He went on: “I frankly don’t care what the Washington establishment thinks of me, because I intend to change it.” And while he said it’s important for the GOP to focus on ousting the president, he warned, “But we’re not going to beat Barack Obama with some guy who has Swiss bank accounts, Cayman Island accounts, owns shares of Goldman Sachs [which has] foreclosed on Florida, and who is himself a stock owner in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while he thinks the rest of us are too stupid to put the dots together and understand what this is all about.”

Gingrich said he believes “this is a very close race in Florida. This group alone is big enough to turn this thing around.” The line was not lost on Romney’s aides, who suggested that Gingrich’s speech showed he is worried that a potential win here is slipping away from him.

Gingrich’s tirade lasted more than 10 minutes and made up the bulk of his speech. He needled Romney for supporting Democrats in the early 1990s, donating money to some, and running to the left of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy in 1994, calling Romney “a money-making independent.”

In turn, Romney aides and surrogates who attended the rally answered back.

“It sounds like an Obama rally,” said Dave Kochel, an Iowa-based strategist. “It’s all completely untethered from the facts.” And, Kochel noted, Gingrich “keeps trying to claim the mantle of Ronald Reagan, but he’s not in factual possession of the mantle of Ronald Reagan because he was busy throughout the ’80s criticizing Ronald Reagan.”

Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz explained that he came to the event for “perspective,” noting, “Newt Gingrich is the one who suggested he was going to follow Barack Obama around and offer perspective -- I think that’s a pretty good idea.” Gingrich is “admitting that he needs to turn it around in Florida, that it’s not going well for him,” Chaffetz added.

Asked about the Romney surrogates at his events, Gingrich nearly laughed. Romney “doesn't say anything worth rebutting,” Gingrich said. “I would send somebody [to do the same] if I thought it would be useful. He can't talk about his record. He can’t talk about all the various things he’s done to hurt Floridians by foreclosing on homes.”

He complained that Romney hires people to do his dirty work for him and said, “He's used to the idea of hiring people, almost as much as he's used to the idea of firing people.”

Gingrich insisted that he himself is the candidate wearing the mantle of Ronald Reagan conservative, which, he said, Nancy Reagan essentially bequeathed to him on behalf of her husband.

“In 1995, Nancy Reagan at the Goldwater Institute says Ronnie’s torch has been passed,” he said. “Now to have somebody who was an independent in the ’80s, who gave money to Democrats in ’92 and voted in the Democratic primary for [Paul] Tsongas -- to have his campaign take on a lifetime of work and lie about it, frankly I . . . think it’s one of the most dishonest things I’ve seen in politics.”

“At some level, there ought to be a sense of shame. . . . There's something so grotesquely hypocritical about the Romney campaign that I think is just going to melt down over the next six to eight weeks as the American people learn more about him.”

Running parallel to the heightened character attacks is a heightened level of security at both candidates’ events. In response to queries from RCP, neither campaign said it requested Secret Service protection, but security presence has been stepped up.

Two “bomb squad” officers stood in the back of Gingrich’s event, in addition to more police officers than usual. Romney’s events in the past week have featured more security details, as well.