hours of a referendum on newt gingrich's 40 years in public life, it's a disaster for him. >> bret: right. steve brown's piece talking to folks around here about what they want to see in tonight's debate, a they don't want to see. they point back to tim pawlenty when he went on the attack of congresswoman bachmann in our debate in iowa ahead of the straw poll and they said they didn't like that at all. >> they don't. it hurts the attacker sometimes even more than the attack. but it still does damage. that is what you see right now with mitt romney. the harder he hits gingrich, he does drive up his own negatives and reinforce it. >> what choice do other candidates have now? bachmann, santorum, they have to put points on the board. >> i think that mitt romney's ideal life would be that he doesn't have to go after gingrich a great deal. but some of the other candidates lower in the polls like santorum, like bachmann who are struggling to get some elevation, to be the alternative to romney, they will really go after gingrich, hurting gingrich, hurting them and maybe paul and romney are

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