"Remember," Gingrich said. "The Republican establishment is just as much an establishment as the Democratic establishment, and they are just as determined to stop us. Make no bones about it. This is a campaign for the very nature of the Republican Party."
The campaigning ahead of Tuesday's crucial Florida presidential primary has stripped bare the conflict that, in many ways, lies at the heart of the nomination contest: a struggle to define the Republican Party several decades into the conservative revolution. The fight pits a furious and anxious middle class against the wealthy, the tea party against the country club, Gingrich against Romney.
The Republican establishment, or what remains of it, rose up to smite Gingrich as he surged in the polls after winning a landslide in the South Carolina primary Jan. 21, fearful that putting the former House speaker - who resigned from Congress following 1998 midterm losses that also came after an ethics case against him - would hurt the party in the fall.
Romney and an allied super PAC have spent millions on television ads attacking Gingrich for that ethics lapse, his history of making bold but controversial statements, and his mercurial personality.
On Friday, fresh poll results suggested that the politics of rage may have its limits for Gingrich, as Romney opened up a lead in a Florida race that was a dead heat earlier in the week.
Yet the conflicts within the Republican Party remain.
"I'm a Newt-er," said Eli Knighton, 68, a semiretired salesman from Fruitland Park, Fla., with some rental properties, who came to cheer on Gingrich at the tea-party rally. "He has the courage to stand up and take a beating if he has to in order to make bold changes."
