National Review has the brutal statement from former Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS):

“I have not been critical
of Newt Gingrich but it is now time to take a stand before it is too
late. If Gingrich is the nominee it will have an adverse impact on
Republican candidates running for county, state, and federal offices.
Hardly anyone who served with Newt in Congress has endorsed him and that
fact speaks for itself. He was a one-man-band who rarely took advice.
It was his way or the highway.”

He adds: “In my run for the presidency in 1996 the Democrats greeted me with a number of negative TV ads and in every one of them Newt was in the ad. He was very unpopular and I am not only certain that this did not help me, but that it also cost House seats that year. Newt would show up at the campaign headquarters with an empty bucket in his hand — that was a symbol of some sort for him — and I never did know what he was doing or why he was doing it, and I’m not certain he knew either.”

The latest NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll shows most Americans agree on one thing: 56% of registered voters say they would vote out every member of Congress if there were a place on the ballot to do so.

Support is consistent across the ideological spectrum — with 55% of liberals, 55% of moderates, and 58% of conservatives all feeling the same way.

Said pollster Bill McInturff: “We found the one area in which all people in the country agree.”

Despite recent Florida polls which show Mitt Romney opening up a lead over Newt Gingrich in that state’s upcoming Republican primary, the latest Gallup tracking poll shows Romney continuing his fall.

Gingrich now leads Romney nationally by six points, 31% to 25%, with Rick Santorum and Ron Paul both at 13%.

Reuters reports that while Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) might check a lot of
boxes for the Republican Vice President nomination — “telegenic,
Hispanic and a fiscal conservative who has been embraced by the Tea
Party” — his financial troubles could be problematic in the vetting
process.

“In 2008, despite earning a declared $400,000 — including
his $300,000 salary from the Miami law firm Broad and Cassel — Rubio
failed to pay down the principal on his home for several months,
according to Florida campaign finance disclosures. During the same
period he did not make payments on a $100,000-plus student loan from his
days at the University of Miami, the disclosures said… Rubio’s
handling of his personal finances contrasts sharply with the image of
him on his Senate website, which highlights Rubio’s efforts to prevent
Washington from ‘piling up debt.'”

A new Dallas Morning News poll finds Gov. Rick Perry’s dismal showing in the Republican presidential race has plunged his approval among Texans to its lowest level in a decade.

Most striking: Perry’s 40% job approval rating in his home state is lower than President Obama’s 43%, despite the GOP’s domination in Texas.

The poll also showed that most Texans — 53% — do not want to see Perry seek another term as governor. Even some of his strongest supporters — 41% of Republicans and 35% of those who voted for him two years ago — don’t want him to run again.

A new Rasmussen survey in Florida shows Mitt Romney now leading Newt Gingrich by eight points, 39% to 31%, with Rick Santorum at 12% and Ron Paul at 9%.

Four days ago, just after the South Carolina Primary, Gingrich led Romney 41% to 32%.

Meanwhile, a new Monmouth University poll shows Romney with a 7 point lead over Gingrich among likely Republican voters, 39% to 32%, with Santorum at 11% and Paul at 8%.

A new InsiderAdvantage survey shows Romney with an eight point lead over Gingrich, 40% to 32%, followed by Paul at 9% and Santorum at 8%.

Nate Silver: “The FiveThirtyEight forecast model still projects Mr. Gingrich as the slight favorite in Florida, giving him a 2-point lead and a 60 percent chance of victory. However, this lead is diminished considerably from two days ago, when the model saw a potential double-digit win for Mr. Gingrich as polls released immediately after the South Carolina primary had him surging in Florida.”

“In fact, I suspect the model is being too conservative and that there is enough evidence — when you look carefully at the day-to-day results — to conclude that Mr. Romney has re-emerged as the slight favorite in Florida instead.”

First Read: “Five days until the voters go to the polls in the Sunshine State, the
GOP presidential contest is very volatile. It’s a pure coin flip… The bottom line is no one knows what’s going to happen, raising the stakes for tonight’s debate, the 19th of this cycle and the last one before this primary.”

Amy Walter points out that a win by Newt Gingrich in Florida would all but guarantee a long, drawn-out contest.

“It will legitimize Gingrich as a serious contender (not just a guy who got lucky in South Carolina). It will lead to lots of hand-wringing by GOP leaders. The cable chatterers will be in full-blown bloviate mode about the state of the dysfunction in the Republican Party. A Romney win doesn’t guarantee a quick end to the contest, but it would slow Gingrich’s momentum. Other factors that could dampen Newt-mentum include the fact that there’s just one debate scheduled for the entire month of February and that there are only caucuses, not primaries, for most of that month. Rick Santorum and Ron Paul have all but conceded the state to the two frontrunners. Florida is a winner-take-all contest, which means all 50 delegates go to the top vote-getter. There’s no incentive to try and battle for third or fourth place. And while both remain committed to staying in the race, it’s clear that, for now, the battle for the nomination is a two-man race between Gingrich and Romney.”

First Read: “Just how important is Florida to both the Romney and Gingrich candidacies? Romney and Gingrich allies are spending more than $20 million between them to try and win it and possibly put away the GOP nominating fight.”

North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue (D) is expected to announce today that she will not seek a second term as governor, the Raleigh News & Observer reports.

Her campaign began telling top North Carolina Democrats in the past 24 hours, setting up a scramble at the top of the state ticket.

The Washington Post says names that are likely to be bandied about as possible Democratic replacements include Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton, Attorney General Roy Cooper, former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles and Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx.

Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC) told the Raleigh News & Observer he would retire rather than face a primary challenge against Rep. David Price (D-NC) after redistricting redrew his congressional district.

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) ripped Newt Gingrich in an interview on KTRH-AM:

“What has been said about Newt is pretty much true. He had to step down because Republicans, conservative Republicans, wouldn’t vote for him again as Speaker. Because he’s not really a conservative. I mean, he’ll tell you what you want to hear. He has an uncanny ability, sort of like Clinton, to feel your pain and know his audience and speak to his audience and fire them up. But when he was speaker, he was erratic, undisciplined.”