Newt Gingrich tried to take a page out of Sarah Palin's playbook and took to the waters for a photo-op.
However, a fisherman ripped him.
The House speaker went down to a New Hampshire river yesterday with a horde of reporters in tow some say to test the waters for a possible presidential bid to chat up some anglers.
But Gingrich had hardly waved hello when a feisty fisherman named Tim Kipp ruined the Republican's photo opportunity.
"Your politics are some of the meanest politics I have ever heard," Kipp shouted as he stood waist-deep in the Androscoggin River. "You make Calvin Coolidge look like a liberal."
Gingrich appeared stunned, but recovered slightly and told Kipp: "Despite our political differences, good luck today."
But Kipp was just warming up.
"This guy is the most meanspirited, vicious politician we have seen in a long, long time," Kipp told the reporters.
"The water we are fishing in right now will be destroyed by his policies."
Gingrich later tried to shrug off the encounter with Kipp, a high school teacher from Brattleboro, Vt.
Yet the outing wasn't a total bust. Gingrich realized his dream of seeing a few moose.
Wow, Kipp understands the policies that Newt holds near and dear to his heart. I wonder if Newt was walking around with a fishing rod in his hand?
(correction: This came from a 1995 article. I forgot to make that distinction after seeing Palin do her fisherman photo-op. It's been along couple of weeks.)
