WASHINGTON -- Newt Gingrich said Wednesday that he would offer controversial former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton the position of secretary of state if he wins the presidency.
Gingrich earned cheers for the choice at a forum hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition, at which nearly all the GOP presidential aspirants appeared separately. Bolton served as President George W. Bush's ambassador to the U.N. for more than a year but never won Senate confirmation.
Critics described him as hotheaded, and he famously loathed the U.N., which won him conservative fans. Bolton discussed a 2012 presidential run himself but decided against it.
Gingrich's assertion -- “If he will accept it, I will ask John Bolton to be secretary of state” -- could run afoul of federal law, which bans a candidate from pledging an appointment “for the purpose of procuring support in his candidacy.” Gingrich’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the matter.
Foreign policy and pro-Israel sentiment were the dominant themes at Wednesday's forum, as the candidates gave speeches and took questions from an audience that ponied up at least $500 per ticket for the privilege.
Gingrich, the former U.S. House speaker from Georgia, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney were the top draws for the event, as they have emerged as the chief contenders for the GOP nomination. Romney has been steady throughout the race, while Gingrich has surged in the polls in the past few weeks.
Gingrich's fast-rising campaign also has earned the backing of Coweta County U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, who plans to formally endorse as soon as Thursday, an aide with knowledge of the endorsement told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Westmoreland will be the fifth member of the Georgia congressional delegation to formally back Gingrich, who still trails Romney in Capitol Hill backing by a large margin. According to a tally by the Hill newspaper, Romney has 50 congressional endorsements to Gingrich's eight, counting Westmoreland.
All the candidates at Wednesday's forum stressed Israel-Palestinian relations and the threat of a nuclear Iran, criticizing President Barack Obama’s approach to both.
“This one-sided continuing pressure that says it’s always Israel’s fault no matter how bad the other side is has to stop,” Gingrich said, prompting a standing ovation.
Romney said his first foreign trip would be to Israel, and Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, “should be indicted for the crime of incitement to genocide.”
Without mentioning each other, Gingrich and Romney sharpened their philosophical arguments against Obama on domestic policy as well. It amounted to a pair of rebuttals to Obama’s speech Tuesday in Kansas in which he attempted to echo President Teddy Roosevelt’s call for a “square deal” and offered a defense of using government to stem rising income inequality.
Gingrich said the contrast between the two of them comes down to: “Are we in favor of earning a paycheck, or are we in favor of giving away food stamps?”
Romney argued that Obama “seeks to replace our merit-based society with an entitlement society. In an entitlement society, everyone receives the same or similar rewards, regardless of education, effort and willingness to take risk. That which is earned by some is redistributed to the others.”
Gingrich, as he has before, pledged to follow Obama around on the campaign trail until the president agrees to seven three-hour Lincoln-Douglas-style debates. Gingrich said Obama would accept because of the president’s Ivy League pedigree and oratorical prowess.
“How does he look in the mirror and say he’s afraid to debate some guy who taught at West Georgia College?” Gingrich said.
Gingrich ran through a blizzard of policies to bring “fundamental change” to Washington, acknowledging that some of them might be “politically incorrect.”
Gingrich continued to advocate for schools to hire children for custodial duties to “teach the culture of work” in low-income neighborhoods where many are on the government dole. The idea has proved controversial for its apparent subversion of child labor law.
Gingrich seemed to revel in the criticism. To emphasize the point, he asked the crowd, “How many of you earned some money before you were 15?”
Arguing for his candidacy over the other Republicans, Romney stressed his business acumen, at one point exclaiming, “I don’t have a political career.” Romney has been out of elective office since he left the Governor’s Mansion in 2007, but he ran a failed bid for president in 2008 and has basically been seeking the office ever since.
Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota also appeared. U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas was not invited because of his views on Israel, including his desire to end military aid there.
Several candidates seized upon recent comments by Obama’s ambassador to Belgium, Howard Gutman, and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta that have been viewed as derogatory and antagonistic toward Israel.
“This torrent of hostility towards Israel doesn’t seem to be coordinated,” Perry said. “It seems to be a natural expression of this administration’s attitude toward Israel.”
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