Gingrich Taking Heat Over Global Warming Ad

GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich is facing scrutiny over a 2008 global warming ad he made with former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

On the May 13, 2011, edition of 'The O'Reilly Factor', host Bill O'Reilly and guest Lou Dobbs warned that the ad could single-handedly derail his presidential bid. When O'Reilly asked Dobbs whether the ad could end Gingrich's chances, Dobbs replied, "Without question. If he had said nothing, Bill — just sitting next to Nancy Pelosi. "

Newt Gingrich

"This is going to be more difficult than any charges about his personal life. This is more difficult, in my judgment, for him than anything else . . . Gingrich is talking about climate change, he is making clear the implication that climate change is the responsibility of a Republican speaker and a Democratic speaker."

In a Fox interview, Gingrich spokesman Rick Tyler claimed the Pelosi ad was a debate. It clearly is not. But with history as our guide, Gingrich was unequivocal in a 2007 interview: "'We have now passed the tipping point . . . the evidence is 'sufficient' to show that [global warming], to a major degree, is man-made.'"

Tyler recently told Politico: "The truth is the people who say there's global warming don't know. The truth is people who say there isn't global warming don't know."