Sen. Lindsey Graham is changing his tune about Newt Gingrich. 
 
 The South Carolina Republican, who helped organize a failed attempt to oust Gingrich from his post as speaker of the House in 1997, said Sunday that Gingrich has "matured" and that he would "certainly support him as president if he won the nomination." 
 
 Graham stopped short of endorsing Gingrich on NBC's "Meet the Press," but he said he and other former critics of Gingrich are coming around. "He's been out of government for a long time; he's matured as a person. He's reattached himself to his faith," Graham said. He also said he thinks Gingrich has the ability to beat Obama in the general election. 
 
 Graham added that he hopes Texas Rep. Ron Paul won't run as a third-party presidential candidate if he doesn't win the GOP nomination. "We're better together," Graham said. "We have a common political desire and that is to end Obama's policies." 
 
 Read more about: Lindsey Graham, Newt Gingrich ||||| Former New Hampshire Gov. John H. Sununu on Sunday defended Mitt Romney's $10,000 bet to Rick Perry as critics pounced on the comments. 
 
 “He used a figure of speech," Sununu said on CNN's "State of the Union," referring to the $10,000 bet Romney waged against Perry in Saturday's Republican presidential debate over whether he had supported a national mandate for health insurance. 
 
 "I think the only thing that will come out of that is to remind people about a $500,000 outstanding bill at Tiffany’s," Sununu added, referring to Newt Gingrich's line of credit to the jewelry company. "Those are not the things you should judge whether somebody should be a president on.” 
 
 Romney's critics have pounced on the comments, saying they cast him as an out-of-touch rich guy. 
 
 Gingrich adviser Bob Walker said the Tiffany's line of credit was "not at all" analogous to Romney's wager, adding that the "quip by Governor Romney last night fits a matter of perception." ||||| Michele Bachmann may be referring to Republican presidential front-runners Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney as "Newt Romney," but she had choice words for Gingrich in particular Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation." 
 
 "His offices are on the Rodeo Drive of Washington called K Street. He’s the king of K Street," the GOP congresswoman from Minnesota said. "So for a person who’s been influence peddling for over 30 years in Washington D.C., to think that Newt Gingrich is somehow an outsider when he is the consummate establishment insider, he’s the big government candidate just like Mitt Romney is the big government candidate, that’s not what we want in our nominee. It doesn’t survive the falling-off-the-chair laughing test. We have to have a candidate that’s going to stand for our issues and our values and be a true proven constitutional conservative." 
 
 Of course, Bachmann said she was that conservative. She declined to answer whether she'd support Romney or Gingrich for president, saying, "I fully intend to be the nominee of our party," she said. 
 
 She also defended her decision to skip Donald Trump's debate on Dec. 27, saying, "Donald Trump is a big boy, these things happen" and noting that very few of the candidates agreed to participate. 
 
 "I'm a serious candidate for the Republican nomination for president of the United States, and we need to have a debate where everyone is participating," she said. ||||| Ron Paul still isn't ruling out running as a third-party presidential candidate next year. 
 
 "I'm not going to rule anything out or anything in 2012," the Texas Republican congressman said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." He added that he has "no plans" to run as an independent if he doesn't secure the GOP presidential nomination. 
 
 Paul has given similarly non-binding answers to questions about a third-party run in recent weeks. 
 
 But for now, he insists he "is not even thinking about it," and has enough on his plate right now with campaigning for the Republican nomination. 
 
 Read more about: Ron Paul ||||| Rick Perry said Sunday he was surprised by Mitt Romney's offer of a $10,000 bet about Romney's support for an individual mandate in his book "No Apologies" during Saturday night's debate. 
 
 "I was taken a little aback," the Texas governor told Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday." "Driving out to the station this morning I'm pretty sure I didn’t drive by a house that anyone in Iowa would think a $10,000 bet was possible. It was a little out of touch with the normal Iowa citizen. But the issue of the individual mandate is still at the center here and Mitt can deny this as many times as he wants, but in his first book ... he clearly stated that the individual mandate should be the model for this country." 
 
 Romney's opponents are already jumping on his $10,000 bet comment as evidence that he's out of touch. ||||| Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad says Mitt Romney is being too cautious in the Hawkeye State. 
 
 "I think he's starting to understand that he's going to have to get much more aggressive; he's going to have to spend more time here," the Republican governor said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." 
 
 "This is a wide open race in Iowa. The lead has changed hands many times," Branstad said. "It could go any way, and people are looking for the strongest and best candidate that will defeat Barack Obama." ||||| Rep. Ron Paul thinks Newt Gingrich is morally obligated to pay back the consulting fees he raked in from mortgage giant Freddie Mac. 
 
 "Well legally he doesn't have to, but I would think morally, him having received this money, yes," Paul said Sunday when asked whether Gingrich ought to apologize and pay back the cash he earned prior to the government takeover of the failing mortgage giant. 
 
 "I wouldn't have taken their money, just for the fact that I think it was an immoral thing to take money," the Texas congressman said on NBC's "Meet the Press." 
 
 Paul slammed Gingrich during the Republican presidential debate Saturday for accepting from $1.6 million to $1.8 million in consulting fees from Freddie Mac, as reported by Bloomberg News. 
 
 Gingrich has defended the consulting work he did while in the private sector. ||||| Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Sunday he doesn't have all nine of the Supreme Court justices memorized. 
 
 “I don’t have memorized all of the Supreme Court judges,” Perry said on "Fox News Sunday," responding to a question about a Des Moines Register interview he did last week when he referred to the eight justices of the high court. After the interview, the campaign said Perry was referring to a specific case that went 8-to-1 in a direction Perry didn't agree with. 
 
 The American people "aren’t looking for a robot that can spit out the name of every Supreme Court justice or someone that's going to be perfect in every way. They're looking for somebody who's got values," Perry said. 
 
 Perry also defended his new ad referring to President Barack Obama's "war on religion," citing a Supreme Court case in which the administration argued that churches shouldn't be able to discriminate based on religious belief and "Catholic charities that aren't allowed to make money because they've made decisions that they're not going to allow abortions in their facilities." 
 
 He said he would "support a constitutional amendment that allows children to pray in school anytime that they'd like," calling out "those activist judges like Sotomayor and Kagan that [Obama] put on the Supreme Court, they would continue to say that that is a decision the Supreme Court should make. I happen to believe that that would be a local decision and that's not the Supreme Court's business to be telling Americans how and when to pray." 
 
 Perry said he would "go across this country as I’m promoting a balanced budget amendment to the United States Constitution and I’ll work on a balanced, or I should say an amendment to let our children pray in school I think Americans are greatly supportive of both of those issues." 
 
 The governor dismissed criticism that he was making a blatant grab for Iowa's evangelical caucus goers. 
 
 "Faith is a part of who I am," he said. "I can’t change that any more than I can change that I’m the son of two tenant farmers." 
 
 Read more about: Rick Perry, Presidency
– Rick Perry today weighed in on last night's big debate moment—the $10,000 bet. "I was taken a little aback" by Mitt Romney's wager, Perry said on Fox News Sunday, Politico reports. "Driving out to the station this morning I'm pretty sure I didn’t drive by a house that anyone in Iowa would think a $10,000 bet was possible. It was a little out of touch with the normal Iowa citizen." (Perry also addressed a recent gaffe of his own, explaining, "I don’t have memorized all of the Supreme Court judges," but added that Americans "aren’t looking for a robot that can spit out the name of every Supreme Court justice … They're looking for somebody who's got values.") Elsewhere on the Sunday dial: Former New Hampshire Gov. John H. Sununu, at least, was on Romney's side when it came to the aforementioned bet. "He used a figure of speech," Sununu said on State of the Union. "I think the only thing that will come out of that is to remind people about a $500,000 outstanding bill at Tiffany’s." Speaking of Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann slammed him on Face the Nation. "His offices are on the Rodeo Drive of Washington called K Street. He’s the king of K Street. So for a person who’s been influence peddling for over 30 years in Washington DC, to think that Newt Gingrich is somehow an outsider when he is the consummate establishment insider, he’s the big government candidate just like Mitt Romney is the big government candidate, that’s not what we want in our nominee." Ron Paul piled on Gingrich too, saying the former House Speaker may not be legally obligated to pay back his Freddie Mac consulting fees, but he is "morally" obligated to do so. Also while on Meet the Press, Paul said he's not ruling out a third-party run. Click to see what the consequences of such a run might be. Sen. Lindsey Graham was one who didn't slam Gingrich on Meet the Press. "He's been out of government for a long time; he's matured as a person. He's reattached himself to his faith," said Graham, who didn't endorse Gingrich but said he would support him if he wins the nomination. Iowa's governor said Mitt Romney will never win the state's primary with his cautious approach. "I think he's starting to understand that he's going to have to get much more aggressive; he's going to have to spend more time here," Gov. Terry Branstad said on Meet the Press.