Sen. Coburn: Gingrich 'Brilliant' But Lacking In Leadership

More than a decade after ending their tenuous relationship as Oklahoma congressman and House speaker, Sen. Tom Coburn on Sunday described Newt Gingrich as "brilliant" but not the presidential candidate he would want in the White House.

"There are a lot of candidates out there," Coburn told Fox News Sunday. "I'm not inclined to be a supporter of Newt Gingrich's having served under him for four years and experienced personally his leadership."

Coburn did not describe his opinion of Gingrich’s leadership style, but said, "There’s all types of leaders: leaders that instill confidence, leaders that are somewhat abrupt and brisk, leaders that have a standard for the people they’re leading and a different standard for themselves. I just found his leadership lacking."

According to some pundits, Gingrich rubbed a lot of Republicans the wrong way during his stint as speaker, and several Republicans and conservatives have said they don’t like the idea of Gingrich as the GOP nominee. They claim Gingrich is less conservative than challenger Mitt Romney, about whom many also don't express excitement.

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[You'll remember that earlier this year Gingrich called Congressman Paul Ryan’s Medicare reform plan “right wing social engineering” and “radical”. Republicans from across the spectrum were furious that Gingrich was giving ammunition to Democrats to attack the Ryan plan, and Gingrich apologized. But the damage was done.-- Editor]