Newt Gingrich Praised Rick Santorum In 2006

The former Speaker went to bat for his now-bitter rival. "The most important U.S. Senate race in the country this year."

Republican Presidential candidates Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich are vied in a contest with each other to be the top not-Romney in the 2012 Republican primary. But in 2006 when Santorum was in a tough and ultimately failed re-election fight the former Speaker came to Pennsylvania to campaign for Santorum.

"I believe (Rick Santorum's) race is the most important U.S. Senate race in the country this year. He's a principled person who realizes what the stakes are in the world," Gingrich said Monday during a fundraising stop in Hempfield Township for the incumbent Republican senator from Penn Hills, Allegheny County.

Ever the historian, Gingrich went on to put Santorum's race, and the times, in historical terms.

"There are people out there throughout the world who want to kill us because we're Americans. These are the most complex times in the United States since April 1861," the start of the Civil War, Gingrich said.

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