Newt Gingrich isn't exactly known for restrained rhetoric. But still, fellow Republican Karl Rove's joke about murdering Todd Akin was too much for the brash Georgian.
Rove came under fire this week for joking at a private fundraiser that the GOP should "sink" Missouri Senate candidate Akin as retribution for Akin's preposterous claim that rape victims rarely get pregnant.
"If he's found mysteriously murdered, don't look for my whereabouts," said the Republican strategist, once known as "Bush's brain" for his work on the 2000 George W. Bush campaign and as a top political adviser in the Bush White House.
Gingrich acknowledged Rove eventually apologized, but called the remarks "terrible" on Sunday's Meet The Press.
"In the age of Gabby Giffords, it is not a joke to say that a congressman ought to get murdered," the failed Republican presidential candidate said, referring to the former Arizona congresswoman who was shot in the head by gunman Jared Loughner in January 2011.
Gingrich defended Akin earlier in the week, although several members of the GOP establishment had called on the Missouri politician to withdraw from the race. "Todd Akin made a mistake. He's an honorable guy, he's a sincere guy. He said something stupid," Gingrich told Politico.