable lead over Gingrich.
The poll, conducted Tuesday through Thursday among 580 likely Republican primary voters, had Texas Rep. Ron Paul at 14 percent, followed by Santorum at 12 percent. It has a margin of error of 4.1 percentage points.
Newt Gingrich's goal to establish a permanent moon base if elected president would be costly and shouldn't be the space program's focus, said John Glenn, the first U.S. astronaut to orbit Earth.
"Sometime we'll go to the moon, but I think to have a lunar colony by 2020 is optimistic to say the least," Glenn said from Columbus, Ohio.
Glenn, 90, voiced doubt that the cost of a permanent base - and especially of maintaining a colony - had been thought out in the midst of the political season. He called ex-President George W. Bush's decision to end the space shuttle program "a drastic mistake" and said the U.S. should focus on the boosters needed to reach the space station.
The Democratic former Ohio senator made the comments in an interview about the 50th anniversary of his Friendship 7 orbital flight on Feb. 20, 1962.
- Bloomberg News
