Newtie

This is why Newt was my guy. He's got baggage but says what's on his mind, and 98% of the time we're in agreement.

ABC News' Tahman Bradley and Arnab Datta Report: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., on Sunday described Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's request for billion of dollars to buy debt from struggling Wall Street financial firms as "un-American" and said the secretary should have stepped down.

Gingrich even expressed concern with Paulson's connections to Wall Street. The treasury secretary served as the chairman of a major global investment banking and securities firm before joining the Bush administration.

"You have the former Chairman of Goldman Sachs asking for 700 billion dollars, and in his initial request, asking for it in such an un-American way that I think he should have resigned," said Gingrich. "I think Paulson has terminally misunderstood the nature of the American system. Not just no review, no judicial review, no congressional accountability. Give me 700 billion dollars, 700 BILLION dollars! 'I'll be glad to spend it for you.' That's a centralization of power that is totally un-American."

Early Sunday, congressional leaders and the Bush administration reached a tentative agreement on the $700 billion Wall Street bailout proposal. The bill is expected to come up for a vote in the House on Monday.

Gingrich, who made his remarks on the "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" roundtable conceded that he would probably end up reluctantly voting for the plan because Congress was given no choice.

Last week Gingrich described the bailout plan as a "dead loser on Election Day" and urged Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain of Arizona to speak out against the plan. McCain, who appeared as the headliner on "This Week", signaled he's likely to vote for the bill in its present form

Sorry I've been MIA. I am not feeling well.