Perry Goes Populist Against Romney and Gingrich

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has adopted a populist tone in attacking fellow Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, Politico reports.

At a campaign event Monday in Iowa, Perry lashed out at former Massachusetts Gov. Romney and former House Speaker Gingrich for supporting the bank bailouts of 2008-09. “This Wall Street bailout is the single biggest act of theft in American history,” Perry said. “And Newt and Mitt – they were for it.”

Perry is taking a bus tour across northeastern Iowa in which he’s presenting himself as “the only true outsider” in the race. “The choice shouldn’t be between a Democratic spendaholic and a Republican spendaholic,” Perry said.

He lumps Washington, D.C., together with Wall Street as the cause of our problems, thereby covering both Romney, who co-founded private equity firm Bain Capital, and Gingrich.

“If this was a map of the United States, I could draw the problem in this country very vividly with a straight line between Washington, D.C., and Wall Street,” Perry said. “Over the last 15 or so years, . . . Wall Street insiders and Washington lobbyists and Washington insiders have jeopardized our future with special-interest self-dealing [and] corrupt, fraudulent activities.”