Alors! Romney caught speaking French

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- The latest ad from U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich's campaign attacks rival Mitt Romney on a number of fronts, including speaking French.

Among other things, the ad, "The French Connection," tries to draw parallels to Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, and the Bay State's U.S. Sen. John Kerry, a Democratic presidential nominee.

After showing a few seconds of Kerry speaking French, the ad immediately cuts to a clip of Romney speaking French when he ran the 2002 Winter Olympics committee.

With an accordion playing in the background, the voiceover called Romney a "Massachusetts moderate who ran away from Ronald Reagan."

The ad was posted to Gingrich's Web site Thursday.

"Massachusetts moderate Mitt Romney -- he'll say anything to win. Anything," the narrator. "And just like John Kerry he speaks French, too."

Gingrich is working to gain on Romney, who won both the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary heading into the South Carolina primary Jan. 21.