Newt Gingrich vs. Mitt Romney -- Has It Really Come Down to This?

So the Republican race – in a year when President Obama is totally beatable -- has come to this: Newt Gingrich, serial philanderer, liar, hypocrite, secret Rockefeller Republican, back-stabber and megalomaniac versus Mitt Romney, the Supreme Panderer, the man-with-no-principles, an utter phony who will say anything and flip-flop at any time – and someone who was not a Reaganite until he ran for president in 2007.

How can the GOP have sunk so low?

Two candidates so flawed, so inherently fraudulent and so phony.

It is almost as if the Republican Party wanted to help Obama get re-elected.

Clearly the GOP primary voters and caucus attendees do not want Mitt Romney. After six years of running, we have seen enough. We don’t buy Mitt. Period. Even while all his flavor-of-the-month opponents have come and gone, Mitt never goes up. The others come and go – and Mitt just keeps steady with about 20% of the GOP vote. Period.

How can a party end up nominating someone who only has tepid support from a disbelieving party base? How can that party support someone with 80% of the voters wanting someone else?

As for Newt, he is not what Tea Party, grass-roots conservatives want. He is a total manipulator out just for himself. He wants to make himself gobs of money and have the aphrodisiac of power. Newt is not a conservative! He is a soft, mushy moderate Republican – just like Romney! The Manchester Union-Leader’s endorsement does not get the Real Newt at all. He is not a conservative – yet these guys believe he is. Oh what a tragic mistake!

I ought to know: I served in the House early on with Newt. He is the most egotistical, disagreeable, self-centered fraud in a House filled with similarly affected people.

Please note how virtually none of Newt’s former colleagues are supporting him in his presidential race. To know Newt is not to respect him – in any way.

So we now have the conservative Republican Party choosing between two Rockefeller liberal Republicans who flip-flop and pander on an hourly basis!

This is a nightmare with far-reaching ramifications. If we nominate Newt, Obama – and the pro-Obama so-called "mainstream media" -- will destroy him. There is so much dirt, baggage and bad examples of greed, philandering, hypocrisy and phoniness that Newt will barely win a state. The GOP will get wiped out. Our dream of capturing the Senate may go away, too.

If we nominate Mitt, Team Obama will annihilate him, too. His past business dealings, flip-flops and his Mormonism will combine to make him look very, very bad. And the GOP base will not go to the mattresses to defend him.

What a mess we are in.

The only hope is that these two beat the heck out of each other but do not secure enough delegates to capture the nomination early. Then, maybe in the late winter or early spring a new candidate – an electable conservative with principles -- can enter the race.

If either Newt or Mitt were to actually be elected president, it will not go well with a Republican Congress. They will be tugged to the right – and neither man wants to be on the right.

But that is for another time.

Right now we have a terrible dilemma on our hands: two candidates who do not fit the party they are trying to lead.

Let us hope something unexpected will happen to give us another choice.

Former New York Republican Congressman John LeBoutillier is co-host of "Campaign Confidential" which can be seen every Monday at 2 p.m. ET  on "FoxNews.com Live."