Jack Kemp laid part of the blame for Republicans' election year troubles on Newt Gingrich, saying Monday that the House speaker "sent a wrong signal" during budget battles last year.
Kemp said it was wrong to allow the government to shut down during the wrangling between Republicans and President Clinton which also gave Democrats an opening to attack the GOP on Medicare funding."Newt should have put this in the hands of a commission like we did with Social Security because it has put us playing defense and we didn't need to be on defense," the former NFL quarterback said.
The GOP vice presidential nominee said he blamed Clinton and the Democrats for accusing Republicans of wanting to cut Medicare when the GOP only wanted to save the program from going bankrupt by slowing its growth.
"The fear campaign being waged against the Congress has been outrageous. It's the politics of fear," Kemp said.
But he added, "I think the mistake was allowing the government to be shut down. My friend Newt, I believe, sent a wrong signal."
Gingrich said he did not take Kemp's statements personally and was more concerned with the bigger picture of Kemp's message - Medicare.
"I'm glad Jack is talking about Medicare. I agree with Jack that it is wrong for Bill Clinton to use Medicare to deliberately scare 85- and 95-year-old senior citizens," Gingrich said.